Deep Creek Anglican Church Blog

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico places enormous pressure on the wide array of leaders involved – from the oil and gas companies to government officials to politicians.  My interest in the unfolding crisis is heightened through years of working in the resources sector and interest in leadership approaches to varying situations.

At the most basic level, leadership styles can be characterised as:

• directive / autocratic
• participative / democratic
• delegative.

Every leader will have a ‘default’ style but it is critical to develop the capability to adjust the style based on the particular presenting circumstances.  Clearly the Gulf incident requires a leadership approach consistent with ‘crisis management.’ How are the BP CEO and U.S. President leading?

David Gergen, Director of the Harvard Kennedy School, senior political analyst for CNN, and a former adviser to presidents both Republican and Democrat has posted an opinion piece, that has been summarised by BNET Australia as follows:

1. Set up a daily command center in Washington where a presidentially appointed leader runs the show, calls the shots, coordinates the overall effort, briefs the president and briefs the country.
2. Have two deputies, one to direct the leak-stoppage and the other to direct the clean-up. Ex-CEOs and generals would be excellent candidates.
3. Summon all the major oil and drilling companies to the White House for emergency efforts to get the hole plugged.
4. Get BP out of the picture for clean-up; just send it the bill. If it is still needed for hole-plugging, okay, but ensure that it answers every day to directions from the government. If BP needs new internal leadership, figure out how to get that done.
5. Employ the U.S. military for organizational coordination and where needed, for anything else such as clean-up.
6. Make more aggressive efforts to tap the best minds in the world for help.
7. Provide the country with the kind of daily briefings that the military has mastered for wartime — bring in people who are smart, straight and tough.
8. Ensure that economic assistance is provided to families, small businesses and communities that need it with dispatch and generosity.
9. Call off the finger pointing until we get out of this mess.
10. And finally, very importantly, exercise the powers of leadership every day from the Oval Office.

There is much that can, and will, be learnt about crisis management from this incident.

Philip Payne’s Man and Woman, One in Christ is, I believe, the most comprehensive treatment of Pauline texts in relation to men and women in the life of the church.  The reader will benefit from a steady and close reading of each of the twenty five chapters with their Bible open.  The interaction with the Greek text may be off putting for some readers, but there is ample explanation for those not acquainted with Greek grammar and differences in manuscripts.

Clearly the matter of women’s roles in the Church has become a most contentious issue, particularly in the last few decades.  In my own journey, it was my wrestling with Scripture that gradually moved me from a complementarian position (that I grew up with) to an equality of men and women, in all respects, including public ministry in the Church.

As I read and studied, pondered and prayed about ‘women’s ministry’, I:

• noted numerous instances of sloppy exegesis by proponents on both sides of the debate;
• became increasingly concerned that this matter has become, in some quarters, to be a prominent test of orthodoxy;
• reflected back on my own experience of growing up in complementarian churches, where a whole set of man-made rules, about what women could and could not do in public ministry (that bore simply zero connection with Scripture), were the accepted doctrinal infrastructure.  Interestingly, in churches that spoke loud and often about the authority of Scripture;
• recognised that in our frailty, the struggle to live out sola Scriptura and semper reformanda is very real.

Philip Payne has made an enormous contribution to this tragically contentious issue in the Church. How significant will it be in bringing greater unity on this issue?  I’m not overly confident, if the concluding words in Tom Schreiner’s review of the book in the April edition of Themelios are anything to go by:

“Most of what [Philip Payne] says is not new, and his egalitarian readings are unpersuasive. Surely he will convince some, for many in our culture today ardently desire egalitarianism to be true. But it will not hit the scholarly world like an avalanche. It is closer to being another drizzly day in Portland, Oregon.”

Wow!!  I do trust that Philip Payne finds his encouragement in Christ and not in book reviews!

The Holy Spirit speaks only truth and God does not contradict Himself.  The complementarian and egalitarian readings of Scripture cannot both be correct.  The challenge for all followers of Jesus is to roll-up our ‘Bible reading shirt sleeves’ and seek to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying, notwithstanding the baggage that we all bring to biblical interpretation.

