Every quarter, I engage in leadership development meetings with my church leaders. During one such session, I aimed to acknowledge the limitations of visionary leadership. Although pastors possess a clear idea of the desired outcome, we sometimes lack the knowledge of the ideal personnel placement and the necessary components to bring our vision to fruition.
For example, I had a vision for land acquisition in the neighborhood. That was the vision; although we had capital, other components had to be ironed out before completing that vision. I was unsure of all the parts to make it happen, so I tabled it and missed some great opportunities to buy. Here in lies the problems for many pastors. Pastors sometimes believe they must know all the answers to have the vision come to fruition—not true! A visionary needs "versionaries." Let me explain. A visionary (pastor/leader) casts a vision for a project, and the people serving the ministry (versionaries) use their gifts, skills, talents, and resources to provide a version of that vision. No vision in Scripture was built solely by the visionary. Noah had his family, David had his army, Solomon had his workers, Nehemiah had his countrymen, Jesus had his disciples, and God had Jesus. I struggled with the idea that I had to have all the answers and provide a perfect and complete vision before I released it to those who faithfully served the ministry. It felt laissez-faire not to have all the I's dotted and the T's crossed before pouring out my vision. I felt inadequate to convey and even carry the vision if I did not know all the parts. This way of thinking stunted my and the church's growth because I was not equipped with a call to do it all. I found that when I designed all the parts, they had to look a certain way, and when I built it myself, I handed them an excellence they were not equipped to maintain because they were not me (not that I was better; I was different). We all know pastors whose default to when people "can't do it right," they do it themselves. I was reverse engineering this phrase by doing it "right" by myself, then attempting to hand it off to others who invariably could not carry it. So, I had to learn to let people build a version of the vision for themselves and correct it with grace as needed as they built. So, how would I get my leaders to understand that, at times, I have the image in my head, but I need the ideas; I still need the ideas in their head to make the vision a reality? Here's what I did: I went to the Dollar Tree and grabbed some puzzles. I introduced an exercise at our leadership training to share the concept of building a vision with my versionaries. Exercise: Grab some puzzles and group your leaders. Give each group of learners a puzzle, but not the box with the image that the puzzle came in. They will ask for it but do not provide it. Give the group minimal instructions. Only tell them to work together to construct the puzzle. Then sit back, watch, and listen. What they say and do will be the bases for your teaching, and be sure to address it all. For instance, during my exercise, someone said, "Pastor probably left out a piece of the puzzle on purpose to trick us." I did not plan for that, but I used it. I made sure to make it clear that when a moment of self-sabotage arises, it is not our fault but our problem. Doubts will arise, but we must all work to find the solution. I heard a person remark on the pace of the other group. I observed a few people looking at the puzzle but not touching the pieces. I made sure to use every instance to address how we may look in the process and how we will be successful as a church in achieving a vision. No issue was wasted. During the exercise, the vision was clear, put the puzzle together. I gave a clear vision but not a complete vision. One person asked for the box to see the image because they wanted to see the completed image before the puzzle was complete. This exercise teaches that the vision may be clear when you have all the pieces, but it is not complete unless connected. The focus is on connecting the vision, not projecting the vision. This stage of the process, the building stage, is about aligning and assigning to clarify what is present and what needs to be added to achieve a complete vision. Nonetheless, here are seven (7) principles for putting together a puzzle (vision): Start with a clear vision.The pastor pours out the vision, and the people pour into the vision. A clear and compelling vision provides direction and purpose for the ministry. Communicate the vision and ensure it aligns with the values, goals, and mission. Just like with a puzzle, it's crucial to have a clear idea of what the finished product should look like. As a pastoral leader, having a clear vision for the ministry can help you stay focused and keep your team aligned. Identify the pieces. Similar to putting together a puzzle, it is crucial to recognize the resources, abilities, and capabilities you and your team possess to accomplish your desired goals. These may involve individuals, monetary funds, technological advancements, and various other assets. By gaining insight into your available resources, you can create a strategic plan to utilize them efficiently. Connect the pieces to people's values. Demonstrate how the vision corresponds with their beliefs and how it can facilitate the accomplishment of their individual objectives. Aid individuals in recognizing the relevance of the vision to their lives. After identifying the pieces, the next step is to connect them. This can involve uniting diverse individuals and resources to attain a shared ministry vision. Be patient but create a sense of urgency. Putting together a puzzle can take time and require patience. Similarly, achieving a ministry vision may take longer than expected, and it is vital to remain patient and persevere through any challenges that arise. Stay focused on the vision and continue to move forward, even if progress is slow. Help people see why the vision is important and needs to be pursued now, but not hastily. Highlight the potential benefits of achieving the vision and the consequences of not doing so. Celebrate progress. As you start to see progress in putting together the puzzle, it's important to