CCCC is in the midst of a major strategic review.  If you’d like to interact with us as the review progresses, please visit the Strategic Review Engagement website.  I want to open source the strategic review by having as many non-board, non-staff people engage with us as possible.  In this blog, I am writing about how to do a strategic review.  On the engagement website, I am posting in real-time about how we did it at CCCC as a way of helping you see how to apply these suggestions.  That website also has the results of our strategic review, and I am most interested in any comments you would like to make about them.

Strategic Statements

Here are a few considerations for developing the three major strategic statements I’ve previously described (values, mission, vision) and some suggestions for how you can discern them in a God-honouring way that is faithful to your Christian identity.  Our draft strategic statements are available on the Strategic Review Engagement website.

Values

Values should be assessed on two levels.  First there are the biblical values that should be present in every Christian ministry and then there are the other values held by the people called to serve together in one particular ministry.

As an example of biblical values that might apply to your ministry, in The Church At Work I developed four biblical values related to relationships between ministries (the book’s subject):

• Love – In John 13:34-35 Jesus commanded his followers to love one another and Paul affirms it in Romans 12:10;
• Order – From Genesis to Revelation, we see that God is a God of order, not confusion.  Paul’s instruction in 1 Corinthians 14:40 and 12:16 is that “Everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way….Live in harmony with one another;”
• Unity – Our God is one, and he is Lord of all.  Christ is not divided and neither should his church be divided (Ephesians 4:4-6 and 1 Corinthians 1:13); and
• Voluntary mutual submission – We see voluntary mutual submission modeled in the life of Jesus (who made himself a servant to his own followers) and made explicit by Paul (John 13:5-10 and Ephesians 5:21).

These values suggest a strategy of collaboration, consultation, and coordination with other ministries.  Your Bible study could lead to a different set of values that are significant to your ministry.  All biblical values apply to your ministry, but some are especially significant to your ministry’s work and should become your organizational values.  Whatever you do, don’t try to make every value an organizational value or you’ll just have a list of platitudes.  Every ministry is expected to be honest, so unless lack of honesty has been a problem for your ministry, don’t include it.

Values can also be developed by asking people associated with your ministry (past and present) what they think the corporate values are.  You might ask staff what would cause them to raise or lower their pride in being associated with your ministry as a way of discovering the ministry’s key values.  Here’s how I’ve asked about our CCCC values in the current survey:

We believe that before God has called CCCC to do something, he has called us first to be a Christian ministry. How we do our work is arguably more important in God’s eyes than the actual work we do. So before we get to God’s purpose for CCCC, we’re going to explore the Christian values that we live by.  As an example, I believe that we must demonstrate just as much care for the smallest ministry as we do for the largest.  Jesus paid attention to everyone, and so must we.

This is one question, but I will ask it several different ways to help you think about values from different angles:

- What values or aspects of CCCC would you NOT be willing to sacrifice for the sake of our mission and identity?

- What would you not give up regardless of what changes in society?

- What would you not give up even if we were penalized for holding those values, or were put at a disadvantage because of them?

- Which corporate values would you keep even if they produced no tangible benefit for CCCC?

 Here’s how we developed our values for CCCC in the current strategic review.

God’s Call

The starting place for discerning God’s purpose for your ministry is to ask how people came to be associated with your ministry, since God calls people, not organizations.  Ask them how your ministry fits their own personal call to ministry and their answers will provide clues to God’s intentions for the ministry.  This information provides insight and context as you develop the strategic statements.

But be careful how you ask about a personal call because not everyone has had that experience.  You don’t want them to feel devalued or second-class.   They are faithfully serving the Lord as much as someone who has experienced a specific call. Here’s how I asked it in the survey given to staff, directors and corporate members:

For most people, their association with CCCC began because they felt they had gifts to contribute to a Christian ministry that they cared about.  Some may have felt that their association fit well with a pre-existing call of God on their lives, or a call that was discerned when they discovered CCCC.  If you have a story to tell related to a sense of personal call to the ministry of CCCC, please share it.

