Wednesday in the Word

what the Bible means and how we know

philosophy of ministry

7 Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Leaders

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7 Habits of Unsuccessful Leaders | WednesdayintheWord.com

I found the article “Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives” on Forbes.com eerily familiar.  In the article, Sydney Finkelstein shares his research on how fortune 500 companies disintegrate into bankruptcy because their CEOs shared 7 bad habits.  

The “Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives” are  (see the full article for details):

Habit # 1: They see themselves and their companies as dominating their environment. As far as they’re concerned, everyone else in the company is there to execute their personal vision for the company.
Warning Sign for #1: A lack of respect
Habit #2: They identify so completely with the company that there is no clear boundary between their personal interests and their corporation’s interests. Instead of treating companies as enterprises that they needed to nurture, failed leaders treated them as extensions of themselves. And with that, a “private empire” mentality took hold.
Warning Sign for #2: A question of character
Habit #3: They think they have all the answers. Leaders who are invariably crisp and decisive tend to settle issues so quickly they have no opportunity to grasp the ramifications. Worse, because these leaders need to feel they have all the answers, they aren’t open to learning new ones.
Warning Sign for #3: A leader without followers
Habit #4: They ruthlessly eliminate anyone who isn’t completely behind them. CEOs who think their job is to instill belief in their vision also think that it is their job to get everyone to buy into it. Anyone who doesn’t rally to the cause is undermining the vision. Hesitant managers have a choice: Get with the plan or leave.
Warning Sign for #4: Executive departures
Habit #5: They are consummate spokespersons, obsessed with the company image. Instead of actually accomplishing things, they often settle for the appearance of accomplishing things.
Warning Sign of #5: Blatant attention-seeking
Habit #6: They underestimate obstacles. When CEOs become so enamored of their vision, they often overlook or underestimate the difficulty of actually getting there. And when it turns out that the obstacles they casually waved aside are more troublesome than they anticipated, these CEO have a habit of plunging full-steam into the abyss.
Warning Sign of #6: Excessive hype
Habit #7: They stubbornly rely on what worked for them in the past. They insist on providing a product to a market that no longer exists, or they fail to consider innovations in areas other than those that made the company successful in the past.
Warning Sign of #7: Constantly referring to what worked in the past

While I’ve run into these “habits” throughout my business career, unfortunately I’ve also seen them on display in the church. It’s easy to become so passionate about your piece of God’s kingdom that you turn it into your own personal fiefdom, forgetting who we serve.

But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” – Matthew 20:25-28

More: Servant Leadership in Practice

Resources for Ministry Leaders

Divine Secrets of the Yahweh Sisterhood

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Divine Secrets of the Yahweh Sisterhood

The book (and the movie) “The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” tells the story of four women who form a pact as young girls to be friends forever.   When one of them is in crisis, they have a “full-scale Ya-Ya alert” causing the other three to fly to the rescue.

Their “divine secrets”–  which are recorded in a scrapbook — consist mainly of their marriages, childbirths, failures and sins.  They support each other, annoy each other,  and they are always there for each other from adolescence to empty nesters.

The movie highlights their commitment to each other and their perseverance in doing what they think is best for each other despite what it may cost.  True, they have many flaws.  Their best attempts are sometimes misguided and soaked in alcohol but they are bonded by their commitment to each other as fellow Ya Yas.

Becoming a believer is in some ways like becoming a Ya-Ya.

When you become a believer, not only do you gain a vertical relationship with God, you gain a horizontal relationship with other believers.  While God calls us to himself personally, He also calls us to be in a community;  to weep when one of us weeps and to rejoice when one rejoices, to bear each others burdens and to encourage each other through the ups and downs of life.  Upon conversion, you gain not only a personal relationship with your savior, you gain a sister relationship to all his other children.

