{"id":550,"date":"2013-11-06T20:41:25","date_gmt":"2013-11-06T20:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=550"},"modified":"2014-08-13T21:33:52","modified_gmt":"2014-08-13T21:33:52","slug":"modern-management-in-the-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/modern-management-in-the-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Modern Management in The Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gilbert W. Fairholm writes, \u201cThe transition from headship based on personality and talent to one based on control is the history of the rise of management to preeminence in our social institutions\u201d (Kindle 835-836). \u00a0He makes the case that managerial leadership is a contemporary phenomena and that it came into being \u201cas the answer to charismatic leadership\u201d (Kindle Location 837). \u00a0Assuming he is right about the recent rise to power of leadership by management, it is important for the faith community to reflect on the implications for church leadership.<\/p>\n

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The author cites a number of values that undergird the principles based leadership expressed by the contemporary manager\/leader. \u00a0They are: 1) The Leader\u2019s Role Is in Stakeholder Development, 2) The Leader\u2019s Role is To Create Vision, 3) The Leader Creates a Culture Supportive of Core Values, 4) The Leader\u2019s Personal Preparation is in Individual One-on-One Relationships with Followers, 5)\u00a0Values-based Leadership Asks the Leader to Be a Teacher, and 6) The Values-based Leader Has the Dual Goal of Producing High-Performance and Self-led Followers. \u00a0(Kindle 886-927). \u00a0The traditional, organizational, institutional, and programmatic driven church, regardless of the particular organizational model, attempts to reflect these values.<\/div>\n
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Though a product of the traditional church, my personal spiritual development was primarily influenced by a lifestyle and personal model of spiritual formation. \u00a0In other words, I grew spiritually in the context of ministry lifestyle. \u00a0My disciple maker led me into ministry from day one and the mission, indeed the church\u2019s mission, became my mission. \u00a0It wasn\u2019t until I entered classes in bible college and then seminary that I realized that the church was really modeled after business! \u00a0As I read the principles in this book it is easy to see why they have a place in the traditional organized church. \u00a0The question that arises is the difference between how I was motivated and equipped into mission and how managerial leadership, using the noted principles, motivates and equips one into ministry.<\/div>\n
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The good news teller informed me that God was in the process of redeeming the world to Himself and that I was both an object of His redemption and a potential partner in that process. \u00a0For me, becoming a follower of Jesus was becoming a stakeholder in God\u2019s cosmic vision! \u00a0No need for stakeholder pitches or new vision statements! \u00a0With my disciple maker, I joined the mission! \u00a0His lifestyle demonstrated Kingdom values! \u00a0He was a great teacher! \u00a0But, he never gave me the idea that he was focused on me becoming a high performance church member. \u00a0He did help me to become a self-feeding and self-leading believer.<\/div>\n
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I am concerned that the church has been so influenced by this model of leadership. \u00a0It relies too much on organizational systems and programs. \u00a0The questions it asks may be right, but the way solutions are sought do not develop the believer. \u00a0Fairholm writes, \u201cThey operationalize a people-oriented philosophy of growth toward self-leadership that involves learning and then teaching principles so followers can lead themselves\u201d (Kindle 881-882). \u00a0If I understand this correctly, this philosophy relies upon teaching to affect lifestyle transformation. \u00a0 \u00a0Outward behaviors may change but not necessarily inward motivations and affections. \u00a0This is core to spiritual formation.<\/div>\n
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Managerial leadership coupled with the usual pastoral mindset leading in the church, contributes to a lack of mission focused ministry. \u00a0The church reflects the academy as to its emphasis on teaching with little life change to show for its efforts. \u00a0What kind of leadership is needed in the church? \u00a0What changes should be made?<\/div>\n
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Gilbert W. Fairholm. Perspectives on Leadership: From the Science of Management to Its Spiritual Heart.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gilbert W. Fairholm writes, \u201cThe transition from headship based on personality and talent to one based on control is the history of the rise of management to preeminence in our social institutions\u201d (Kindle 835-836). \u00a0He makes the case that managerial leadership is a contemporary phenomena and that it came into being \u201cas the answer to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"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":[2,235],"class_list":["post-550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-fairholm","cohort-lgp3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550","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\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1883,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550\/revisions\/1883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}