I asked this question of the four senior leaders: myself (CEO since 2003), my predecessor Frank Luellau (the first employee and executive director from 1983 - 2003), Ken Dick, board chair from 1978 – 1985 (when it was mostly a working board), and our founder Ian Stanley (board chair 1972 – 1978).  I also asked all current staff, board and corporate members, and as many former board members as I could locate.

Here’s how we developed our  Statement of Call.

Mission

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?  Vision or mission?  Normally we expect to start with a goal (the vision) and then develop the mission that is the means of achieving the goal.  But when God calls people in the Bible, he calls them either to do a task (Paul to proclaim Christ to the gentiles – Acts 9:15) or to fulfill a role (eg. Jeremiah as a prophet Jer 1:5).  I can’t think of anyone called to fulfill a vision.

In practice, developing your mission and vision statements will likely be an iterative process.  You’ll start with mission and from that develop a vision for the future that will result.  But doing that future thinking will likely help you refine your mission.  Don’t get hung up on the order – just get it done!

I asked the mission question this way in our survey:

Here we get to the heart of what we are to do. To fulfill God’s vision and purpose for CCCC, what is our specific mission?  The following questions (from What to Ask the Person in the Mirror) will help us discern our mission:

- Why do you work or volunteer with CCCC? When you could invest your time elsewhere, why do you invest it here? What do you love about CCCC?

- What would you like to tell your grandchildren or extended family about why you served at CCCC for such a long period of your life?

- What would you like CCCC to look like in ten years? What would you hope to say that it accomplished?

- What are the distinctive competencies of CCCC? What would the world lose if it did not exist?

- Do you think God had any specific intentions for how we would operate, or any conditions that he has set as boundaries? If so, please let us know what you think they are.

- We would like to know what your hopes and dreams are for the future of CCCC.  What are your aspirations for CCCC? What hopes and dreams do you have for it?

Here’s how we developed the draft mission statement for CCCC.

Vision

A vision statement always propels us towards the ideal.  It does not settle for anything less than the way it should be, in terms of our mission.  It should be aspirational, evocative and highly emotional.  Upon reading it, people should be inspired to join your cause (or at least say “That’s a great mission!”).

The vision needs to align both with whatever Scripture says that relates to your mission and vision, and also to your core values.  It needs to align with the activity of the Holy Spirit in this world.

In our survey, we asked about vision this way:

We believe that the Lord led Ian Stanley and his six friends to found CCCC for God’s own purposes. That means that we exist as part of the Christian ministry community in Canada and that there is some particular way the Lord intends us to help the church fulfill its mission.

Given that we are a support to frontline ministries, can you describe the difference that you think God created us to make?  Another way to think about this is, What is God’s vision for the state of Christian ministries in Canada that we will help him achieve?

What are you seeing that God is up to that affects CCCC?  What shifts or trends do you see in Christian ministry that might affect our strategy?

Again, you can read about how we developed our vision statement.

Written in stone?

While your strategic statements should serve you well for many years at a time, your ministry is a like a living organism that responds to the continuing work and leadership of the Holy Spirit.  Over time, aspects of your mission may be accomplished, so you move on to something else.  Also over time, your staff and board gain more insight into the possibilities for what might be, and the vision could become more detailed or more expansive.  A new or revised vision could cause a review of the mission, and the mission might be redefined, tightened up, or expanded to better fit the vision.

So don’t change your strategic statements every year, but do be willing to change them as circumstances warrant.  Next I’ll get into some other secondary matters related to your strategic statements, such as your Value Proposition and the Key Success Indicators.

“People lack trust in leaders because of the poor character demonstrated by so many leaders. My interviews with 6,000 Christian leaders show that one of the greatest struggles they have is demonstrating godly wisdom. The issue is how worldly wisdom aligns with godly wisdom and how to discern the difference.”

I quickly wrote the quote down because it is exactly the reason why I write this blog.  My purpose is to help Christians who are leaders become more authentically Christian in their leadership practices.  I don’t think it is that hard to figure out a Christian approach to leadership, but it does take time to reflect on your faith and your work and how they intersect.  That’s why I call this blog Leadership Reflections.  By sharing my own reflections, I hope to help you with yours.

