{"id":2471,"date":"2014-09-18T13:48:36","date_gmt":"2014-09-18T13:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=2471"},"modified":"2014-09-18T13:48:36","modified_gmt":"2014-09-18T13:48:36","slug":"pursuing-greatness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/pursuing-greatness\/","title":{"rendered":"Pursuing Greatness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How do you define greatness?<\/p>\n<p>The definitions surely abound; most of those definitions would point toward outcomes, performance and goals achieved or surpassed. Many of them would draw comparisons against the weaknesses or deficiencies of others. Greatness, in our starry-eyed culture, is also measured in both beauty, exemplified in power, and often in profit.<\/p>\n<p>Churches are not exempt from any of these trappings. We tend to build our organizations based on smooth running systems, popular programs and their capacity to generate both attendance and profit (not necessarily in this order). We elevate leaders who have the charisma to attract and sustain our easily misplaced ideals. \u201cRegular\u201d leaders flock to attend conferences and buy books dispensed by \u201cgreat\u201d leaders, whose greatness is measured in attendance, multi-sites and publishing acclaim.<\/p>\n<p>What Jim Collins discovers through his research in, <em>Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Lead and Others Don\u2019t<\/em>, is that sustained greatness in a particular area\/product\/specialty (he calls the \u201cHedgehog Concept\u201d) comes from surprising, counter-intuitive places. Among the key aspects of Collins\u2019 discoveries were three cornerstones:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cThe good-to-great companies understood a simple truth: The right people will do the right things and deliver the best results they\u2019re capable of, regardless of the incentive system.\u201d (p.50) and \u201c\u2026widen your definition of \u201cright people\u201d to focus more on the character attributes of the person and less on specialized knowledge.\u201d (p.216)<\/li>\n<li>\u201c\u2026they never talked in reactionary terms and never defined their strategies principally in response to what others were doing. They talked in terms of what they were trying to create and how they were trying to improve relative to an absolute standard of excellence.\u201d (p.160)<\/li>\n<li>Enduring great companies preserve their core values and purpose while their business strategies and operating practices endlessly adapt to a changing world. (p.185)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Carrying-The-Cross.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2475\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Carrying-The-Cross.jpg\" alt=\"Carrying-The-Cross\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Carrying-The-Cross.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Carrying-The-Cross-150x112.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0In the Gospel of Mark (10:42-45), Jesus had this to say regarding leaders and leadership: \u201cYou know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What I am continually challenged by, through Jesus\u2019 words and example, is that He doesn\u2019t denounce the pursuit of greatness. What He does is challenge the way in which we view and hopefully handle the privilege of leadership: The willingness to humbly serve, the capacity to serve for the benefit of others, the ability to embrace simplicity and even scarcity, and the vulnerability to sacrificially suffer for a purpose greater than ourselves. I\u2019m not sure any of us would eagerly apply to a job posting like that. Could it really be true?<\/p>\n<p>Over the course of the last eight years, I have had the unique privilege of pastoring a church, not too small, not too big, but one that has worked hard to understand it\u2019s role within our community, and has diligently shaped ministry according to that purpose. From our leadership team to our staff to those who direct our various ministries, there are a few things that are common: They each love the Lord deeply and they each are passionate about our church\u2019s purpose in the community. But they share one more thing. They have all understood and personally experienced suffering and\/or sacrifice. But they have not used it as an excuse or an exemption from serving Our Lord. Instead they have learned to submit their wounds and weaknesses to the power of the cross and they serve others with grace and truth of God, according to the Kingdom purposes we uphold. We aren&#8217;t perfect, far from it. However, we are surrounded by truly <em>great<\/em> leaders and I am privileged to learn from them and serve among them.<\/p>\n<p>Seeing a team develop like this, is a gift of God; it\u2019s taken a commitment to keep moving, sometimes slowly, in the same direction; providing the space to dream, the capacity to use gifts and talents, and the freedom to fail, learn and try again. It takes maintaining a priority on the needs of people rather than the production of programs. It takes discipline and commitment to continually pursue the vision of the organization. Having also experienced managing staff in retail world, there is no doubt that it takes longer, in a non-profit organization, to develop the right kind of team. But this past year has reminded me, time and again of the truth found in Jim Collins words:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no perfect interviewing technique, no ideal hiring method; even the best executives make hiring mistakes. You can only know for certain about a person by working with that person.\u201d (p.15, <em>Good to Great and the Social Sectors<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p>I am fortunate, no, blessed, to work with people who are actively pursuing greatness.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>For those of us, privileged to serve in leadership positions, what needs to change in us so that we can focus on developing the character of the teams with whom we serve?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>To what extent does character factor into the metrics we use to evaluate ourselves? Our teams? Our organizations?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How do you define greatness? The definitions surely abound; most of those definitions would point toward outcomes, performance and goals achieved or surpassed. Many of them would draw comparisons against the weaknesses or deficiencies of others. Greatness, in our starry-eyed culture, is also measured in both beauty, exemplified in power, and often in profit. Churches [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"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":[267],"class_list":["post-2471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-collins","cohort-lgp4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2471","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\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2476,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2471\/revisions\/2476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}