celebrate the small wins along the way. In ministry, this can mean recognizing and appreciating the efforts of your team members and acknowledging the progress made toward the vision. Give people opportunities to contribute to the vision and take ownership of their contribution to it. Encourage feedback and suggestions from people to improve the vision. Embrace diversity. A diverse team can bring a variety of perspectives and ideas to the table. Be intentional about creating a culture of inclusion and respect, and seek out perspectives that differ from your own. Just like a puzzle has pieces of different colors and shapes, a successful, thriving ministry team will likely include individuals with different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. Embracing this diversity can lead to a more creative and effective approach to ministry. Keep the big picture in mind. t is easy to get bogged down in the little things and lose sight of your overall vision and mission. Ensure you and your team stay focused on the big picture and regularly review progress towards the vision. Use this perspective to guide decision-making and prioritize tasks, moving you closer to the vision. When putting together a puzzle, it is easy to get lost in the details and lose sight of the whole perspective. Similarly, it is crucial in ministry to keep your overall vision and mission in mind, even when dealing with day-to-day tasks and challenges. Conclusion As a visionary leader, it is crucial to recognize the limitations as a visionary and to rely on the skills and expertise of others to bring your vision to fulfillment. A clear and compelling vision, identification of available resources, alignment with people's values, patience, and urgency are all critical components of successful vision implementation. By trusting in and empowering your team of versionaries, you can create a successful collaborative strategy for achieving the ministry's vision and goals.
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I recently came across some of my childhood favorites while watching tv—Duck Tales, Tale Spin, Dark Wing Duck, and my all-time favorite, the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I was excited to share these with my 10-year-old, who quickly told me he was not impressed (smiles).
As I embraced the nostalgia, I tuned into one episode of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT), only to find something that never caught my attention as a child. This show was about more than a Ninjutsu rat named Splinter and turtles contaminated by toxic radioactive ooze. This show was an illustration of being a good pastor and servant leader. The Ninjutsu rat, Master Splinter, strategically gave each of the four ninja turtles their weapons. Master Splinter knew that each weapon took a particular discipline to master. Based on each of the turtles’ personalities and skills, he assigned them a specific weapon:
So, from this Master Splinter and ninja turtle revelation, here are seven (7) lessons we can glean about servant leadership: Learn who you are leading A good servant leader gets to know who they are leading. They learn the idiosyncrasy of the individuals in the ministry. A good leader knows who has a temper, who has charm, and who has compassion. Learning who you are leading takes time spent with leaders. Spend time watching and listening to people, making notes of their words and movements, not in a creepy way, but in a way that allows you to help them grow. Give the people you are leading a chance to get to know your heart and take time to learn theirs. Set people up for success Give people what their gifts can handle. It is better to leave an assignment undone than to give an assignment to someone that you know will fail. Good leaders know how to empower people with assignments that give them a chance to experience victory while fulfilling God’s vision. Assigning suitable assignments to the right person may make a difference in success and failure. Teaching and Training Any ministry training you do as a leader builds personal responsibility and accountability in those you lead. Each trained leader is responsible for implementing training in their life and ministry. As a servant leader, you can hold people accountable for what you teach and train them to be, know and do. So, teach and train on everything. Teaching and training will allow those you serve to discover their expectations in service to the ministry and, ultimately, to God. Celebration and Correction – Celebrating success and providing correction in the event of failing to meet a standard is essential. Good leadership balances the two ends of the spectrum while maintaining a positive relationship. Some people do not want to be celebrated, and others do not want to be corrected. Both are necessary parts of good leadership. People sometimes equate correction with a boss rather than a leader. Correction makes ministry sound too much like a performance rather than a form of honoring God. As a leader, you must communicate to those you serve how you will celebrate and correct them. As a leader, I tell my leaders I plan to celebrate them publicly and loudly and correct them privately and softly—unless they get out of hand. Meet their needs Learn to discern body language and countenance. When you learn who you are leading, you will know when something is bothering them. Do not be so focused on yourself that you miss the verbal and non-verbal messages people are sending. Even the best thespian (actor) cannot hide everything. A good leader going through a bad situation may become a not-so-good leader when their needs are not met. The one place people should feel seen and acknowledged is in a ministry, and meeting their needs is essential to them feeling appreciated, adequate, and accepted. People at times need to be heard, seen, hugged, believed, smiled at, or consoled. Communication There are three key components to communication: Empathy, Transparency, and Clarity. Communication requires a connection—empathy. A servant leader must have the ability to understand and share the feelings of the people they serve in ministry. A great deal can be misinterpreted and understood without a connection to the people you serve in ministry. Transparency