Worldly Wisdom

Worldly wisdom is developed from a human perspective without any reference to God or his ways.  It is often positioned as the opposite of godly wisdom, as if the two were diametrically opposed to each other.  In this paradigm, worldly is bad and godly is good.  But it is not as simple as that:

• If we believe that God created our universe with certain rules for how it works, then we can study it and learn about it.
• And if God gave us the ability to think, to discover and to create new knowledge, then we should do so.

It is inevitable then, that quite apart from God’s revelation humans will work out some knowledge and wisdom about how things work, or the way things are, that is right and aligns with God’s design or his ways.  Don’t be surprised when this happens because it is simply the result of the orderly ways of God.

But sometimes we get it wrong and develop ideas that are not in alignment with God’s ways.  This happens because our values are not in alignment with God’s or we have forgotten to leave room for God.  Most often it is just a case of someone who doesn’t know God and doesn’t know any better, but sometimes a person develops something with evil intent such as when a con artist develops a con game based on understanding our (fallen) human nature.

Worldly wisdom, therefore, is not like godly wisdom.  Godly wisdom is always 100% right.  Worldly wisdom has a range, from downright ungodly to wisdom that unintentionally aligns with God’s ways.  For example, people with no awareness of God can still do good deeds because they believe it is the right thing to do.

The issue isn’t that worldly wisdom is the opposite of godly wisdom, but that even at its very best it is incomplete without godly wisdom.  On a continuum from foolishness/ignorance to godly wisdom, worldly wisdom can be anywhere from 100% wrong to being 100% right (about the topic at hand), except for its source.  If worldly wisdom meets godly standards, then feel free to use it.

Godly or worldly? Discerning the difference

So when it comes to Christian leadership, there is much worldly wisdom we can draw upon to understand group dynamics, organizational theory, governance, motivation, planning and so forth.  There are many very good secular writers whose models and advice are just fine for Christian ministries.  But we must be careful to discern where worldly leadership wisdom is deficient and falls too far short of godly wisdom to be able to use with integrity.  And that is why a Christian leader needs to take time to reflect on his or her leadership practices.

How to distinguish the difference?  How to tell if a secular leadership technique is appropriate for a Christian to use?  Here’s some advice from a great little book:

“From a Christian point of view, it is only when the direction and the method are in line with God’s purposes, character, and ways of operating that godly leadership takes place.”
(Reviewing Leadership by Robert Banks and Bernice Ledbetter)

That is how you tell.  Ask the question, Does this align with God’s purposes, character and ways of operating?  This is why I say it is helpful if at least one of your ministry’s senior leaders has formal theological education.  It is not good enough to just find a verse here or there to justify something.  In this context, verses are little thoughts, and you need BIG thoughts.  You need to know not just the verses, but taken as a whole, what does Scripture say about God and his ways?  What’s the big theological picture?  You also need a vibrant personal relationship with God in which you submit to and then experience his leadership.  You will get to know pretty quickly how to assess opportunities or methods for suitability.

Here are some illustrations that may help:

• In a commissioned sales environment, sales managers are trained to motivate their staff by appealing to their self-interest and greed.  They have them develop vision boards – pictures of all the good things in life they want to have or experience.  Looking at these every day motivates them to sell more.  Since when would God have us motivate people by appealing to their greed or self-interest?  What relationship does this build between the salesperson and the customer?  Instead of truly helping customers, the salesperson has objectified them into a means to an end, an end in the best interest of the salesperson, not the client!  Does the technique work?  I guess so.   Is it godly?  No.  This style of management cannot be introduced into a Christian workplace.
• Traditional strategic planning is based on analyzing the past to predict the future.  To ensure the plan is achieved, staff are evaluated based on achieving goals that support the plan.  Where does this leave room for God to do something new?  When God told Paul to go to Europe, Paul went.  He didn’t say, “I’ll fit do it on to my next mission trip” or even worse, “I’ll have to work it into my next 5 year plan.”  The Holy Spirit blows where he will, and we have to stay nimble and flexible to respond quickly to his leading.  Traditional strategic plan also relies heavily on setting your strategy based on distinguishing yourself from a competitor, but God wants you focused on what he has called you to do.  In traditional strategic planning, your strategic options are limited by your SWOT analysis.  Since when has God been restrained by your weakness?  I’ve written more about this in Strategic Planning for Christian ministries.  Strategic planning can be done, but be careful to design the process to include God!