The full list of my posts on Man and Woman, One in Christ are:

Introduction

Chapter One: Backgrounds to Paul’s Teaching Regarding Man and Woman

Chapter Two: Women Paul Names as Ministry Leaders

Chapter Three: Paul’s Theological Axioms Imply the Equality of Man and Woman

Chapter Four: Galations 3:28: Man and Woman: One in Christ

Chapter Five: 1 Corinthians 7: The Equal Rights of Man and Woman in Marriage

Chapters Six and Seven: 1 Cor 11:2-3

Chapters Eight and Nine: 1 Cor 11:4-6

Chapters Ten to Thirteen: 1 Cor 11:7-16

Chapter Fourteen: 1 Cor 14:34-35

Chapter Fifteen: Eph 5:21-33

Chapter Sixteen: 1 Tim 2:8-15 Introduction

Chapters Seventeen to Nineteen: 1 Tim 2:8-12

Chapter Twenty: 1 Tim 2:12 on ‘assume authority’

Chapter Twenty One: 1 Tim 2:13-14

Chapter Twenty Two: 1 Tim 2:15

Chapter Twenty Three: 1 Tim 2:8-15 Conclusion

Chapter Twenty Four: 1 Timothy 3:1-13 and Titus 1:5-9: May Women be Overseers and Deacons?

Chapter Twenty Five: Conclusion: Paul Consistently Champions the Equality of Man and Woman in Christ

Chapter Twenty Four: 1 Timothy 3:1-13 and Titus 1:5-9: May Women be Overseers and Deacons?

A ‘surface’ reading of 1 Tim 3:1-13 would seem to suggest that all church leaders must be male.  Philip Payne argues that such a conclusion would not be in line with Scripture.  His argument in summary is:

• “anyone” in 1 Tim 3:1,5 and Tit 1:6 implies the eligibility of women to be overseers
• “one woman man,” in 1 Tim 3:2, excludes polygamists and probably adulterers from church office, but it must not be a requirement for all church officers since that would exclude unmarried men like Paul
• nowhere in the qualifications for overseers, elders, or deacons does Paul mention “man,” “men,” any masculine pronoun, or any expression that excludes women from office (contra. NIV that inserts 14 masculine pronouns into 1 Tim 3:1-12)
• women are eligible to be deacons, with the same title (deacon, not deaconess) and same requirements as men
• women are able to meet all the qualifications of overseers as seen by the similar expressions specifically regarding women that parallel each overseer qualification in 1 Timothy.

Leadership journal has published The Golden Canon Leadership Book Awards.

What are they? “…the ten books of 2009 most valuable for church leaders. The winners were selected by a diverse group of more than 100 pastors and leaders, including our contributing editors, who selected the best books in two categories: The Leader’s Outer Life, and The Leader’s Inner Life.”

The list is worth checking out. Notwithstanding that I kept the postage industry in business in 2009 with regular ‘little’ parcels from Book Depository and Amazon delivered to Melbourne, I have only one of the ten books!   The other nine do look very interesting…..

We come to the final chapter of ‘A Passion for Leadership.’  It has a slightly different flavour to the rest of the book – it deals with preaching, applicable to some but not all Christian leaders.  The writer is well qualified  to address this aspect, having authored the 2001 Preaching Book of the Year, Preaching to a Postmodern World.

Chapter Ten: Telling the Story for Twenty-First Century Listeners (Graham Johnston)

The writer addresses the fundamental question: “How can God’s message be presented for this generation?”  Answer: in story form.  Johnston contends that every biblical passage possesses a story (including the epistles) and the story should be communicated inductively from the text.

In discussing development of the body of the message, Johnston comments:

“Discriminating audiences always demand content.  People want to see the connection between the story (where one is leading the listeners) and the details of the text (what the Bible actually says)…”

Johnston deals with a big topic and chapter size limitations obviously make the comments, albeit helpful, rather generalised.

