Michael Korda, the author of Power!, recently was asked to draw up a list of the most powerful people in America. His findings were published in an article called, “The Gradual Decline and Total Collapse of Nearly Everyone” (Family Weekly Magazine, Aug. 29, 1982). Korda said, ” … the list of movers and shakers is not at all easy to draw up. In fact, there are very few powerful figures left in American life.”
“Not so long ago teachers ran their classes; generals (or sergeants) ran the Army; policemen were feared and obeyed; college presidents were respected figures, remote and awesome … and so on down the line. America was, in effect, ruled by authority figures.”
Unless one has been asleep through the ’60s and ’70s it is surely apparent that all this has changed. Korda says, “It is the result of a long process, the consequence of our fear of power and authority … ” Two whole generations have turned against the very idea of power.
“Power, it was felt, had led to abuse. Therefore we could do without it … not only could, but must. Everything must be subject to the will of the people, expressed in open debate.”
It is conceivable that this distrust of power and authority has spread into many of our churches, and could well be the cause of much of the upheaval which has resulted in unprecedented numbers of pastors and other church staff members being asked to leave or being summarily dismissed from their positions.
One layleader from a Baptist church recently remarked, speaking of a situation in his church, “No one seems to be in charge. No one seems to want to be accountable.” Perhaps no other statement more reflects the frustration of good churchmen.
Without question there is a crisis of leadership in many of our churches. As a director of missions, I spend a great deal of time listening to the frustrations of pastors who “can’t seem to get anything going.” But we also hear the voices of the lay people who are saying, “Our pastor just can’t seem to get us going.”
A simple axiom is that leaders must lead. Leadership requires confidence. That confidence must be expressed by leaders. They must show that they know where they are going and what they are doing. Confidence must also be expressed in the leader. This confidence is best shown by enthusiastic followers, because without followers we have no leaders.
We are told that growing churches are characterized by strong pastoral leadership. What does that mean? What is strong leadership? Here are some principles which may be helpful:
-Leaders make decisions. Michael Korda said, “Power is merely the ability to make decisions, to take risks, to lead, to get things done.” When leaders choose not to make decisions, stagnation sets in. Nothing happens. Most churches are looking for decisive leaders.
-Leaders command respect for their leadership, not for their position. Church leaders seem to feel their position should automatically give them the respect of a leader. However, if the leadership skills needed for the position are not present, that respect will not come. God’s leaders in the Bible were men who were in the position they were in because they were controlled by God. Without that control the position is meaningless.
-Leaders inspire confidence in themselves and in the plans of God. If the pastor is perceived by the people to be a man of God, they will usually follow. If by his life, his actions, his thought processes, that pastor shows that he is more concerned about himself than about his Lord, confidence in his leadership may be eroded.
-Leadership style is not nearly as important as the leader’s spirit. How we lead, attitudinally speaking, is more important than how we lead mechanically. While most literature on leadership tries to promote the participatory style of leadership as the best, there have been many autocratic leaders who have been tremendously effective because of their attitude. One can be a participatory leader and have a bad attitude and be very unsuccessful.
-Leaders must know their task and be in harmony with the purpose of their organization. If we do not know where we are going we might end up some place we do not wish to be. Most of our programs deal with “how” without ever giving much thought to “what.” One church with which I am acquainted has been trying to define its purpose for weeks. They are finding it difficult to agree on what the purpose of the church is. Consequently, little movement can be made toward its accomplishment. Not coincidentally, this same church is one whose pastor said, “I just can’t seem to get anything going.” Of course we will get nothing going if we do not know where to go.
-Leaders must delegate responsibility. Korda says, “Perhaps one reason many are reluctant to do so is we do not wish to have to deal with the failure of others.” We find it easier to do a job ourselves than to get someone else to do it. This, of course, results in no leader, because we lead no one but ourselves. When a person fails in an assigned task we need to ask ourselves if we were at fault. Did we make the task clear to him? Did he have the ability to do the task? Did we provide the necessary training?
-Leaders need accountability. Somewhere we have developed the idea that a pastor is to be accountable to no one but the Lord. We say that often, as though the Lord does not care if we are ineffective, impotent leaders. The truth is, if we are going to be accountable to the Lord we should try harder than if we were accountable only to men. Every pastor needs accountability in human terms, also. How this is done might be open to debate, but it should be done.
Someone once said, “There is no such thing as bad leadership … only bad leaders.” Bad leaders will misuse or abuse power and authority. When we do, we must be prepared to pay the price. It might just be that our nation and our churches will pay the price tomorrow for the leadership failures of today.
-Ken Coffee
Texas Baptist Convention
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