Do fame and notoriety cloud one's thinking?

I have been mulling on a number of situations recently where Christian leaders have made really poor decisions in my view: Rich Stearns and World Vision's new policy to hire individuals in homosexual marriages; Rob Bell and his redefinition of heaven and hell and and the controversy over Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill who tried to manipulate the system to get his book on marriage onto the New York Times best seller list. I have another private list of individuals who have seemingly lost their way when they become Christian public figures. I saddens me and causes me to ask a question:

Do fame and notoriety cloud one's thinking and cause us to make decisions and pronouncements that are Biblically questionable? Does fame tend to give us more confidence in our own wisdom than in God's wisdom? Does it allow us to cross boundaries that we did not dare cross in the earlier years?

Fame and celebrity are a dangerous calling and few seem to handle it well. We see success and that success breeds pride and we begin to believe our own press which leads to the marginalization of those who don't agree with us and soon we become isolated and unaccountable - and eventually crash! Wisdom co-opted by pride! Youthful passion co-opted by ego! Jesus co-opted by us!

I am glad that I am not famous. I never want to be. To those who are I say this: There is never more important a time to develop a cadre who will tell one  the truth than when one is in the limelight. Because when the spotlight shines on us rather than on the One who created us, we have co-opted God and it rarely has a good ending.

To be clear, I don't know the motives or hearts of those named above and am not passing judgement. I am asking a question that their actions prompt. What I do know that when our name surpasses The Name, something is wrong. And when our pronouncements are at odds with His pronouncements, the same is true. 

There is never more important a time to develop accountability and humility and to guard the shadow side as when we become important in the eyes of others. And believe that we actually are.

(Posted from Milwaukee)

World Vision USA will now hire individuals in Gay marriage relationships

In a move that will certainly move World Vision USA away from many traditional evangelical churches they have announced a new policy that they will hire Christian individuals in Gay marriage relationships. This will certainly only add to the perception among many that World Vision, while committed to poverty alleviation, is little more than a secular NGO with a Christian background. 

Internationally it is well known that World Vision hires unbelievers in its development efforts. I find it ironic that just as World Vision is courting evangelical churches for partnerships it is choosing to make a statement about Gay marriage that runs against the grain of the vast majority of evangelicals in their understanding of what marriage constitutes and its implications for society.  

I am not anti-gay, some of my best friends are gay! What is at stake is the institution of marriage and what it means and how God designed the family and defined it. When major "Christian" organizations agree to redefinitions implicitly or explicitly we have a problem. I suspect that World Vision will discover that it is not ahead of its time but that they have literally put a "hole in the Gospel" to use a phrase they use. Gospel holes can be those things we neglect or those things we re-define.

See the Christianity Today article here

(Written today from Milwaukee)

If you want to understand the issues between Russia and Ukraine read this report from BBC

BBC NEWS EUROPE

As you read the news please pray for Christians in Ukraine and Crimea who are directly impacted by this conflict.

Jesus and leadership

No, this is not another blog about Jesus as a CEO. Rather it is the proposition that the best leaders have Jesus at the center of their leadership. This applies to leaders in the marketplace or ministry!

How does Jesus change the leadership paradigm? Consider these factors.

When Jesus is truly at the center of our leadership we treat people differently than when He is not. Jesus cares deeply about people and leaders who have been transformed by Christ naturally want the very best for their staff. Jesus never used people, rather He served people and the same is true for those leaders who live with Jesus at the center of their lives.

When Jesus is truly at the center of our leadership we create transformational cultures in the workplace that are life giving rather than life taking. I am passionate about this because I encounter many ministries with toxic or unhealthy work cultures. Either our own workplace is seen as unimportant - after all we are doing ministry, or the dysfunctional nature of the leader shows itself among their staff. Transformed leaders, however, should be committed to life giving work environments and if Jesus is at the center of out leadership that will be the case. 

When Jesus is at the center of our leadership, we create teams committed to a common mission rather then building ministries around ourselves. In general, personality driven ministries reflect the hubris of the leader while team driven ministries reflect the humility of the leader. Even Jesus, the creator of the universe was intent on sharing his ministry with His disciples as He developed, coached and mentored them.

