towards leadership and culture

Change produces friction and friction produces heat.  Many people in a leadership position take delight when things start to heat up because it is indicative of change. This is most definitely true. We must ask ourselves if things are becoming too hot.

I dont think I would ever consider things too hot in years past. The more change the better! This view, however, dose not consider those whom we wish to lead. It can be difficult to remember that there are people to worry about other than ourselves when it comes to change. Martin Linsky discussed the importance of controlling the temperature when introducing change. It give you something to think about.

If you try to stimulate deep change within an organization, you have to control the temperature… The heat must stay within a tolerable range—not so high that people demand it be turned off completely, and not so low that they are lulled into inaction.

How hot is too hot? When was the last time you considered cooling things down?

JumpStart Podcast

This is an excellent ministry tool for anyone involved in children’s ministry. The JumpStart Podcast hosts a collection of talks from some of the best children’s ministry leaders in the Northwest. They are releasing monthly episodes to keep the conversation going and hooking up their listeners with great resources. Check their backlog for dozens of talks on leadership in ministry to kids. Their hosts, Dan @danmetteer and Kevin @lifengeer do a great job hosting each episode.

Check it out and recommend it to your local children’s pastor.

A master connector can bridge the gap between many different peoples and groups.

We must not overlook our role as a connector. We have the responsibility to bring people together for a common purpose. The most effective way to get this done is through relationships. The connector may consider themselves some sort of ministry match-maker. Browse your church long enough to find two people who might work well together. We need to be careful not to objectify those who we wish to connect. It would be nice if there interest in bible memory or prison ministry would be enough for them to forge a lasting relationship. The truth is that we are the most meaningful common-bond between the people who serve in our church.

Chris Ernst and Donna Chrobot-Mason wrote a book titled Boundary Spanning Leadership. They define a connector as someone who can, “forge ties that are anchored in strong relationships… authentic, trust-based relationships.”[1] A connector is someone who can unite two people relationally out of his or her own relationship with those two people. If my aim is to unite two different volunteers then I must begin with my own relationship with each volunteer. I think that pastors often think that they can skip this step and may feel like a sort of relational middle-man. Senior pastors, those who are responsible for the largest amount of leaders, have a special challenge in this regard. Many large churches host a large staff and the pastor must develop a strategy for connections to be made between key members of the staff. How are these connections made? They are made through mutual relationships with other leaders.

You must become an effective connector. Churches who lack this social function fail to span boundaries and become compartmentalized. Those who can master this skill open up many new and creative ways to be the church.