puts people in the know. Tell people your principles, what you stand for and what the ministry strives to achieve. Show the other leaders you value their input and feelings with open communication. Transparency instills trust and communicates respect from you as a servant leader. Clarity makes it possible for vision to turn into reality. Nothing is more exciting than a clear vision and strategic path forward. When there is clarity, people become passionate about seeing how they fit in the ministry and how to use their talents and skills best. Every person you serve should know the ministry’s top priorities and when and where goals are being met and missed. Know yourself Abraham Maslow, the world-renowned psychologist and creator of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, said, “self-actualizing individuals have superior awareness of their own impulses, desires, opinions, and subjective reactions in general.” Who are you as a leader? What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? What are your values? What are your desires? To be a good leader, you must participate in self-reflection. Spend every evening reviewing your day—every weekend reviewing your week, and on the first day of the month, review the previous month. I think you get where this is going. Lock in the memories and create for yourself an understanding of yourself and the decisions you make. Upon reflection, develop some ministry and life principles. Good leaders are principled. When you know yourselves and have principles, you make predetermined decisions on matters that affect your life and ministry before those matters affect your life and ministry. I could go on and on, but I will stop here. The observations above clearly show that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles teaches us how to be good pastors and servant leaders. The truth is, becoming a better leader will not be easy but will get easier with time. What other lessons do you glean from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? 3 Ways Preachers can sit under preaching.
I remember years ago going to hear Thomas Long preach. His homiletical approach did not render him to raise his voice, jump up and down or attempt any praise break. Instead, he stood flat-footed and preached. I remember crying like a baby throughout his message because the reality was that his sermon touched me in a place where none of my sermons ever touched me. I understood at that moment what my soul needed to survive, even as a preacher—I needed to sit under preaching. What does it mean for the preacher to sit under preaching? It means to sit and listen to a sermon for nourishment, not nuggets to preach later. Sitting under preaching means retracting one’s homiletical antenna and raising the white flag of one’s soul. It is a moment where the preacher gets preached to for the benefit of their soul, sanity, and personal salvation. Sitting under preaching is essential to the wellbeing of the preacher; however, all too often, preachers neglect themselves (soul) from sitting under preaching, resulting in spiritual burnout. Spiritual burnout is a direct result of pouring without refilling. Each time you stand to preach, you pour more of yourself out. Be it as it may, it is your calling to preach, but a calling fulfilled as an empty vessel is sounding brass or a clanging cymbal—noise without a name (purpose). Additionally, listening to preaching and sitting under preaching are not synonymous. One must not get caught in the routine of visiting a pulpit each Sunday to preach a word without sitting near a pulpit to get a word. Preachers have to be intentional about sitting under preaching to grow in their faith. Reading commentaries, going to conferences, reading books, and or giving lectures will never be a suitable substitute for sitting under preaching. There is no encounter in this world that the soul recognizes as supple salvific supply like the moment you sit under preaching; it allows your soul to graze in a pasture of your realities and vulnerabilities that brings a balance back to your life like nothing else. Here are my three recommendations for sitting under preaching. If you go in person, do not go to the pulpit. Sitting under preaching is not the time for you to be acknowledged by the preacher/pastor. If you plan to go somewhere where you know the preacher, let them know you will be in the audience and ask them not to recognize you—tell them you just came for a Word. Also, if you can, avoid talking to the preacher/pastor. Let this be a time of reflection on the Word. Listen with your soul, not your ears. Sitting under preaching is not the time to critique the homiletical acuity of the preacher or mechanics of the sermon. Listen with your soul to hear a Word from the Lord. Grab what the Holy Spirit is pouring all over your soul to soak up and be renewed. Be fueled by the Word of God for you personally. Concentrate on hearing from God about your life. Go regularly, not just when you are empty. I have an aunt who goes to the gas station when her gas tank gets to half full. I once asked, “Auntie, why are you going to a gas station when you have half a tank of gas?” She replied, “Nephew, I go when it is half full because I don’t know where I will be when it gets to empty!” Take my aunt’s advice, do not let yourself get empty, for you never know where you will be when that happens. Sit under preaching with regularity to stay full. Preachers of all people in this world know the importance of sitting under preaching—we just at times forget to incorporate its importance into our lives. If a preacher is going to survive their calling, sitting under preaching will be paramount to their success. A soul needs what a soul needs, and when we do not give our soul what it needs, it fails to function as it should. Sitting under preaching provides the preaching the preacher needs for their soul. Featured on PreachingGuru.com - Subscribe to their upbeat weekly newsletter about all things preaching and leadership. COVID-19 infections have reached the million mark and deaths from COVID have surpassed 200,000. These figures seem to be no match for people's desire to gather, even amid mounting frustration. Frustration is a powerful emotion.
