{"id":9218,"date":"2016-09-09T09:28:14","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T16:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dminlgp.com\/?p=9218"},"modified":"2016-09-09T09:28:14","modified_gmt":"2016-09-09T16:28:14","slug":"ministry-is-a-journey-driven-by-a-vision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/ministry-is-a-journey-driven-by-a-vision\/","title":{"rendered":"Ministry is a Journey Driven by a Vision"},"content":{"rendered":"

My journey with Jim Collins has been an unexpected one. I was first introduced to Good to Great<\/em> by a missionary serving in Nicaragua. I read it for the first time out of curiosity and I found it engaging. Years later, I read the book a second time while I was pastoring a declining church. Suddenly, the content of the book moved from engaging to relevant\u2014from good<\/em> to great<\/em> (sorry, I could not resist!). At that point in my life I was connecting the concepts to my pastoral ministry experience, and I ended up writing all over the book with personal notes and new insights. The third time that I read the book was with my leadership team. I wanted for all of us to be on the same page as we were pursuing the re-engineering of our ministry. Eventually, I discovered many other books written by Jim Collins, and I\u2019ve learned important insights from each one of them, including Built to Last<\/em>, How the Mighty Fall<\/em> and Great by Choice<\/em>. These insights have become valuable tools that I often use as a leadership consultant for churches and businesses.<\/p>\n

In each one of these books, Jim Collins and his team of researchers identify principles of organizational leadership discovered through an inductive process of data analysis. Interestingly, some of these concepts can be found in other leadership literature\u2014and even in the Bible. Yet, what I enjoy about Collins is his ability to connect the dots in a cohesive way. Unlike other authors, he does no only tell me the what<\/em>, but also the why<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In Good to Great<\/em>, Collins identifies principles that help an organization move from achieving good results to achieving great sustainable results. He does so by comparing a number of companies through a systematic process that reveals a blueprint for organizational health. Even though the fate of some of those companies has changed since the book was written, the principles of organizational leadership remain relevant. In the companion book Good to Great and the Social Sectors<\/em>, Collins contextualizes these concepts to the non-profit world, where profit is not an accurate measure of success.<\/p>\n

This book has significantly shaped my perspective on leadership in ministry. I used to do ministry based on programs and activities, while now I see ministry as a journey driven by a vision. It is the difference between doing<\/em> versus going<\/em>. One focuses on what to do<\/em>, while the other focuses on where we are going<\/em> and\u00a0 how we are going to get there<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I suppose that this kind of book is more enriching when it is analyzed and implemented, rather than simply read as an academic exercise. Because of my repeated interaction with the book, I can identify five areas in our ministry that have been shaped by these leadership concepts.<\/p>\n

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  1. Identify what you can be the best at and what you are the most passionate about.<\/em> The combination of these two concepts led us to conclude that what we could do best is to mentor individuals spiritually through a personalized approach. We also realized that we were passionate about embracing diversity. This deeper self-awareness gave us clarity and intentionality. As a result, now we have a strong evangelism, discipleship, and marriage programs, and have discovered that bigger is not always better.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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    1. Confront the brutal facts and conduct autopsy without blame<\/em>. This exercise was very insightful. It allowed our team to produce an extensive list of things that needed to change in order to create total alignment with our mission and vision. This list included touchy items\u2014like the need for re-engineering our leadership structure, membership process, legal framework and brand. As a result, we have now changed our bylaws, have adopted a new leadership structure based on plurality of Elders, have changed our name, and have created new internal mechanisms that reinforce organizational health.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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      1. Clock building rather than time telling<\/em>. This concept has helped our leadership team invest significant time designing the organizational side of ministry\u2014not just the programs side. As a result, we now have much better understanding of the legal parameters of being a non-profit and ensuring that the program side of ministry is aligned with the organizational side of ministry. We are now thinking of leadership succession and have designed an internship program to develop new leaders. In addition, now it is easier to discern when and where to invest our resources.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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        1. Discipline thought and discipline action<\/em>. The book emphasizes that in order to move to sustainable great results, we have to start with the right people in the right positions and then spend significant time thinking together in order to discover the best answers. Then we need to pursue these solutions with consistency and dedication. The average shaping of an organization with sustainable results takes between 10 to 20 years. This perspective has been highly insightful, because it helps us see the present more objectively. Great things take time, and building a sustainable ministry is not the exception. As a result, we now have a short-term strategic projection that encompasses three to five years, and helps us keep focused on what we are building\u2014even if it takes longer than expected.\u00a0 It has also helped us develop a more refined membership system, where we now think of membership as a ministry partnership that provides solid accountability.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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          1. Level-5 leadership<\/em>. Collins describes this type of leader as one who is seeking the success of the organization over personal glory; one who is able to work with a team of people in a determined pursuit of making things better; one who is not a dictator but who values the insights of others. The correlation between this leadership description and the biblical teaching on leadership is powerful. Our leadership team was able to have an open dialogue to identify our leadership traits. As a result, we now have a better system of leadership applications and evaluations to ensure we bring the right people into the team. Now we know that at the senior leadership level we need people who value analysis and seek understanding before action. We need thinkers, not just doers.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            Some people want to accomplish great things for God, but seldom spend time thinking about organizational health. Ironically, many of the pastors that I get to encourage through leadership mentorship face frustrations because of organizational dysfunctions. It is true that in pastoral ministry we do not control the final outcome. In fact, the Apostle Paul teaches us that in ministry we can only plant the seed and water it, but God gives the growth. Yet, that does not mean that we cannot become experts in developing great watering systems. As the Lead Pastor of Ethnos Bible Church, I want to make sure that we provide the best nutrients for the soil and the best watering system. As I invest my energy in these areas, I will trust God with the results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            My journey with Jim Collins has been an unexpected one. I was first introduced to Good to Great by a missionary serving in Nicaragua. I read it for the first time out of curiosity and I found it engaging. Years later, I read the book a second time while I was pastoring a declining church. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"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":[267,689,882,688,702],"class_list":["post-9218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-collins","tag-ethnos-bible-church","tag-jim-collins","tag-pablo-morales","tag-pastor-pablo-morales","cohort-lgp6"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9218","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\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9218\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}