Friday, April 15, 2011
Leader's Insight: Yes, Ministry Leadership Is Complex
Bill Hybels is comparing leading a church to leading a company, because a friend of his thought that leading a church would be a nice way to retire from leading a company. In this article he points out how much more challenging it is to lead a church. It is sort of amusing to me how he points out that a leading a business has “a clearly defined playing field.” In leading a church myself and watching my husband lead churches for over thirty years I can definitely agree that leading a church doesn’t have “a clearly defined playing field!” Nothing seems to follow a normal plan of action. When you work with people’s lives, feelings, emotions, and souls we have to approach each person individually and personally. We cannot set hard and fast rules and expect people to follow them. As Hybels points out, people are in a church family voluntarily. Their benefits are not tangible or immediate like in a company. If they don’t like what they are told, they can leave and many times do. Hybels says that “we cannot compel people; we must call them.” This has a spiritual basis. We cannot force someone in a church to be or do anything. They need to feel part of the body and that they are being led by the Holy Spirit to do what is being asked of them. Ultimately a leader of a church cannot promise the immediate benefit for a person to have a relationship with God. That lies within the person.
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ReplyDeleteThe four distinguishing points between churches and businesses that Hybels make in this article are very interesting. He states that every person needs a custom mold, custom motivation in order to see his or her life change. Or a custom motivation to see to encourage them to volunteer. This is certainly true, but it is also true in the business world. A good leader in the business world does not motivate by the threat of job loss or punishment. The good leader in the business world motivates by casting vision and calling his or her employees to follow this vision as well. The difference in the church leader is that the rewards or compensation to follow this vision do greatly differ. What I find interesting in my interactions with those in my generation is the desire to follow a compelling vision even if it means less pay or compensation. One needs only to work for Corporate America for a brief time to grasp that the business world understands how people are best-motivated long term. Southwest Airlines is an excellent example of this. What caused Southwest employees to work for free when finances were tough? Not for monetary reward. It was the belief in the vision and mission of Southwest!
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