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01 John 15:1-11 Membership in the Yahweh Sisterhood

The first divine secret of the Christian sisterhood is if you want to thrive, not just survive, you must trust Jesus as your Lord & Savior. Teacher: Krisan Marotta on November 2, 2007

02 2 Timothy 3:14-17 Scrapbook of the Yahweh Sisterhood

The second divine secret of the Christian sisterhood is building a relationship with God begins with prayerfully and thoughtfully reading your Bible. Teacher: Krisan Marotta on November 3, 2007

03 Ephesians 4:1-16 Sparklers of the Yahweh Sisterhood

The third divine secret of the Christian sisterhood is there are no spectators and no competitive maturity in the sisterhood, the body of Christ. Teacher: Krisan Marotta on November 3, 2007

04 Romans 5:1-12 Blood-Bond of the Yahweh Sisterhood

The fourth secret of the divine sisterhood and that is triumph is inevitable, because our hope will not disappoint. Teacher: Krisan Marotta on November 4, 2007

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Servant Leadership in Practice

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Servant Leadership in Practice | WednesdayintheWord.com

Scripture makes it clear that leadership inside the church should look very different from leadership outside the church. Church leaders should lead from moral authority rather than hierarchy.

But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” – Matthew 20:25-28

Here are some ideas on how to practice servant leadership.

Leadership is about relationships with people. 

Regardless of the task your team is trying to accomplish, to be a good leader you need to know the people you are leading, how they work, what interests and what inspires them.  Good leaders take a bit of time to get to know their team members as people.  But it can’t be fake. Your interest must be genuine and more than a one-time event.

Team first

Good leaders work in the best interest of their team, not their own of selfish interests.  If you demonstrate to your team that you are working for them and not yourself, they will gladly do their part to make the team successful.

First things first

Make sure you know the priorities of what you’re trying to accomplish so that you are working on the right things.

Seek good, not glory.

You can do a lot more good when you don’t care who gets the credit. Be content playing second fiddle. Corollary: Never take credit for some one else’s work.   This destroys your trustworthiness. You can tell your team no longer trusts you when they stop talking to you.

Servant leaders are responsible to do what is best, which may not always be what they personally want.

Share information

Never hoard information.  It’s your job to ensure the team has what it needs to be successful.

If you have been given the resources, the decision is your team’s to make.  If you need more resources than you have, bring in those who oversee your team and/or have the resources.

Risk is a resource, just like money or people.  Too little risk starves the organization.  Too much risk burns out the organization.

3 Things that destroy a team

Three things that will make working on your team miserable:

  • Being anonymous —  people will be miserable in their job if they think no one appreciates them.
  • Being irrelevant — people will not continue a task they believe matters to no one.
  • Seeing no progress — people will not continue a job if they never see any fruit.

More: 7 Habits of Unsuccessful Leaders

Resources for Ministry Leaders

Are older women invisible in the church?

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WomaninPew-580

In the introduction to our study of 1 John, I referenced a July 2013 post on the Christianity Today Her.meneutics blog concerning how “youth focused Christianity may be sidelining the gifts of older women.”

Below is the section from which I quoted:

But one theme emerged that I hadn’t expected: women in the middle of their lives who felt invisible and ignored by the church, the same way they feel invisible or ignored in our culture.

These are women of my mother’s generation, maybe 10 or even 20 years on either side. I heard their hurt, sorrow, and stoicism about life within the church. In a sea of artful hipsters and energetic young people with self-promotion apparently engrained into their DNA, they feel invisible and overlooked.

One woman told me about how she had led worship at her church for years. But when a new young pastor was hired, he wanted a cooler band to get more young people in the door. First thing to go? Older women. “No one wanted to see middle-aged women on stage,” she wrote candidly, and so she was replaced with young women in their late teens and early twenties.

Another woman told me she had very high levels of education, a seminary degree, a long history of teaching with many beloved students, but every teacher at her church’s education program was a young, charismatic man with half her education, let alone experience. The church’s “official” position welcomed women in ministry but in practice, it wasn’t actually happening. She believed it was because she did not fit the expected look or personality or gender of their education program.

Another woman shared about how she has welcomed the shift in the churches of her context towards women in leadership and ministry even though they are all young and beautiful with identical outgoing and big-smiling personalities. The glass ceiling remains for her because she doesn’t fit the preferred look or personality but she cheers on these young women anyway. Her view is that at least women are in public ministry now, in a way that the young women of her generation couldn’t be.