So when I am confronted with a new leadership technique, I look for the aspects of it that need to be tested against God’s purposes, character or ways of being by asking:

1. What is this advice or method based upon?  What assumptions does it make?  Why does it ‘work’?
2. How would this affect the way I relate to another person or group?
3. Why does this appeal to me?  What emotion or motivation makes this solution desirable?  Does the appeal call upon something in me that runs counter to the fruit of the Spirit?
4. How does it maintain or contribute to my status as “a holy vessel, consecrated to God” and to our ministry’s representation of what life in the kingdom of God looks like?

Then compare your answers to what you know of God. Be wise.  Be discerning.  Take time to reflect.

The Strategic Statements

Every organization has a core ideology (its vision, mission and values) that is the underpinning for everything that it does.  This ideology is the driving force that inspires and propels the organization forward.  Vision explains why the organization exists (what it wants to accomplish), mission is its overarching strategy for accomplishing the vision, and values are the rules it lives by.

A hypothetical example will show the difference between vision and mission.  Two ministries might have the same vision: Local churches thriving under excellent leadership, but have very different missions because they have different strategies to grow excellent leadership.  One mission might to be provide excellent seminary training while the other ministry might be to provide coaching services or to publish church leadership books.

Three other items should be part of the strategic statement package:  the Tagline, the Value Proposition and the Key Success Indicators.

The tagline is a three to five word phrase that clearly positions your ministry for your audience.  It is what you want to be known for and evokes the first thought or feeling you want people to have when they hear your ministry’s name.

The value proposition:

• defines what you believe your ministry’s contribution to the church’s mission is, and is one of the justifications for your ministry’s existence as a separate entity,
• can be a key component of your fundraising, marketing and recruiting literature, and
• provides focus for strategy development.

The value proposition for a local church might answer the question, “With so many churches in your town, why should there be another one?”  For an independent agency, it could answer the question, “Why not merge with another ministry and save the duplicated overhead costs?”  Perhaps your methodology is different, or you have a denominational distinctive in theology or culture you want to maintain.  Perhaps it is the mix of what you do that is valuable.

People writing about strategy and marketing use the term ‘unique value proposition,’ but I’m not keen on using unique in a ministry environment where every church has the same mission and every other ministry is working on some part of that same mission.  I do, however, think you should be very clear about your ministry’s contribution to the church’s mission.  What makes you stand out from the crowd?

The value proposition needs to be defined before the programs are designed because it should have a key influence in designing your strategic initiatives and programs.

The success indicators:

• provide evidence that your ministry is moving forward with its mission,
• build a compelling case for support for your fundraising program, and
• ensure board and staff stay focused on mission as the priority, and not programs.  (It’s easy to get so wrapped up in programs that the mission they serve becomes just an after-thought.)

The success indicators need to be defined early in the strategic review because they will be used later to assess the effectiveness of your current strategies and programs.  In this regard, be especially careful that success indicators are set based on the strategic statements alone, because only the strategic statements define organizational success. 

You must fight the tendency to define success in terms of your programs. 

Some people have pet strategies and programs they want to ensure will survive the strategic review, and if you give them the opportunity they will craft these statements accordingly!  That would be the tail wagging the dog!  Whether or not a program is successful can only be determined in light of what constitutes organizational success.  (A program could be highly successful on its own and yet not contribute to an organization’s mission success.)

A Christian perspective

The source of a Christian ministry’s core ideology is the revelation of God through Scripture and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

The Bible provides the context for all Christian ministry, so you must know it very well.  At least a few senior leaders on your team should have some formal theological education.  Scripture lays out the ideal future that God is leading us towards, the values he wants us to have, and the character traits that should guide us in all our work and relationships.