Like many, I too am frustrated with the linear living of picking up groceries in the parking lot, coming home only to watch the “Top 10” movies on Netflix; all after a day filled with Zoom meetings. Let’s be honest, it gets very tempting to break up the monotony of COVID life. And what better excuse to change the game than Thanksgiving. Many families have traditions tied to this time of the year. As Thanksgiving approaches, many people are making plans to visit friends and host family. I get it-you desperately want your aunt's famous macaroni and cheese, your momma's sweet potato pie or Pop's famous deep-fried turkey. Your mouth has been salivating for it and all the more now that you have Doordashed your wallet into a conniption. However succulent and savory all those vittles may be, I want you to hold fast. Don't let the frustration of your life cloud the choices of your life. Spending time with family may bring you the greatest joy that you have felt in quite some time; Seeing loved ones may provide you with profound comfort that has not missed your doorstep in months. All of these are good feelings; however, the risk of endangering your eldest family members, dearest friends loved ones who may have health challenges, is the greatest challenge in and of itself. But let’s remember, our friend and family who have health challenges are highly susceptible to the effect of COVID. Keeping all of this in mind, let’s do something different; Set off the gratification of gathering at the manifestation of a meal, for peace that you didn't pick up or pass along COVID-19. Think outside the box this year. Find ways to celebrate together, apart. Have mom mail you the famous dish for which she is known. Have your favorite aunt wrap up her signature casserole and leave it on the porch. Find ways to sure up a way to see them next year, if the Lord grants you life, don't let the frustration of being inside, and possibly alone, push you into a gathering with variables that could make you a victim. Happy Thanksgiving. Mark 8:22-26
Jesus comes to the village of Bethsaida and is met by a cadre of gentlemen who desperately want their blind friend to be healed with a touch from Him. The men seem to want the healing for the man more than the blind man wants it for himself; the bind man never says anything to affirm these desires. Take note of this friendship. You know you have some good friends when they work harder than you for your benefit. At the outset of this encounter, we do not hear from the blind man at all. Jesus seems to sympathize with the pleas of the blind man’s friends for he takes the blind man by the hand and leads him “out of the village.” This seems strange because until this point, healings were mostly instantaneous. Furthermore, when you scour Scripture, you do not see the elements of this encounter again. Why does Jesus take the man out of the village? Matthew 11:21-22 helps us to see that Bethsaida is an unrepentant city that is cursed by Jesus. In other words, there is no longer any victory in Bethsaida. Jesus knows this and acts accordingly. No Victory Zone The next part of the text is what gripped my soul: Jesus could have, without question, brought new victory to Bethsaida again with the healing of this blind man, but He didn’t. There are places that no longer have victory and Jesus will not be performing on your behalf in those places. In these places, your time has run out, your energy is depleted, and your money has grown limited. It is time to go. Let Jesus move you. Give Jesus your hand and go blindly with Him until you reach the outside of your no victory zone. Messy Moments Jesus spits on the blind man’s eyes and lays His hands on him, asking him “What do you see?” I must admit this moment in the encounter caught me off guard, but I had a pressing premonition to believe Jesus was up to something. Jesus was gauging the man’s perception for the benefit of his perspective. In order to do this, it was time to get messy. Jesus wants us to know “better”; and “better” for us may be through messy moments; moments when we are ashamed and dare not share; moments we hope to forget and never relive. Messy moment are necessary for our spiritual formation and based on this story, seem unavoidable. I have relegated in my heart that if it takes messy moments to get close to Jesus—then bring on the mess! Furthermore, it takes mess to master the message. It is the mess that possesses the healing balm and blessing. We spend our entire lives running from messes. But what if God designed the mess, such as this case in this text, to be motivated to turn our lives around? What did Jesus use to make the blind man see? Answer: the muddy mess on his face. What can Jesus use to make us see? Answer: the muddy messes in our lives. Spend some time reviewing your messes. You were blind, but with the help of Jesus you will now see. Mark 1:40-45
