Philosophy of Ministry Leadership

Transcription

1 1 Philosophy of Ministry Leadership Megan Friend MI 331: Leadership and Structures for Christian Ministry Ruth Ann Price 04 December 2013

2 2 Introduction: Leadership has many definitions, principles and theories. The term leadership can develop overtime and it is a learning process. I know that philosophy of leadership will change and develop as I grow in my faith and as a leader. As of today, this is what I have grasped and understood about leadership; these are some principles/axioms that I found to be more important; these are biblical and theological foundations that I found to be the best foundations; these are behaviors that I believe best support this definition and philosophy of leadership. I am fully aware that these definitions can be stretched and even changed to grow with the changing of life and work experiences I may face. Theological and Biblical Foundations: When it comes to a sound theological and biblical foundation, we need to look to Christ as the example. Christ should always be the foundation for our ministry and our leadership. Jesus Christ set the ultimate example for us and how to be a great leader. We can see this is many texts throughout the Bible, but one in particular is from the book of John. In this particular passage, Jesus shares the parable of the Good Shepherd (John 10:1 18). The Good Shepherd knows his sheep and knows them by name. Leaders need to be shepherds over their sheep; in a way that the leader can call them by name and can know their needs. Another passage about Christ being the example came from the book of Philippians. Paul writes to the church of Philippi about how their attitudes need to be the same as Christ. Christ displayed humility, sacrifice, servanthood, and selflessness (Philippians 2:4 11). His attitude is obedient to the Father s will and is never selfish. This passage portrays much of what leadership should be based. The leader in a ministry position, should first seek out the Father s will and be obedient to that will. Through obedience

3 3 to the Father s will, a leader should be showing selflessness and servanthood with his followers. As a part of keeping Christ at the center, leaders need to know scripture and what God is communicating to them. When leaders dive into scripture, study it, and meditate on it, they can have a better grasp of how to be a godly leader and how God would want them to lead his people. He calls us to walk humbly with him, to be just, to be kind, and to love (Micah 6:8). He has entrusted each one of us to lead his people. He has called some to be upfront leaders, while he calls others to be in the midst of people, directing them to Christ. The book of Ephesians describes this and Paul tells us that God chooses us to bring people together in unity and to the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:11 13). Each person that feels led to be in a leadership position should remember the book of 1 Timothy. In chapter 3, there is a heavy description of how a deacon or overseer should act towards those they are leading. For example, they should be respectable, hospitable, gentle and temperate. However, the leader should not be addicted to wine, not violent, not a lover of money, or a recent convert (1 Timothy 3:1 6). The list continues but these are just some regulations, if you will, to being a leader in a church. Next, I will discuss the axioms/principles I have grasped for the philosophy of leadership. 1. Be Yourself, Be Welcoming, and Be Loving: As I learned from my self assessment, a good leader is one who expresses confidence. If a leader does not express confidence, they should be able to try and recognize that in themselves and figure out a way to become more confident. When a leader conveys confidence, the group or organization can have more trust in the leader. Leaders need to come alongside others rather than trying to be the authority or the superior. When a leader expresses superiority rather than coming

4 4 down on the same level as their individual or group, then the leader may lose interest from that individual or group. Blanchard explained this very point in his book, The Heart of a Leader. Blanchard continues on in his book and discusses how a leader needs to be themselves, welcoming, and loving. Within that, the leader needs to rejoice with others, support others, to be kind hearted, and to be determined. Authors Nouwen and Northouse, agree with Blanchard when he discusses how leaders need to be listening more than they should be talking. If the leader spends more time listening, they are expressing love to their individual and inviting them to be open up with the leader. Through listening, the leader can create a trusting relationship. Also, the leader can find value in the individual s suggestions, comments, or thoughts on the ministry or organization. Finally, listening allows the leader to know and understand the needs of the group or the individual. Since I have been an intern for Campus Life for Homestead High School, I have learned how to be vulnerable with my students. The students are not receptive to you unless you can open up with them. The more I lead a small group or the large group discussions, I become more confident in myself. In turn, I believe that the students are more willing to listen. Because Campus Life is about the adults entering the students worlds and being a part of it, I have learned how to be a better listener. The students have really good ideas about how to make some tweaks to Campus Life so we can expand Campus Life with more students. My boss and I have started incorporating those ideas to our group time on Monday nights. There needs to be a vision involved for this to work properly. 2. Vision: In class, we discussed how a leader needs to have a clear, established vision for the group

5 5 to achieve. The vision creates motivation in the group. It also produces a determination by the leader and the group. Motivation develops an excitement in people to see the task or goal being played out, or to even be successful. This happens with determination, as well. Determination and motivation to see the vision carried through, will more likely have success in the ministry, an organization or a team. Without a vision, there is no direction for the ministry, the group, or the individual. In the student leaders group for Campus life, my boss and I asked the students what they would like to see happen at Club (Monday night gatherings) to bring in more students. We broke the students up into small groups, told them our main vision with Club and then the students made lists of things they would like to do for Club. Through all of the discussing, the adult leaders listening to their ideas, our vision of Campus Life Club is becoming real. We expand little by little every week and the students ideas are being carried out in Club (as mentioned earlier). 3. Servant Leadership: In Campus Life, we are all about serving the students. How can we help them in the game of life? Through the book, The Servant by James Hunter, when the leader serves the people he is leading, then they will give the leader the authority. It creates a relationship of trust. Leaders are not in their positions to rule or to be superior but to serve others. Leaders should work with others to better the group. In the book, we learn that love is not a feeling, its an action. Servant leadership is an upside diagram in this situation. It starts with the will, then moves into love, then it transitions to sacrifice/servanthood, then there is authority given, and finally there is leadership. Love and service provides a good working environment and it brings

