In an article by Charles Stone, What is your reflexive response to ministry tension?, Leadership Catalyst 2010. When reading this article I found that his use of animal analogies helped me understand some of the pitfalls that pastors tend to fall in to.
The analogies: The sloth the animal that is detached and passive usually unaware. There were 13 percent of pastors who were in this category when dealing with ministry tensions. The skunk leaves the mess to others, 18 percent of pastors responded this way. 37 to 50 percent of pastors responded as a turtle, when the pastor retreats into their spiritual shell when facing the tensions. As a hawk the pastors tend not to look into the mirror and see how they contribute to the problem but always look out the window to see others as the problem. When the pastor is like a lion he/she is self-confident and likes to roar and get their own way. In some ways this pastor does look at himself/herself and determines whether or not they are contributing to the problem.
This article points out that pastors need to be able to understand how they deal with disappointment and frustration by their congregation. We need to understand our strengths and weaknesses and always address them in relationship with Christ. Pastors need to know how they respond and make an attempt to change that in them with the help of Christ or knowing their weakness and working through issues instead of denying them and hiding from them to confront the issue with care and prayer but confronting the issue.
Dibs! Typing my comment now :)
ReplyDeleteAargh. I was literally just reading the article attached with this, thinking, "I should probably call dibs on this one." So I back tracked to make that comment where I discovered yours. All in the space of two seconds. We might not be friends anymore. :)
ReplyDeleteLeading as a sloth, skunk, turtle, hawk, or lion? None of these sound like terrific options! How often, however, have I seen individuals (not just pastors) lead in such manners? Or, rather, respond to ministry tension? I just finished co-leading a large (370 kids) sports ministry with another church. Their leader, a volunteer, was incredibly frustrating to work with. He would change meetings based on his own schedule, avoid any and all confrontation, and rarely listened to any input from others. According to the types you listed, he was definitely part sloth and (mostly) turtle.
ReplyDeleteWhen I deal with tension, I used to hide or hope someone else would handle it. However, having had to lead two ministries on my own caused me to find my voice. I’ve learned a lot about conflict resolution, and how to handle my emotions. In fact, I’m meeting with the aforementioned individual next week for lunch to discuss what went well and hopefully address a couple of concerns my volunteers staff had. What animal am I? I’m unsure—it is unfortunate your article did not list successful animal options. Perhaps we need a melding of the best traits of each animal: the calmness of the sloth, the confidence of the lion, the sharp eye of the hawk, and so on. Most importantly we need to base our actions off of Christ. Are we glorifying God with our conflict management? If we are not, and likely acting like one of these animals, then we must make some adjustments.