Leprosy is a life sentence that robbed anyone who contracted it of their relationships and personal joy. It was a disease that put the patient at dis-ease for an unforeseeable amount of time. There was no hope of normalcy for someone who contracted the disease. To put this into a contemporary context, the infected person could no longer could attend their son’s baseball game, go out to eat in a restaurant, or visit loved ones. Instead they had to quarantine themselves and mark themselves as a carrier of this disease. A label. We all have labels. Some simple, some severe. What labels do you have? What pain has haunted you day in and day out? Be encouraged because God can change any label. Society may have fixed it so you will never be the same again, but let’s face it, you will never be the same. You have a disease. Nothing you encounter should ever leave you the same. Labels change us and augment our perspectives in life. Labels helps us see what is most precious and valuable to us and realign our priories to match our purpose. One historian says, “having Leprosy was no different than being a corpse.” When put that way, this makes Jesus’ encounter with this man who has Leprosy a resurrection encounter. The Touch A “knee jerk” reaction would be to tense up and retract to detract from being touched. Jesus didn’t recoil, instead He reached. Jesus reached for a man who should not have known what it felt like to be touched during his time of sickness. Jesus is loudest with His voice in verse 41, not when He speaks, but when He touches the leper. What we do with our hands speak volumes about our heart. The gospel writer Mark lets us know why Jesus does it—He felt compassion. Compassion in this context literally means “to move one’s bowels.” In other words, what Jesus saw on the outside, He felt on the inside, deeply. Jesus has a visceral response to the man’s victimization of Leprosy. So, my question to this matter is this: Was the leper touched by Jesus or was Jesus touched by the leper? All touches are not created equal and should not be measured with the same rules. Some touches require the simple sacrifice of a reach, while other touches may require a stretch. The leper stretched and Jesus reached; however, both traveled the same distance to touch. Contagion At this point Jesus has taken the risk to infect Himself with the leper’s skin issue. A typical priest, having been put in this same predicament, would have surely contracted the disease. But Jesus is not a typical priest. The leper may have been contagious, but the text proves to us that Jesus was more contagious than the man with Leprosy. When I was a student at Luther Theological Southern Seminary, I experience the traditional way Communion is taken in the Lutheran tradition. Being black and Baptist, which are not mutually exclusive, I was quite anxious about drinking after other people who I did not know. What I did not know was there was another option to participate in the Eucharist, via intinction. Intinction is the practice of dipping the bread into wine. I was relieved. After the service concluded, my I had a chat with my professor, Dr. James Thomas, about my experience and he assured me that I need not worry about contagion from the communion cup. He said, “the only thing you can catch from that cup is the Holy Ghost!” I quickened for a moment and regained my composure. I hope you catch what I am saying here: Child of God, your aliments and diseases are no match for Jesus. A touch from Him won’t only release you of your issues but infect you with the Holy Spirit. The work after the touch The leper was given instructions to go show himself to the priest and make offerings for his healing. This shows that Jesus honors the Mosaic Covenant and that work, for the leper, must be done to fulfill the law; A work that Jesus would later do on the cross, but the leper must do now with a priest—sacrifice. Jesus wanted the leper to focus on his efforts to assimilate back into society to gain some semblance of what life he had before and press forward to the new life to come. This is a critical step for those of us that are fortunate to be touched by Jesus. At this point, we have only heard about a leper who breaks the rules. Jesus is sure to let the onlookers, and us as readers, know that even though He has compassion for our situation, He does not wish to see us stay in the wrong. So, if you came the wrong way, you have instructions on how to get right (the Bible). This work in your journey is critical. This man with Leprosy seems to bring nothing but burdens to Jesus. He first comes to Jesus with Leprosy, burden. He then goes out to tell everyone he finds, after Jesus explicitly told him not to do so, burden. Jesus seems to be getting the short end of this stick here. What Jesus gets for his compassion are burdens. Jesus sets the stage for those of us in ministry by showing us that we will be burdened one way or another, but that doesn’t give us the right to cut our compassion. Have you heard of compassion fatigue? It is an inability to see needs based on their own foundation, but rather through your personal experience. Needs are needs, whether we are tired, scared, or hurt. Jesus shows us that we must see beyond ourselves and care with unfazed compassion. Trading Places Mark began this story with Jesus on the inside and the leper on the outside. At the end of the story, Jesus is “outside in lonely places.”[1] This is the crux of this passage. Jesus is willing to trade places with us. He understands what it means to be touch by our infirmities and tempted by or sins. Jesus is willing, and proves it here and at the cross, that He is willing to take our place. Blame is not an issue here, who is at fault is of no consequence. Instead, a touch that is filled with willingness and love is all that matters. I thank God, Jesus touched a leper. [1] Edwards, J. R. (2002). The Gospel according to Mark (p. 72). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos. |
Dr. George Shears IIITheologian & Thinker. Archives
April 2023
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