6 6 together a community. Along with community, the leader needs to realize that others have gifts and thoughts that contribute to the whole of the group. This type of leadership deals with influence, so power should only be used as an emergency. When people are influenced by the leader, then the leader can leave an impact on the individual or group to the point that they may share the leader s leading styles with others. The leader s thoughts and feelings influence their behaviors, but it also works in reverse. The leader s behaviors influence their thoughts and feelings, as well as actions influencing the behaviors. Sometimes, people find it difficult to serve others first before they lead. Nonetheless, it has a payoff of joy. Leadership pushes us out of selfishness and into selflessness. Yes, this transition may be painful, but there will be a payoff of joy. As I have mentioned, Campus Life is about our adult leaders, my boss and I entering into the world of our students. We are there to serve them, to help them with their struggles, to provide discussions for them to assist them in their high school careers, to guide them in their high school career, and how to be a servant of Christ. I am sure there are other ways we can serve them, but these are the main ways. 4. Situational Leadership: Slightly different from servant leadership, we find situational leadership. This type of leadership involves a partnership; a relationship that involves getting to know the individual or group to know their needs. Situational leadership requires flexibility because it varies on the group of people in the leader s ministry or organization. It involves directing, coaching, supporting and delegating, which is all part of a process. Ken Blanchard s article on Situational Leadership discusses communication being a key component to this type of leadership. He states

7 7 that situational leadership should open up communication which increases the quality of the conversation (p. 3). One category of situational leadership is supportive behavior. This type of behavior wants to create positive attitudes and feelings toward the ministry s or organization s goals that are set by the leader. Supportive behavior stuck out to me the most because positive attitudes and feelings are important for keeping motivation in the individual or group. Through the positive attitudes, the individual has a choice with their behaviors. The individual s behaviors influence the leadership style given to them by the leader. Blanchard ends with the following statement about all of the styles in the situational leadership model (directing, coaching, supporting, and delegating), In all four styles, the leader (1) clarifies expectations and goals, (2) observes and monitors performance, and (3) gives feedback (p. 11). I have not been a position where I could have experienced this type of leadership. But, I am sure that one day in my time of leading students and volunteers, I will be able to experience this type of leading. For example, when I need to bring in new volunteers, I will need to train them. I will have to find out what their needs are, how they learn, and then I can transition into giving them tasks. As they are working with students and doing certain tasks to help, then I will pull them aside and tell them what needs to be fixed or how they can do better on a task, in a gentle way and work through the problem with them. Through the progression of this individual going through tasks and developing, I can give them proper feedback to how they are doing and then hopefully they will be able to do the task without any delegation from me. 5. Partnership and Interdependence: At the beginning of situational leadership, I mentioned how it involves a partnership.

8 8 Partnership is a key aspect to being a leader and the people that are being led. Partnership involves trust, working together, and vulnerability. It is an interdependence between the leader and the individual or group. The leader needs to listen to the individual rather than walking all over them. They should allow the individual to contribute to the ministry or organization and make suggestions that would make it better. The leader should ask them questions and seek help from others in the group, or even others outside the group. With a partnership, the leader can have help in sticky situations instead of trying to figure it out for themselves. Partnership and interdependence is interwoven between all of the other axioms and principles. Leadership cannot happen alone, otherwise it could fail. Accountability: Another aspect of partnership is accountability. Each leader should have a person in their life, that they trust, that will hold them accountable. In class, we looked at a passage from Exodus 18 that explains an example of what it looks like to have someone keep another accountable. When Moses became a judge for the people, Jethro had the right questions to ask Moses to make sure he was leading at his fullest potential. Jethro saw that Moses had a load on a his plate and gave him suggestions to lessen the load. This was an example of what an accountability partner could ask the leader. I believe every person who is being called to lead God s people should create a list of questions that they know will hold them accountable, like we did in class. Accountability is important for some many aspects of the leader s ministry life. For example, the accountability partner can keep the leader from overdoing themselves and helping them away from sin. This is where the questions would be very key because the questions would

9 9 be ones that only the leader should be able to answer.the leader needs to be honest with themselves (with questions and answers) and with the person they chose to be their accountability partner. An accountability partner can also help the leader be a better leader by helping them meet their fullest potential as a leader. For my internship with Campus Life, I get the opportunity to work with my old youth pastor from middle school. I have kept in contact with him ever since he was my youth pastor. The great thing about working with him now, is he knows many aspects of my life. I can go to him if I am struggling in the ministry or if I need to rejoice in the ministry. He is not my accountability partner, but if I were to make a list of questions, I would deliver them to him (at least just for the internship). He already is supervising me and meets with me about once a week to check on me and how I am doing in this ministry. Conclusion: Leadership has various definitions ranging from simple to sophisticated. When I started this class in August, my definition was weak and simple. But, as of today, my definition and philosophy of leadership have grown. My definition has been a process over the course of fifteen weeks, but at the same time, it continues to grow. I do know that leadership cannot be done alone and it is better done in a partnership, community, group, team, et cetera. Leadership involves partnership, being yourself, being welcoming, being loving, being confident, being flexible, and most importantly being a servant.

10 10 Leadership: Theory and Practice, Peter G. Northouse, Sage Publications, Situational Leadership, Ken Blanchard, The Ken Blanchard Companies, The Heart Of A Leader, Ken Blanchard, Honor Books, The Servant, James C. Hunter, Crown Business, 1998.