This final chapter in many ways represents the strength and weakness of A Passion for Leadership.  The topic of chapter ten seems a little out of place, notwithstanding that some, but not all Christian leaders will preach on a regular basis.  The book contains some useful insights and the contributors of the chapters are well experienced in the areas on which they are writing. But the book would have had much greater coherence if a unifying theme (such as ‘A Passion for Leadership’) was developed through all the chapters.

Ian Harper is a very well known economist in Australia and was the inaugural Chairman of the Australian Fair Pay Commission.  He’s also a committed follower of Jesus and contributes a chapter in ‘A Passion for Leadership’:

Chapter Nine: Church Leaders and the Market Place (Ian Harper)

Just as in Jesus’ day, the business of commerce occupies much of the daily lives of people.  Christian leaders must therefore be familiar with it.  Familiarity is also essential if the Christian leader is going to be able to pastorally care for those impacted by its stresses, as well as ascertain mission strategies to reach the commercial world.

Ian encourages Christians to be involved in the marketplace.  Sure there’s sin present – the church response should be to bring god’s redeeming love to the marketplace, not withdraw.

The writer then confronts an often found myth: “It is a myth sometimes perpetrated in Christian circles that only those who work in the caring professions like health and education, or who work for the government are really serving their fellow human beings.  Christians who work in business, on the other hand, are just looking after themselves.  This is simply not true.”

Ian then provides some practical suggestions on ministering to the marketplace and encourages the appropriate use of marketplace principles/practices within the church.

I resonated with this chapter, having spent much more of my working life in business than in full-time ministry.  The workplace provides stacks of opportunities for relationship evangelism.  But it is not easy living as a committed disciple of Christ in this environment.  I came to faith 15 years after commencing my career and there was much that needed to be redeemed in my approach to business.  It is imperative that Christian leaders have some familiarity with this world, in order to more effectively minister to their people working in it, and to equip them for a very fertile but challenging mission arena.

Peter Corney, the joint editor of ‘A Passion for Leadership’ makes his second contribution in:

Chapter Eight: Leaders and Teams (Peter Corney)

Peter knows, through many years of leading large ministry teams, the challenges but great opportunities presented by team ministry.  As Peter says at the start of this chapter, “The NT pattern of ministry is teams!  Monoministry is nowhere to be found in the NT.”

Peter provides some useful tips on:

• recruiting teams
• recruiting principles.  Eg. Don’t assess based on the CV – check references, thoroughly!

A useful diagram is provided summarising the changing role played by the team leader with increasing size of staff and organisation.  A growing church requires the leader to spend increasing time on ministry rather than in ministry.  The chapter does not elaborate on the tensions that this typically produces, especially for the congregation (s) but also sometimes for the leader.  This is unfortunate as the author has a large reservoir of acquired wisdom in leading churches.  Peter does summarise what ‘on ministry‘ includes:

• vision casting
• strategising
• planning
• creating structures for empowerment of others
• recruiting and training leaders
• motivating and communicating with key lay leaders.

He concludes with nine ‘wants’ of team members from their leaders.  You can check out your own list against those identified – chapter eight is actually provided on the author’s own web site here.

As Peter says, if you find this article useful, purchase the book!

Have you had the painful experience of being asked to take on a ministry task without adequate training?  Christian leadership is demanding even if the leader has the necessary competencies.  Without such competencies, it is daunting, resulting in many casualties – for the leader and those being led.

Essential to leadership growth is leadership evaluation.  Sandy Jones, the Managing Director of Leading ConneXions, deals with leadership evaluations in:

Chapter Seven: Leadership Evaluation and Mentoring (Sandy Jones)

Sandy is a debrief consultant for the 360 degree leadership evaluation Leader360.  Having analysed the data from hundreds of leaders reviewed with Leader360, Sandy makes these observations:

1. In the Reformed traditions, there is a “strongly critical phrasing.”   For the leader, this represents two challenges: dealing personally with critical input, and developing strategies to transform a critical and judgmental culture.
2. In the Charismatic and Pentecostal traditions, there was much affirmation.  The downside was limited feedback on where the leader needed to be stretched.
3. Despite significant progress, the Australian church landscape still needs to embed a culture of leadership accountability and development, with positive acceptance by the leader and local church of the evaluation process.