You can read the entire post “The Invisible Generation” by Sarah Bessey here.

More resources for Ministry Leaders

Photo Cogitation in the Chapel taken by Small-Realm and used here under Flickr Creative Commons.

Rethinking the 20s

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Rethinking the 20s

My grandmother once remarked that when she was 20 for both men and women, marriage was the adventure and career was a icing on the cake.

Somewhere between then and now accepted wisdom flip-flopped.  Education and achievement are now considered the adventure while marriage (indeed any long-term relationship) is an afterthought.

Now we are told “30 is the new 20.”  Today’s “kidults” are encouraged to view their 20s as an extended adolescence, a time to avoid what Grandma called “settling down.”

However, lately several books and blogs have challenged the notion that the 20s don’t matter:

Two Books

The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter–And How to Make the Most of them Now by Meg Jay

Since reading this book, I have recommended it to every twentysomething I know.  Jay argues that the 20s are a “critical period of adulthood” and “a developmental sweet spot that comes only once.”  Contrary to popular wisdom, she concludes that people are happier if they have a life in their 30s rather than waiting to start life in their 30s.   In other words, the 30s are better when during your 20s you find a person (a marriage), a position (a good job) and a place (settling down).

Generation iY: Our Last Chance to Save their Future by Tim Elmore

While The Defining Decade is directed at young people, Generation iY is directed at those who parent, hire, coach, mentor and teach twentysomethings.  Elmore defines Generation iY as those born after 1990 who are more defined by technology than any other generation.  Elmore argues they are “overwhelmed, overconnected, overprotected and overserved.”  As a result, they are unprepared for the challenges of adulthood.  Elmore suggests we need new strategies for teaching them that are “experiential, participatory, image-rich and connected.”

Two Blogs

Andree Sue Peterson’s blog post “Why twentysomethings shouldn’t go it alone”  makes the interesting point that it’s difficult — if not impossible – to discover yourself alone.  She writes: “I find that it is in relationship, and not in sequester from it, that I learn ‘who I am.’ I once thought I was a pretty good person until I got into a relationship. When I got married in 1980, I was going to be the best wife who ever lived. It wasn’t long before I found out what awful things I was capable of.”

The Atlantic published an article “Women in Their 20s Shouldn’t Feel Bad About Wanting a Boyfriend” (March 5 2013) in which they were shocked to learn that young women still want a long term relationship — not a hook-up — but they feel like they are betraying their education and achievements to want a marriage.  To prioritize building a relationship over building a career is shocking to them.  In a related article “There’s No Perfect Age to Find a Husband” the Atlantic argues that we “should all become more accepting” of women settling down younger than the “right” age.

This is news? My grandmother would be shocked that they are shocked.

Adulthood is more crucial than it seems.  And (surprise!), adulthood involves finding a person, a position and a place.  The 20s are a great time to start.

Women’s Ministry: The view from 1852

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Sunday in the Park

Since I’ve been blogging on the Why Have a Women’s Ministry, I found this quote from a book published in 1852 interesting.

My Dear Young Friend:

A clergyman will, of course, have much and constant occasion to be in the company of females.  They form a most interesting and active part of every church.  Many things may be accomplished by their pious agency, which could scarcely be attained in any other way.  And happy, indeed, is that minister of the gospel, who, by wisdom, fidelity, prudence, and Christian delicacy, is enabled to conciliate the esteem, and to acquire and maintain the unlimited confidence of his female parishioners, and of other persons of worth of that sex, with whom he may be called in Providence to associate.

He who fails of doing this, cannot either be very acceptable or very useful; while he who succeeds in attaining it, not only possesses one of the most valuable pledges of permanent popularity, but also enjoys the advantages for doing good of the richest kind.

The female part of every congregation have, in general, an influence, which, while it cannot be defined, cannot, at the same time, be resisted.  And, for the most part, this influence, I believe, is as just in its ultimate award, as it is sovereign in its sway.

From “Letter 12: Female Society, Marriage, etc.” in Letters on Clerical Manners and Habits:  Addressed to A Student in the Theological Seminary at Princeton NJ  by Samuel Miller, published 1852.

