{"id":12549,"date":"2017-03-23T10:41:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-23T17:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dminlgp.com\/?p=12549"},"modified":"2017-03-23T10:41:00","modified_gmt":"2017-03-23T17:41:00","slug":"the-art-of-church-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-art-of-church-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Church Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just finished Leadership is an Art<\/strong><\/em><\/a> by Max DePree. DePree is the former CEO of Herman Miller<\/a>, a very successful furniture maker and retailer that was founded by DePree\u2019s father.
\nEven though DePree served in the Army during WW2, his management style has no resemblance to a militaristic, heavy-handed hierarchy. In Leadership is an Art<\/em><\/strong>, he writes:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe measure of leadership is not the quality of the head, but the tone of the body. The signs of outstanding leadership appear primarily among the followers. Are the followers reaching their potential? Are they learning? Serving? Do they achieve the required results? Do they change with grace? Manage conflict?\u201d (12)<\/p>\n

DePree is a proponent of \u201cparticipative management.\u201d He is clear that this is not a method. Like art, it must be truly felt. He writes:<\/p>\n

\u201cParticipative management arises out of the heart and out of a personal philosophy about people. It cannot be added to or subtracted from a corporate policy manual as though it were one more managerial tool.\u201d (24)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Later in the book, DePree writes \u201cThe best people working for organizations are like volunteers….Volunteers do not need contracts, they need covenants. Covenantal relationships enable corporations and institutions to be hospitable to the unusual person and to unusual ideas\u2026The difference between covenants and contracts is \u2018intimacy\u2019\u201d (28)<\/p>\n

This discussion of \u201cvolunteers\u201d and \u201ccovenants\u201d brought to my mind the many volunteers who serve at our church (and in churches everywhere).<\/p>\n

Church leaders who have a heavy-handed, top-down leadership style have a high turnover rate when it comes to volunteers. When a pastor or minister leads by their personality or status, volunteers will not usually do high-quality work for a long amount of time. Since they are not being paid, their motivation must be something else that they value. In the past, there have been church leaders who have led via guilt (\u201cdo these things for God or you might go to Hell). Yet, our denomination (and many others) believes in salvation by grace alone (not works) and an assurance of salvation. The idea of leading through \u201cintimacy\u201d (aka relationships) rings true for evangelical churches. Volunteers who feel a connection with their pastoral leaders are motivated if they feel that they are valued. How do we know that our volunteers are being valued? DePree helps us as he identifies six \u201crights of team members\u201d on pages 35-43. I would like to discuss these in the light of church volunteerism.<\/p>\n

1) The Right to be Needed<\/h3>\n

Some church members are gifted in a wide variety of talents and abilities. For example, when I was in high school, I played the drums in our school jazz band. Yet, our church was so traditional that it did not have drums in the worship services. Even though I had a talent that could be utilized by some churches, I was not needed in our church music program (at least not as a drummer).<\/p>\n

In our churches today, we may have talented photographers, web designers, outdoorsmen, engineers, horticulturalists, or athletic trainers who have talents that could be put to use with some visionary leadership. Otherwise, they may just sit in the pew each week feeling that they have nothing to contribute to their church because they are not talented as a teacher or a children\u2019s worker.<\/p>\n

2) The Right to be Involved<\/h3>\n

If volunteers are to form strong bonds with the church, leaders must ask them for their opinions. Volunteers need to be involved in regular evaluation of the tasks. This is more than just letting them \u201cvent.\u201d If a volunteer identifies something that could be done better, they need to see their idea acted upon. If there is a good reason not to follow through on the idea, the church leader needs to explain this to the volunteer. For example, if a volunteer youth worker hears from parents of teens that they are frustrated because they never know what is being planned for the youth ministry, the youth minister might begin a weekly newsletter, email, or blog in order to get detailed information in the hands of the parents.<\/p>\n

3) The Right to a Covenantal Relationship<\/h3>\n

Covenants stand in contrast to contacts. A contract is something that defines responsibilities, but it is rarely celebrated. It is something that we are held to\u2026like it or not. A covenant is a voluntary agreement where a church leader and volunteer can come to an understanding of what is expected, but not in a harsh way. A covenant is based on a relationship, trust, and mutual admiration. Covenants may be difficult for some church leaders because they do not work in a \u201ctop-down\u201d authority model. They work best when both parties equally value one another.<\/p>\n

4) The Right to Understand<\/h3>\n

Volunteers need to fully understand the mission of the church and how it relates to the task that they are expected to perform. Volunteers need to see where their work contributes to the church and to the work of others.<\/p>\n

I believe that this is one area where I personally have made mistakes in the past. Looking back over 30 years in ministry, I can see that there were times that I needed help but did not effectively communicate how a volunteer\u2019s work fit into the big picture of what we were trying to accomplish.<\/p>\n

5) The Right to Affect One\u2019s Own Destiny<\/h3>\n

Church volunteers who demonstrate superior work may need to be recognized, promoted, or even hired to an appropriate paid position. Some may need to be encouraged to get a degree in their area of expertise. Their gifts may need to be shared with other churches or ministries who could benefit from them. Leaders should collaborate with volunteers who are not fulfilling their commitments in order to set forth a path to either succeed or possibly move to a different role (without shame).<\/p>\n

6) The Right to be Accountable<\/h3>\n

Our church volunteers need to be shown how their work needs to contribute to the ministry\u2019s goals. Their work should be evaluated by standards that are given to them before they begin a task. Their supervisor should meet with them and hold them accountable while continually expressing a caring attitude (as a family member would).<\/p>\n

7) The Right to Appeal<\/h3>\n

Church leaders make mistakes. In addition to this, misunderstandings happen in churches on a regular basis. Every church volunteer needs to know what appeal process is in place for them. When there is an unresolved conflict, many volunteers simply quit. Others sew seeds of gossip and bitterness. Some may try to undercut the authority of the leader or even seek to see them fail. By having a clearly defined appeal process that does not allow for the shaming of the volunteer, many negative consequences can be avoided.<\/p>\n

8) The Right to Make A Commitment<\/h3>\n

Some churches have high turnover rates when it comes to pastors and church staff. Sometimes, newly hired pastors and staff will introduce a significantly different direction for the church. In these cases some volunteers feel like their past work is not valued by the new church leaders. Some volunteers may even be \u201cfired\u201d because the new leader wants a fresh start. In these situations, volunteers may no longer make long-term, quality commitments to the church. Instability in church leadership will never equal stability among church volunteers.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, I believe that DePree, who studied at Wheaten College, developed much of the content that he wrote about in Leadership Is An Art<\/strong> <\/em>based on his Christian background and character. It is not surprising that his theories about leadership are so easily translated to church work.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Pree, Max De.\u00a0Leadership is an art<\/i>. New York: Crown Business, 2004.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just finished Leadership is an Art by Max DePree. DePree is the former CEO of Herman Miller, a very successful furniture maker and retailer that was founded by DePree\u2019s father. Even though DePree served in the Army during WW2, his management style has no resemblance to a militaristic, heavy-handed hierarchy. In Leadership is an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":12557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[80,253,747,35],"class_list":["post-12549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-art","tag-church","tag-cocanougher","tag-leadership","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}