Leadership | Contexts
Posted by Todd Engstrom in leadership on July 9, 2009
Before the next section, below is a short personal aside:
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As I’m working on writing this series of posts on leadership, it is proving to be a really great learning experience. Although it seems incredibly pretentious to write about this topic, especially when I have such little experience, I decided that it is beneficial to share what is going on in my head and heart. Hopefully it will be an encouragement to you to think through your own leadership, and not merely another didactic lesson on leadership principles.
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As I have been looking at myself and my leadership, I have a few different contexts in which I am currently leading:
Myself
I’m not sure that this actually counts as “leadership”, but it is generally good practice to think on leading yourself first. If I am not putting into practice what I am teaching and imparting to others, I may have succeeded in leading them, but I have failed myself.
This means that I am personally living and applying what I am calling people to. If I desire the people I am leading to live like missionaries, then I better be implementing those principles into my own life. If I am leading ministries toward a strategic end, I had better be towing my own weight in the execution of that plan. I think there is a great risk as you grow in leadership to becoming something of an “arm chair quarterback”, or a person who just calls the shots but isn’t intimately invested in the game.
Self-leadership is the process of developing character that runs deep, and manifests itself in other areas of leadership.
Family
God has blessed me with a great family, and as a husband and dad I am called to lead our family towards Christ. I find that this context is the best indicator of my self-leadership, and the truest position of my heart in leadership. It turns out that it was pretty important to Paul in assessing a leader as well, so much so, that effectively leading your family is a qualification for eldership.
Your family sees you without any filter at most points, and know you more intimately than anyone you are around, so it’s the first place to see what you are really made of as a leader. For those of you without families, I’d suggest looking at how you’re doing in leading the people you live with.
Family is the mirror for the character you are developing in self-leadership.
Ministry
I have the opportunity to serve in leadership in a variety of ways within our church on an organizational and pastoral level. These tend to be the skills I hone in on and spend a lot of time developing, because I spend so much time in this context, and my livelihood depends on it. It is also a place I enjoy a lot, because it involves organizational skill, technical execution, and personal investment and development, on a variety of different time-scales and different ways.
I’ve noticed in myself how easy it is to abandon developing in the first and second contexts in favor of this one. I think the reason is that we often get the most recognition for success if we are effective in this area. It’s dangerously easy to be successful in this kind of leadership while ignoring the first two, but the natural consequence is cultivating an identity in something other than Christ and the character He hones in us. Recognition of success and the fear of failure can drive me a long way…
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As I have been reflecting, there is a great deal of commonality between each area, but also different skills required for doing each. My two year old son doesn’t respond the same way to the skills I use to lead a college student. Although the character needed is often the same, the tools that I use are fundamentally different. I’ll look at some context specific skills in the next post.
Oversight
Posted by Todd Engstrom in austin stone, personal on July 8, 2009
Last night I had a great realization of all that God has allowed me to steward in ministry. As college students from a variety of ministries on UT’s campus gathered to worship together and hear God’s word taught from my College team, I was overseeing baptism, communion, worship and prayer that the Connections team had architected. Simultaneously, another one of my teammates was out coaching at a sports camp and engaging some young women in desperate need of the gospel tangibly demonstrated and declared to them.
It struck me that God has done more than I could have possibly imagined in so short a time, and that I am in awe of the fact he would allow me to serve him like this. I’m blessed beyond words, and grateful for the men and women I am privileged to lead. May God’s grace abound all the more, and his kingdom continue to expand in Austin!
Preaching | Gentrified
Posted by Todd Engstrom in christianity, pastoring on July 7, 2009
My good friend Logan Gentry has some excellent thoughts on preaching, and asks some great questions. Below is a quote from the synthesis of his thoughts on what the point of preaching is:
It seems to me that our preaching has a 3-fold reach in regards to focus and application. It seems that each message has an individual application in how we view God, a community application that explains to the body how this message affects the local church they sit in and informs the strategy or theology of their vision and then finally how it affects the way Christians live in and engage a secular society that doesn’t agree with them.
Go give it a read and chime in here!
Leadership | Service
Posted by Todd Engstrom in leadership on July 6, 2009
As I’ve been thinking on discipleship for the last few weeks, it naturally has been provoking thoughts of leadership. I’m going to start a new series with my philosophy and practice of leadership and leadership development, especially within the church.
Service
The foundation on leadership is very simply service. Godly leadership is very simply a selfless act, and a desire not for positional leadership, but of sacrificial living.
These Scriptures are abundantly clear that first and foremost, leadership is about loving and serving Christ and His people.
Vision is useless unless it is done in service to others to the glory of God. Strategy is worthless if you are failing to love and serve people. Leadership is hollow if you are not leading toward Christ and his calling to sacrificial, Spirit-led obedience.
I find I am more prone to desiring the position of leadership, rather than being a leader. What about you?
Triperspectival Leadership | Church Matters
Posted by Todd Engstrom in christianity on July 5, 2009
There is a good compilation of resources on Triperspectival Leadership at the 9 Marks blog. Here’s an intro to the idea from the post:
To over-simplify, the insight is that church leaders tend to be prophets, priests, or kings. Prophets love to proclaim the word of God and dream about where God is leading the church. Kings love to put systems in place to make it happen. Priests make sure that everyone is cared for and feels God’s love along the way.
Understanding your church leadership in light of those strengths (and attending weaknesses) can help you identify blind-spots and make good decisions about staffing and new leaders. I have found this really helpful as our church incorporates new elders and thinks through how we can do things better.
This concept, although not limited to simply to leadership, has been a great tool to help people understand what they naturally gravitate toward in leadership. I’d also recommend that you take a look at Drew Goodmanson’s material here.
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