Some aspects of the ideal kingdom life may have more relevance to your mission than others, just as some values and traits may be more central to your mission than others.  So feel free to highlight those and make them prominent in the life and work of your ministry.  For example, God’s love for all humanity, his concern for the poor, or what he views as proper worship could each have greater significance in a ministry devoted to one of those issues.  Perhaps you have been quite isolationist as a ministry and you want to take special care to be more relational in the future.  Highlight that.

As you go through your strategic planning process, keep asking, “What in Scripture relates to this?  What do we know about God and his work that should inform how we think about this?”  These questions need to permeate every aspect of the strategy review process.

You must pay close attention to the Holy Spirit because he is the one who:

• calls us to a particular part of the mission,
• gives us a vision for what we can accomplish through our part of the mission, and
• guides us as we make decisions so that we can work faithfully as God’s agents.

It is critical that you are willing to be led by the Spirit, and are not just bringing your plans to God for his blessing.  If you don’t give the Spirit time to lead you, all you have is what the human mind can conceive.  I learned years ago that my mind is no match for God’s.  Give God space by practising the Christian disciplines of silence and solitude.  A great book to help you do this is Space for God.

Strategy making in the 4th Dimension

God has a specific purpose for your ministry, and to discern what it is I suggest that you consult with the directors and staff whom God has called to serve in your ministry, not just in the present, but in the past as well.  Churches should also consult with their members.

Why should you pay any attention to people who are no longer active in your ministry?  Because God spoke to them, and their voices must be heard.  I love this quote from G.K. Chesterton in which he talks of a democracy that crosses time and death:

Tradition may be defined as an extension of the [voting] franchise. Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death. Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man’s opinion, even if he is our groom; tradition asks us not to neglect a good man’s opinion, even if he is our father. I, at any rate, cannot separate the two ideas of democracy and tradition; it seems evident to me that they are the same idea. We will have the dead at our councils.

While the present board and staff can make strategic changes, they are not free to do so without due respect to the past. Are the old strategies outdated? Has the mission been accomplished? Are there new aspects to the mission that didn’t exist before? By all means, make the necessary changes, but don’t just arbitrarily think that you know better than your predecessors. That would be chronological arrogance!

To fully understand God’s purpose for your ministry today, do a chronological review of the strategic statements to see if there is a trajectory that ties them together. Is there an overarching common vision? Talk with the people who led the ministry over the years (if they are still available to you) or read their plans and other documents.

If there is a trajectory, look carefully at what changed between the versions and look for underlying trends. Perhaps there is movement from crisis intervention (shelters, food banks, etc.) to advocacy for systemic change to prevent poverty in the first place. Maybe your congregation is expanding its view of what church is all about. Most ministries will show some development over the years.  Try extending the trajectory forward to see where your ministry is headed.  Is this where you want to be?

Special attention must be given to the people whom God has placed in senior leadership because they acted in the capacity of stewards of the ministry and its mission, and presumably were placed in the senior leadership role by God for a reason. Each may have contributed to a different understanding of the mission while also adhering to the core ideology.  At this point, keep your focus on the the strategic statements and leave their strategies and programs, which are secondary and tertiary matters, for later.

In part two of this post I will give you specific practices and questions to help you discern your strategic statements.

In a sermon I heard in Sunday School, Andy Stanley made the point that there is only one time in Scripture that it says Jesus was amazed, and it was the big faith of a Roman centurian of all people that amazed him!

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.”
Matthew 8:10

A personal challenge

Stanley challenges us asking, “What would your life be like if you knew for sure there is a God who is all powerful, who knows you and has promised never to leave you nor forsake you?  What if you had perfect peace and no fears or anxiety about anything?”  What would we dare try for the sake of Christ?  What might we do that would demonstrate a faith that could amaze Jesus?

A ministry challenge

What would it look like if your ministry assumed no limitations that God couldn’t easily overcome?  What if we decided to trust God for the things that keep us from daring to do all that we can dream of?  If we believed God could provide the “if onlys” that we are wishing for?  Better yet, what if we prayed for them?  What if the exploits of our ministries demonstrated a faith that would amaze Jesus just like the centurion’s did?  What if…?