When Jesus is at the center of our leadership we live with humility. We apologize when we need to, tell the truth when news needs to be shared, give away credit for success and take responsibility for failure. In addition, we manage or dark side carefully knowing that when it shows up it hurts those we lead. Our goal is always to be a life giver rather than a life taker (John 10:10).

When Jesus is at the center of our leadership we fill our hearts with His truth, and seek genuine transformation of our own lives knowing that what is inside is what will spill out into our leadership. That means that our leadership is not the most important issue for us. Rather our relationship with Jesus is the central thing for without that our leadership will be shallow and life taking rather than life giving and transformational for those we lead.  

For believers, Jesus has absolutely everything to do with our leadership: it's quality; its focus; its motives and it's life giving quality. 

(Written from Oakdale, MN)

Five questions that can help you deal with almost any issue

My good friend Edmund Chan, former pastor, ministry leader and a coach and mentor to many recently shared these five questions with the senior staff of ReachGlobal. They are brilliant! Take and issue and apply them to the five questions and see where you end up.

1. Why is it so important?

2. If it is so important why is it so neglected?

3. What is it all about?

4. What makes it so difficult?

5. How can it best be accomplished?

(Written from Oakdale, MN)

Leaders and wisdom: Six important principles that contribute to wise decision making

How often have you watched a leader, ministry or company do something incredibly stupid with significant unintended consequences? The visceral reaction of "that was really dumb" is really another way of saying, "that decision lacked wisdom." Let's be clear, all of at some time have been guilty of acting with a lack of wisdom. For leaders, however, wisdom is one of the most important commodities and its deficit over time can lead to significant leadership failures. 

Wikipedia defines wisdom as "the ability to think and act utilizing knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight." In other words, it is the ability to take information that is available to everyone, synthesize it well and apply it to a specific situation for the best possible result. 

While I believe there is a spiritual gift of wisdom and that the Holy Spirit is a giver of wisdom, the components needed to make wise choices and decisions are available to believers. The question is why some make better decisions than others. For all of us this is an important question. For leaders it is especially important as their decisions impact others around them.

I would suggest that the answer lies in these arenas:

1. Wise leaders take longer to think through a decision allowing the information they have and the various consequences of the decision to be understood before they act.
2. Wise leaders engage others in the decision making process, knowing that they are unlikely to see all the angles of the situation well. They especially talk to the stakeholders who will be impacted by their decisions.
3. Wise leaders ask God for divine insight that comes through the Holy Spirit.
4. Wise leaders do not act out of emotion but out of conviction and are able to wait till emotions have cooled.
5. Wise leaders have a set of guiding values and principles that guide their lives and will not violate those in making decisions. This prevents them from straying from their own convictions.
6. Wise leaders are willing to back away from their decision if it becomes clear that they have missed something important.

All of us have access to the same information. It is how we utilize that information in making decisions that makes the difference between wise and unwise decisions.

(Written from Berlin, Germany)

Moving from illusion to reality

Many churches and other Christian ministries (along with their staff and boards) live in illusion. Their illusion is that all is well, that they are making disciples, that they are seeing significant new fruit or that they are a healthy church. It is often illusion because it is what they desire to believe about themselves but it is often not the true reality.

Why live in illusion? It is a comfortable place to be as it allows us to believe that we are doing well. And we all want to do well. But, without a specific plan in any important ministry area we cannot move our ministry from illusion to reality. Getting to reality requires a plan, intentionality and the ability to measure the result. 

Let's take disciplemaking. Very few churches if asked have an intentional disciplemaking process. Even fewer have built disciplemaking into the very fabric of who they are so that it touches everything they do and everyone who is involved. And finally it is a rarer thing still to have a way of measuring the results of these efforts. Yet, without these kinds of steps the church is living in the illusion that they are doing well.

Here is an interesting exercise. Have you staff or board list the most important issues that you believe the church ought to be doing well in from a scriptural point of view. Then ask these simple questions:

• Do we have a real plan?
• Do we have a description of what we are after?
• Are we being intentional?
• Can we measure the result?
• How are we really doing?
• Based on the above are we living in illusion or reality?

These questions can be applied in the local church, on the mission field and in any Christian ministry. Of course the only individuals who will ask the questions are those who desire to live in reality rather than illusion.

(Written today from Berlin, Germany)