{"id":21303,"date":"2019-02-07T23:16:39","date_gmt":"2019-02-08T07:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=21303"},"modified":"2019-02-07T23:16:39","modified_gmt":"2019-02-08T07:16:39","slug":"you-dont-know-the-power-of-the-dark-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/you-dont-know-the-power-of-the-dark-side\/","title":{"rendered":"You don’t know the power of the Dark Side"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

I’ll never forget the comment made by the Youth Minister that was teaching myself and a room full of Bible majors during a 3 day seminar: “I have been at the church so long that the elders don’t have the guts to tell me what I can and cannot do; well, that is not entirely true…there is one that always insist on being a thorn in my flesh.” I was appalled! I was raised as a PK with a strong respect instilled in me for the eldership of a church; and yet, here teaching me, was some man that obviously had no understanding of the concept. In fact, for three days I had to suffer through his sanctimonious-better-than-thou<\/em>attitude as he tried to impress us with his ministry. The fact was though…I had absolutely no respect for him after that first introductory comment.<\/p>\n

Though the fact is that I am a geek by nature, and the very fact that this week\u2019s reading had a reference to \u201cThe Dark Side,\u201d I was pretty sure it was not the latest addition to the Star Wars Saga. However, I was also immediately intrigued by the fact that we can so often make the parallel between the Dark Side and Church leaders\u2026including ministers. One of the comments that I have often used with my own church family has been; \u201cSheep I understand\u2026but some of these shepherds are really starting to anger me.\u201d I am not sure that any of us can ever dodge that inevitable run in with an overly arrogant or pompous leader; sadly, I have met more than a few.<\/p>\n

So how do you overcome this problem? More importantly, how do we as leaders, prevent from falling from the lure of\u2026as the book put it\u2026 \u201cthe psychology of power[1]<\/a>?\u201d<\/p>\n

The answer to this in \u201cThe Dark Side of Transformational Leadership,\u201d is to go after the institutions that are misrepresenting the allure of power itself. Take for example Tourish\u2019s reference to bankers: \u201cThey have come to symbolize much that is wrong with leadership and the paradoxes of our attitudes to it[2]<\/a>.\u201d Abraham Lincoln was quoted as saying, \u201cNearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man\u2019s character, give him power[3]<\/a>.\u201d Christopher Shea wrote in his article in Smithsonian Magazine, \u201cPower tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely[4]<\/a>.\u201d Do those with the power tend to corrupt those who they have influence over? Or perhaps the problem is that those who are intended to pass on power to others, have failed to pass it on properly.<\/p>\n

Right upon graduating with my BA in Bible and Youth Ministry, I had a conversation with a few other Youth Minister graduates; we were all a little confused; you see, even though we had this really cool diploma, we had no idea what to expect when the ministry actually started. We had no training of leadership practices; how to teach others; or even how to no manipulate the power that was given to you. We were taught a lot of bible and even a little psychology, but still\u2026no leadership training. As I stood there, nervous and unsure, about to walk into my first eldership interview as a potential youth minister, one of the women from the church pulled me off to the side and said, \u201cOne is a push over\u2026he\u2019ll give you anything you ask for; one is fair but stern, so just make sure you have good reasoning, and he\u2019ll give you anything you ask for; and the last one, he is hard core\u2026he will probably never give you what you ask for. Good luck.\u201d What the heck was I supposed to do with that?! Well, I learned how to manipulate the system really early on\u2026that\u2019s what I did with that. However, I am not sure that this was the lesson I was meant to learn early on. Fortunately, the words found in James 3:1 started to guide me, rather than the influence of information passed on to me:<\/p>\n

\u201cMy brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.\u201d<\/p>\n

This verse slapped reality back in to me: rather than power being something to swim in, it became something to respect and fear at the same time. We need to \u201crebalance the notion of \u2018leadership\u2019 and that of \u2018followership[5]<\/a>.\u2019\u201d It was the reality check I needed to remind me that when my leadership is founded in Christianity, I may have a role of leader, but ultimately, I am just another follower of Jesus Christ. If I lead the flock that was entrusted to me off of a cliff; then I am held accountable for that flock. Even today, the foundation of my ministry is one of accountability for the gospel that I preach. Paul warned Timothy that \u201cthe time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers\u2026[6]<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

So how does all of this interact with my dissertation? My dissertation is encouraging leaders to re-evaluate the importance that they place on the role that water-baptism serves throughout scripture; and thus, should serve throughout modern-day ministries. It is that desire to show that sometimes it is far to easy as ministers to become teachers of accommodation rather than the teachers of scripture that we are supposed to be. However, it is not just the topic of baptism; I believe there are so many lessons that as leaders, we should always search our hearts and motives to see what we are truly hoping to accomplish in the role that has been entrusted to us. If we are only in this for the money\u2026well, we probably picked the wrong profession. If we are in this for the next book deal\u2026look on the bookstore shelves and ask if we are going to really be the next big thing; but then remember that this ministry was never supposed to be about our words; but rather those of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

I wish leadership programs taught more on leadership: I really do. Perhaps more lessons on ethics, personal integrity and biblical integrity would help us to be those that God has truly called to the ministry. So with that thought, I close with this quote by Leo F. Buscaglia:<\/p>\n

\u201cToo often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring; all of which have the potential to turn a life around[7]<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bibliography<\/h1>\n

Goodreads.com.<\/em>2019. https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/quotes\/tag\/power (accessed February 7, 2019).<\/p>\n

Shea, Christopher. Smithsonian.com.<\/em>October 2012. https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/science-nature\/why-power-corrupts-37165345\/ (accessed February 7, 2019).<\/p>\n

Tourish, Dennis. The Dark Side of Transformational Leadership: A Critical Perspective.<\/em>London: Routledge, 2013.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a>Tourish, Dennis. The Dark Side of Transformational Leadership: A Critical Perspective.<\/em>London: Routledge, 2013.Pg 8.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a>Ibid, p 5.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a>Goodreads.com.<\/em>2019. https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/quotes\/tag\/power (accessed February 7, 2019).<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a>Shea, Christopher. Smithsonian.com.<\/em>October 2012. https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/science-nature\/why-power-corrupts-37165345\/ (accessed February 7, 2019).<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a>Tourish, Dennis. Pg 8.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a>2 Timothy 4:3.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a>Goodreads.com.<\/em>2019. https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/quotes\/tag\/power (accessed February 7, 2019).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ll never forget the comment made by the Youth Minister that was teaching myself and a room full of Bible majors during a 3 day seminar: “I have been at the church so long that the elders don’t have the guts to tell me what I can and cannot do; well, that is not entirely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"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":[543],"tags":[1442,1445],"class_list":["post-21303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-action-adventure-sci-fi","tag-dennis-tourish","tag-the-dark-side-of-transformational-leadership","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21303","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\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21303"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21305,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21303\/revisions\/21305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}