{"id":34404,"date":"2023-12-01T10:41:31","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T18:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=34404"},"modified":"2023-12-01T10:41:31","modified_gmt":"2023-12-01T18:41:31","slug":"all-too-common-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/all-too-common-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"All Too Common Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cAs you read, you will discover that each of us will either follow the scandalous way Jesus led or become a scandal. There is no neutral ground.\u201d[1] There is truly no neutral ground to leadership. It is no surprise that leadership books, blogs, email list and water-cooler-conversations persist the way they do. We all participate in this delicate dance called leadership in are professional, social, religious and family lives. The choice, according to Jr Woodward in his book Scandal of Leadership<\/i>, is to choose the \u201cscandalous\u201d way of Jesus or become a scandal at some point in your journey. I don\u2019t think he is being hyperbolic. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Biography and Leadership as Theology<\/b><\/p>\n

Scandal of Leadership<\/i> seeks to address the the deeper issues underlying \u201cfallen\u201d leadership in the context of the Christian church. In particular, the role that dominating power has contributed to leadership abuses and misbehaviors by those in positions of leadership. Jr Woodward seeks to get to the root causes of this and offer a remedy, because dominating leadership is pervasive in the church and undermining the mission of Jesus. As he observes, \u201cAs a result [of experiencing dominating forms of leadership], an increasing number of people are deeply suspicious of all organizations that might interfere with their self-agency, especially the church. There is a growing resistance to institutions.\u201d[2] This resonated with my experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My first full time ministry position was in a small nondenominational church in a bedroom community outside of Dallas, Texas. The founding pastor\u2019s leadership was characterized by a persuasive, charismatic, and domineering manner that was initially attractive to me and many others that came to the church. Over time, it became obvious that there were issues with this form of leadership including pride, bullying, lack of accountability, and fluid policies and procedures all veiled under the mission of being \u201cless religious.\u201d Initially, the church grew for a time, until a breaking point in which half of the staff was abruptly dismissed, including myself. It was a traumatic experience that hurt more people than I can count. As a result, I\u2019ve sought lots of healing in my own journey; which is why I appreciated Jr Woodward\u2019s observation that, \u201cFor those of us who have been hurt by the leadership of others, we do not have to allow that hurt to define us. We can forgive even if we cannot reconcile with others, for forgiveness takes just one person, but reconciliation takes two and involves repentance from the wrongdoer.\u201d[3]<\/p>\n

Powers and Mimetic Desires<\/b><\/p>\n

These kinds of stories are not unique to those who serve on church staff or those who have attended churches with domineering leadership, which is why Woodward wants to dig deeper into the causes and solutions. Woodward explains the focus of the book in this way, \u201cIn developing an imitation-based framework, my aim is to address the problem of domineering leadership more robustly and to equip us in developing a spirituality that reshapes our desires toward God, his kingdom, and his righteousness.\u201d[4]<\/p>\n

Two of the interesting features of the book and the imitation-based framework proposed is the nature of the Powers on leadership and the way humans replicate the mimetic desires of those around them. The concept of Powers is a tricky one that is difficult to contextualize[5], Woodward defines in this way: \u201cIn brief, the term Powers<\/i> refers to Satan, demonic, and the principalities and powers mentioned in Scripture.\u201d[6].\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mimetic desires is a key characteristic of humanity and one that is deeply forming in leadership. One of the main influences of Woodward\u2019s theory is Ren\u00e9 Girard and he explains that, \u201cRen\u00e9 Girard\u2019s key discovery, which he confirms through theology and various academic disciplines, is that those who look to us as models will imitate our desires.\u201d[7] Woodward completes the idea by observing, \u201dWe become what we love, and ultimately, what we love is what we worship.\u201d [8]<\/p>\n

This is a threshold-concept level idea, that our imitation is so complete to include the desires of those around us, including those in positions of power. This raises the question of who is functioning as our model in leadership, which Woodward would say is either Christ or Satan\/Powers.[9]<\/p>\n

Redeemed Desires<\/b><\/p>\n

I found this book extremely convicting and revealing. It was convicting in the ways I see the Powers at work in my own denominational structures. My annual reports consists of comparing attendance, baptisms, and money collected. Interestingly, denominational leaders know that this is not an adequate measure, as a result, there is little feedback given based on the annual reports. Yet, so many conversations among pastors and church leaders use these metrics to determine success and effectiveness of pastors. We often lament that these measurements are \u201call that we have\u201d yet, that rightly is an inadequate answer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This book was revealing to my own leadership motives. What are my actual goals or ambitions in my pastoral leadership? What truly excites me about the work I am called to do? How does this get expressed to my staff, congregation, and family? What parts of my leadership truly reflect an imitation of Christ or an imitation of the test business approaches? These are all questions that I need to continue to reflect on desperately. It seems quite obvious that I am to imitate Christ in my leadership, yet it is so easy to imitate other perspectives that can seem less scandalous but are ultimately counterfeit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200c1. Jr Woodward, The Scandal of Leadership <\/i>(Cody, Wyoming: 100 Movements Publishing, 2023), p. xxv.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Ibid., 5.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Ibid., xxvii.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

4. Ibid., 216.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

5. Ibid.<\/p>\n

6. Ibid., 4.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

7. Ibid., 109<\/p>\n

8. Ibid.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

9. Ibid., 220.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAs you read, you will discover that each of us will either follow the scandalous way Jesus led or become a scandal. There is no neutral ground.\u201d[1] There is truly no neutral ground to leadership. It is no surprise that leadership books, blogs, email list and water-cooler-conversations persist the way they do. We all participate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":163,"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":[2347,2846],"class_list":["post-34404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp01","tag-woodward","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34404","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\/163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34405,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34404\/revisions\/34405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}