Sandy then identifies:

• how evaluations help a leader;
• leadership ‘trip-up’ factors; and,
• various leadership resources, developed specifically to address the learning curves identified by leaders.

Evonne Paddison is the CEO of ACCESS Ministries.  As part of the Arrow Australia Leadership Team, Evonne is the joint editor of ‘A Passion for Leadership’ and authors the chapter:

Chapter Six: Leadership under Fire – Lessons from Paul in 2 Corinthians (Evonne Paddison)

In 2 Corinthians, the apostle defends his integrity, behaviour and ministry as well as the Corinthian believers from apostasy.  With his leadership under attack, Paul exemplifies:

• Humility and resolve: Under attack, a leader’s true character is proved.  Paul is very clear that no-one is sufficient for proclaiming the truth of the gospel.  It is God who leads him in his ministry and he is but a servant.
• Transparency and integrity: Who does not find having their integrity questioned painful?  For Paul, God is his witness (2 Cor 1:23).  He is but a humble container (2 Cor 4:7-11) – salvation is the work of God alone, who will deliver him (2 Cor 4:13-18).  Christian leadership demands integrity in every aspect of our lives and ministry practices.
• Enduring zeal, vision and commitment: Paul knew that one day he would be judged by Christ and his ministry examined.  Paul’s aim was to please the Lord.  He had an enduring vision of reconciliation of God and man, and re-creation (2 Cor 5:11-21).  Paul is totally committed to the Corinthians – as seen in his sufferings and open heartedness toward them.

Evonne concludes: “The lesson for leaders to learn from the life of Paul in his Corinthian correspondence is success is not measured by our won achievements, nor by the attractiveness of a message made to please its audience…[rather] by a heart, a mind and a spirit that rely on God and are absorbed by His will being done and are compelled by His love for all people.”

Karl Faase makes his second contribution to ‘A Passion for Leadership’ in:

Chapter Five: Looking After Yourself (Karl Faase)

Karl writes from the personal experience of progressively becoming more and more stressed in ministry.  But the symptoms at the time were confusing – the problem wasn’t an inability to get out of bed in the mornings but an adrenaline tap that was getting more difficult to turn off.  So out of the painful period ten years ago, Karl provides some very practical guidelines:

1. Assess: ‘Am I in the right role given my giftedness?‘  Do a time check – how much time do you spend using your gifts, compared to time spent in areas of weakness and discomfort.  If the majority of your time is in the latter, then relaxation techniques won’t fix your stress!  More radical change is needed – role change or appointment of team members who can release you to focus on the use of your gifts.
2. Get organised. Develop systems and personal organisation methods to free up your mind.  Dave Allen in ‘How to get things done: the art of stress-free productivity‘ comments that the conscious part of the mind is a great thinking space but a very poor storage area!
3. Think and plan in time segments. In our individual life and ministry life, there are periods of intense activity and quieter periods.  Having assessed the time ahead, give yourself space in the lead-up and exit from an expected intense period.
4. Establish trusting, honest relationships. Stress and relationships go hand-in-hand in Christian leadership.  And that particularly applies to those with whom we have very regular contact.  Conflict is not bad per se.  But it must be dealt with in an environment of love and trust – invest in deep, honest, robust relationships built on love and trust.
5. Work peacefully. Don’t have a pattern of life comprising high adrenaline peaks and low, low troughs.  Work at peace – in daily activities (eg. the way we drive, conduct of meetings, the type of music we listen to).
6. Work at spiritual and physical / emotional health.  As leaders, we know that this is important – the challenge is to do it!
7. Establish clear ministry boundaries. Be vigilant in not allowing your ministry life to encroach on your personal (family & social) life.  Manage your accessibility.

This is a helpful chapter, born out of painful personal experience.  The burn-out rate amongst Christian leaders is amazingly high.  If like me, your ministry demands are considerable and your family life presents significant health challenges, then you will read this chapter and other more complete treatments, such as Going the Distance by Peter Brain or Adrenaline and Stress by Arch Hart with interest and a teachable heart.