More resources for Ministry Leaders

Photo: “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” by Georges Seurat.

Breaking the Women’s Ministry stereotype?

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Breaking the Women's Ministry stereotype | WednesdayintheWord.com

Since I recently wrote on “Why have a Women’s Minstry”, this post on Her-meneutics The Christianity Today blog for women caught my eye: Why it’s Your Job to Break the Women’s Ministry Stereotype

Here are some thought-provoking quotes from the blog:

Emotional forms of ministry have their place, but women in the church are eager to move beyond emotion, and beyond the surface.

Blogger Emerging Mummy recently captured this sentiment in her impassioned post “In Which I Write a Letter to Women’s Ministry”:

But I’m here with you tonight because I want what the world cannot give me. We’re choking on cutesy things and crafty bits, safe lady topics and if one more person says that modest is hottest with a straight face, I may throw up. We are hungry for authenticity and vulnerability, not churchified life hacks from lady magazines. Some of us are drowning, suffocating, dying of thirst for want of the cold water of real community. We’re trying really hard – after all, we keep showing up to your lady events and we leave feeling just a bit empty. It’s just more of the same every time.

But she is not the first to express such concerns with women’s ministry.

Several years ago author Wendy Horger Alsup wrote a post titled “Pink Fluffy Bunny Women’s Bible Studies” in which she criticized the “emotional fluff out there masquerading as Bible study.”

… Women’s ministry, as a form, is in the midst of a massive shift. Many women’s ministries have responded to the outcry and evolved, but the stereotypes have not always changed accordingly. Rather than doing justice to the change, broad stereotypes have remained, further stigmatizing women’s ministry in the minds of female church-goers.

Nowhere has this stigma been more apparent to me than in my efforts to involve young women. In most of the churches where I have served, the 20-somethings have been all but absent from women’s ministry events. This younger generation has grown up hearing about “fluffy” women’s ministries, and the stereotype has become entrenched. Even when change is happening in their churches, many young women persist in the belief that all women’s ministries are inherently superficial. 

I’m happy to report that the PCA has been fighting this stereotype for years.  The first General Assembly adopted a philosophy and theology of women’s ministry which they continue to actively teach and explain.   We may quibble about how successfully we’ve implemented the vision, but at least the vision is theologically driven — not program, project or personality driven.   The theology provides the guideline for mapping the specifics of our programs and evaluating them.

More resources for Ministry Leaders

Photo from istockphoto.com

Why have a women’s ministry?

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Why have a women's ministry? | WednesdayintheWord.com

What is the purpose of a women’s ministry?

Soup kitchens, ladies’ luncheons, parenting classes and charity fairs all serve good causes, but they are not the reason we have a distinctive discipleship of women in the local church.  Not only is it important to have an intentional, deliberate approach to female discipleship, it is necessary for a healthy church community.

Why have a women’s ministry? In his letter to Titus, the apostle Paul includes instructions on proper church conduct.  After describing the qualifications for elders, Paul instructs Titus on what to teach older men and “likewise” to teach older women so that older women can teach younger women (Titus 2:1-5).

God created men and women differently.  While I’m sure that shocking truth did not just dawn on you, a wise church pays attention to the distinctive needs and temptations of men and women.  We recognize that some of those lessons are best learned and applied in single-sex groups. Having a deliberate, biblically-based, women’s ministry allows us to effectively address the different needs of women.

Women’s ministries exists to serve and minister to women of all ages

  • by teaching the Word of God
  • providing fellowship, evangelism and discipleship,
  • with the purpose of encouraging a deeper walk with Jesus Christ
  • as well as equipping women for ministry. 

The goal of women’s ministry is not to keep women busy with fun, fellowship or service opportunities, but to help women grow in faith.

Within that mission, Women’s Ministries strives to teach women to live and serve by balancing the educational and relational components on our programs.  If a ministry is purely educational, it is academic and cold.  If a ministry is solely relational, it is anemic and will collapse under the storms of life.  Just as a good team needs both offense and defense, biblical discipleship teaches the content of the covenant within the context of covenantal relationships.

Related Interesting Articles

More resources for Ministry Leaders

Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash