{"id":16803,"date":"2018-03-01T01:33:35","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T09:33:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=16803"},"modified":"2018-03-01T01:35:54","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T09:35:54","slug":"lead-in-the-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/lead-in-the-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Lead in the Light"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

My Dad used to paraphrase Proverbs 3:5-6 as I was growing up.\u00a0 He would say, \u201cSon, I\u2019m proud of you, trust God with all your heart and He will always show you the path to follow.\u201d\u00a0 Regarding leadership my Dad said, \u201cAlways do your best, don\u2019t follow the crowd, and keep a few close friends you can trust.\u201d\u00a0 He was not a top author, leader, or seminarian; but my Dad knew the Biblical model of leadership and always encouraged me follow Christ and lead where He guides.\u00a0 Did I have weaknesses?\u00a0 Of course.\u00a0 Did I have a \u201cdark side\u201d?\u00a0 Yes, from my Adamic sin nature that I inherited at birth, without my permission, that is a real force of evil that attempts to divide, disrupt, and destroy the good leadership works that Christ created for me before the beginning of time.<\/p>\n

If that was the end of my story, it would be frustrating to lead, or even live.\u00a0 But thanks be to God, Christ reins and my belief and faith in Him saved me from the consequences of original sin!\u00a0 Gary McIntosh and Samuel Rima\u2019s Overcoming the Dark Side of Leadership: How to Become and Effective Leader by Confronting Potential Failures<\/em> is a negatively biased leadership book that shows leaders how to identify their dark side, target insights, and apply personal fixes to prevent future leadership failures.\u00a0 I expect this book to be filled with connections to my dissertation research on the North American church leader\u2019s problem with spiritual warfare.<\/p>\n

The \u201cdark side\u201d according to McIntosh and Rima refers to our \u201cinner urges, compulsions, motivations, and dysfunctions that drive us.\u201d[1]<\/a>\u00a0 Unfortunately, I found myself disagreeing with the authors right away, when they said, \u201cThe dark side is a normal development.\u201d[2]<\/a> \u00a0Using Elder\u2019s Mini-Guide on critical questions I thought, did these guys read Genesis 3?[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Hey, we were not supposed to have a \u201cdark side\u201d according to God\u2019s original plan for His creation, it is not normal.\u00a0 Or are the authors possibly looking at the world in crisis, and accounting for time and theological evolution to say it is now the \u201cnew normal\u201d to have a dark side in our lives?\u00a0 As I read, non-read further I found a chapter with a feel-good adage that we can \u201ccast either shadow or light\u201d in our own power and we must take an \u201cinward journey\u201d to fix ourselves or we will fail in leadership![4]<\/a> So far I am not too impressed with the deductive reasoning by our authors.<\/p>\n

Ok, so the authors are a little slow getting to their point for me, but finally in Chapter 4 they laid out how and why we have a dark side rooted after the fall of Adam, and now linked to \u201cpride, selfishness, self-deception, and wrong motives.\u201d[5]<\/a>\u00a0 Can you see how I apply the Bayard technique of non-reading from the periphery of their focus while making notes and writing at the same time for maximum efficiency during my critical review?\u00a0 Sadly, two chapters latter, the authors have fallen back into their softer approach instead of addressing the real problem, how to resist Satan.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpiritual composting\u201d is the author\u2019s idea of how the Holy Spirit recycles our dark side into a God honoring leadership approach.[6]<\/a> \u00a0While I get their idea of composting, I disagree with how they use the metaphor in context to God\u2019s view of sin.\u00a0 \u00a0While I may not agree with spiritual composting, I do see merit in their idea of practicing the spiritual discipline of \u201cself-knowledge.\u201d[7]<\/a>\u00a0 Doing a leadership 360 assessment is not only Biblical, it is a practical way to find your leadership blind spots, obtain feedback from peers and followers, and fulfill the idea of self-examination (2 Cor. 13:5).[8]<\/a>\u00a0 Maxwell writes from the positive bias, while our authors McIntosh and Rima write from a negative bias towards leadership.<\/p>\n

Since I could not find any scholarly reviews or journal articles I decided to take the author\u2019s dark-side test to see if their leadership test and find out if I could find value or insights that could help improve my leadership praxis.\u00a0 First, I was saddened by the wholly negative approach to evaluating leadership.\u00a0 Everything I have always seen and learned in my lived leadership theology has been to focus on your positive attributes, positive strengths, and find ways to manage your lesser talented areas with friends, co-workers, spouse, or accountability partners.<\/p>\n

So how did I do?\u00a0 According to dark-side test I have some Passive Aggressive tendencies because I answered that I might use the \u201csilent treatment\u201d and I occasionally make others feel \u201cnervous.\u201d\u00a0 I scored 20 on the Passive Aggressive scale and below 20 on all the others.\u00a0 So LGP8 please forgive if I give you the silent treatment or make you feel uncomfortable.\u00a0 I will work on that!\u00a0 In reflection, I must still have the residual effects of 27 years in public safety.\u00a0 For me, it is a switch that I can turn on and off.\u00a0 I think most good leaders have switches they can manage for increased leadership effectiveness.<\/p>\n

Finally, I used my word search technique to see where these authors landed (I\u2019m a pilot don\u2019t you know) in relation to spiritual warfare doctrines.\u00a0 Surprisingly, they have some solid Biblical merit when quoting other authors like Anderson\u2019s Victory over the Darkness<\/em> who says that believers should not be taken advantage of by Satan\u2019s schemes, and that \u201cunforgiveness\u201d is the number one tool Satan uses to mount a spiritual warfare campaign against the believer.[9]<\/a><\/p>\n

McIntosh and Rima finally hit their target (Oh, and I was in public safety too) when they discuss the impact of spiritual warfare and demonic activity in comparison to leadership failures.\u00a0 I commend them for how they acknowledge the source of the real influence by affirming a real devil who is the \u201cmenacing enemy who actively opposes God\u2019s people and work.\u201d[10]<\/a>\u00a0 The authors also challenge the believing reader-leader to take some responsibility and not try to blame all their failures on \u201cthe devil made me do it.\u201d\u00a0 I agree, we are stewards of this earth-suit and spiritual temple where Christ lives in us.\u00a0 God expects us to do our part within the context of faith, obedience, and submission to the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Yes, we do need to take responsibility for our leadership actions. \u00a0To do this, as the authors and my Dad suggest, we must trust God and follow His path.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, I have a positive position on a very negative book.\u00a0 I can successfully link their message to my dissertation and encourage all Christian leaders to do their part by helping to prepare, train, and equip their congregants on how to resist Satan and defend against the evil day, by putting on the whole armor of God. \u00a0Finally, the authors agree with me, \u201cOur dark side can be redeemed with supernatural assistance.\u201d[11]<\/a><\/p>\n

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

Lead in the Light.<\/p>\n

Stand firm,<\/p>\n

M. Webb<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Gary L. McIntosh and Samuel D. Rima. Overcoming the Dark Side of Leadership: How to Become and Effective Leader by Confronting Potential Failures<\/em>. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2007) Kindle Edition: Location 403.<\/h6>\n
[2]<\/a> Ibid.<\/h6>\n
[3]<\/a> Linda Elder and Richard Paul. The miniature guide to critical thinking: Concepts & tools<\/em>. (Foundation Critical Thinking, 2001) 34.<\/h6>\n
[4]<\/a> McIntosh, Dark Side<\/em>, 591.<\/h6>\n
[5]<\/a> Ibid.<\/h6>\n
[6]<\/a> Ibid., 2000.<\/h6>\n
[7]<\/a> Ibid., 2630.<\/h6>\n
[8]<\/a> John C. Maxwell. The 360 degree leader: Developing your influence from anywhere in the organization<\/em>. Thomas Nelson. (Nashville, TN. 2011).<\/h6>\n
[9]<\/a> McIntosh, Dark Side<\/em>, 2168.<\/h6>\n
[10]<\/a> Ibid., 2057.<\/h6>\n
[11]<\/a> Ibid., 2064.<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Dad used to paraphrase Proverbs 3:5-6 as I was growing up.\u00a0 He would say, \u201cSon, I\u2019m proud of you, trust God with all your heart and He will always show you the path to follow.\u201d\u00a0 Regarding leadership my Dad said, \u201cAlways do your best, don\u2019t follow the crowd, and keep a few close friends […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"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":[1170],"class_list":["post-16803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-mcintosh-and-rima","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16803","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\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16803"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16808,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16803\/revisions\/16808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}