A planning challenge

What if our strategic plans required divine rather than human capacity?  What if our plans were so big, so bold, so far-reaching that we’d have to assign responsibility for executing parts of them to the Lord?

If we can complete the plan ourselves, I’m sure God will allow us to do it ourselves.  But maybe he wants us to plan something so stupendous and awe-inspiring that it gives him a unique role to play.  The Bible is full of stories of how God worked through individuals to accomplish great things.  What if we inserted into our plans something that only God could do?  That means, of course, that by definition our plans will be unrealistic.  Would a staff be bold enough to recommend such a plan?  Would a board be daring enough to approve such a plan?  Just wondering!!

Are we:

• too cautious?
• too realistic?
• too self-reliant?

I admit that as I read these paragraphs, they scare me!  But I think they are also a healthy challenge to think about with the board and staff.

Living by faith

If we try to increase the faith component of our plans, we face the question of whether we should act first and depend on God to provide subsequently or let God act first and be ready to do what he has provided for.

In Acts 1, Jesus tells his followers not to do anything yet, but wait in Jerusalem until the Father sends his promised gift.

In Exodus 14, God told Moses to take the people of Israel to a specific place where they could be easily cornered by the Egyptians.  He basically told Moses to deliberately lead them into a trap!  Moses obeyed God and only then did the Lord part the waters and provide a way of escape.

I think there are some different approaches to the topic and each of them has a biblical basis.  I believe that which one we use will depend on how the board and staff together discern God’s will in a specific matter.

Pray and act with human wisdom

It might seem strange to start with human wisdom, but Scripture takes it seriously and so should we.  The book of Proverbs consists of the best of ‘worldly wisdom’ in that it sets out “the way things are” or “the way things work.”  God has given us great intellectual power to work out for ourselves some of the mystery behind God’s work, such as the hard and soft sciences.  Jesus commended the use of human wisdom in Luke 16:8.  French Arrington discusses the surprising position Jesus takes on human wisdom in his New Life Bible Commentary on Luke, saying:

…the sinful “people of this world” are favorably compared with the “people of the light.”  It is their resourcefulness and their dedication to the achievement of their intended goals that are held up as examples for emulation.  The implication is that the “people of the light,”  whose goal is infinitely more valuable, should be all the more resourceful and dedicated as they work toward their goal of a ‘treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted.”

Furthermore, Jesus’ advises in Luke 14:28 and 31: “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?…Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?”  It seems that Jesus believes that thinking ahead is just good common sense.  His point is, “Don’t become a disciple if you are not willing to go the whole way.”

Finally, Paul advises Timothy (1 Tim 5) to drink a little wine because of his stomach and many illnesses.  I’m sure Paul had already done the spiritual thing and prayed for his healing, but he also gave Timothy the best human wisdom he had to help him with his stomach problems.

My position is that, unless he has otherwise directed us, God expects us to use the best of human wisdom in leading our ministries.  Use your noggin!

Pray and wait for God to act

We can also think big, figure out what is humanly possible, pray for God to do the rest and then act when he has made it possible.  There is Scriptural support for this option.  Jesus’ instruction to wait for the gift of the Spirit is one example.  Paul raising the collection for the Jerusalem relief effort is another.  Paul committed to no specific amount, just that he would bring an offering.  The prayers of the saints for Peter in prison are yet another example.  They did not mount an attack on the prison to free him, but were waiting in prayer, and God acted and miraculously freed Peter.

This is also an approach recommended by Jesus: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you…If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” Matthew 7:7, 11.  What Jesus is telling us is: ask, receive, proceed.

Pray and then act in anticipation of God’s action

This is the basis behind faith missions.  Sometimes we have to act first and then we will see God do something wonderful.

• Joshua had to march around Jericho seven times before he saw God bring down its walls.
• The disciples handed out the fish and bread not knowing what was going to happen, but God provided.
• Jesus had to go to the cross trusting that his Father would resurrect him.

Virtually all Christian ministries operate to some degree on faith because their revenue comes mostly from donations, and who knows what will come in next month?  They make long term commitments by hiring staff and acquiring property and trust that money will continue to come in.  But while some are very good at active fundraising, writing persuasive appeals and so forth, others will only do passive fundraising.  This group will pray but not tell anyone of their financial needs.  Hudson Taylor ran CIM this way, on the  assumption that “the Lord will provide.”  God has blessed this approach too.

Some advice

Any of the three strategies may be the appropriate one for you.  My comfort level is to operate the very best we can with the best knowledge we have (option 1) and to think big and wait for God to provide (option 2).

Which should you follow?  It all depends.  I think it comes down to group discernment.  I believe that God will lead the entire leadership team to one of the three options.  The board, the chief staff officer and the senior leadership team should all be in agreement about their position on faith and risk.  If one person feels the ministry should take on more risk with higher faith, then the whole group should enter into a discernment process to determine if they also feel the same.  This is what Paul did with his group.  He alone heard the call of God to go to Europe, but the whole team decided it was the right thing to do.  When Paul felt he had the answer to how to evangelise the gentiles, James and the apostles in Jerusalem discussed the issue and came to a collective decision.

If someone gave your ministry a million dollars, how would you use it?  If you don’t know, then maybe you aren’t ready to receive a million dollars!  If God said he would do anything you asked him to do to help with your ministry’s mission, what would you ask him to do?  If you don’t know, then maybe you aren’t ready to receive his miraculous help.  At the very least, have a list!!

Think BIG, pray HARD and follow the option that seems best to the team.  “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us” (Acts 15:28) needs to be what you say when you announce your decisions.

“Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”  Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.”  And the LORD opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
2 Kings 6:16-17

It should be obvious – traditional strategic planning tools do not allow for kingdom insight.  If those tools are all we use, then we will not see what God wants us to see.  This was the point Jesus made when he challenged his followers:

Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.  Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’?  Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.  Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.”
John 4:34-36

The deficiencies of traditional strategic planning

From a Christian perspective, traditional planning tools are out of alignment with the way God works.  A plan for harvesting would have waited four more months, but Jesus, who knows the true situation, says “Look up!!”  His urgent message is that the fields are ripe for harvesting at this very moment!  And while you are waiting for circumstances to dictate the right time to get to work, others are already earning their wages, like – right now!  Get a move on!

What strategic plan would ever have dared lead the Israelites out of Egypt only to corner them against a sea?  What strategic plan would have ever conceived of conquering Jericho as God intended to conquer it?  What strategic plan would have brought salvation to the world through a peasant born in a cave in what most people at the time thought was a backwater, no-account country?

The Bible declares that God is on a mission and is unstoppable as he works to fulfill it.  His strategic options are bounded only by his mission.  Circumstances are acknowledged and then blown away by a God who can do miracles.  As his earthly representatives, as God’s agents in mission, we can do no less than Paul who steadfastly pursued his call and relied on God to work things out however he would.  As I’ve written before, the world would be a different place today if the apostles had tried to write a strategic plan.

I love Paul’s attitude, his fixation on what God had called him to do.  While he’s writing about his personal growth here, I think we should all emulate his attitude when it comes to planning for our ministries:

Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.  Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:12-14

The primacy of our call

Traditional planning tools can be helpful, but they should not be the primary drivers of Christian ministry strategy.  While a business may look at its strengths and its environment, and decide to enter a new line of business that presents more opportunity and a greater financial return, a Christian ministry has a fixed mission that it cannot change until it has been accomplished.  Ministries can take account of their strengths and environments, but they don’t change their mission because of them.  Which comes first – the  limitations or the mission?  The mission, of course!

God has called churches to the full mission of the church and he has called specialized ministries to particular parts of the church’s mission.  A ministry does not have the freedom to do anything that circumstances allow, it must work on its assigned mission.  We are not free to say, as a business can, “What can we do with our people, our experience and our resources?”  We might clarify the mission from time to time and find fresh ways to state it, but the underlying mission remains the same.

At CCCC, our strength is in our staff and if we look at opportunities and strengths we might discover that we could do more good by serving the poor and funding it with grants.  Maybe there’s a lot of government funding for that activity.  I don’t know.  What I do know is that as worthy as that cause would be, it’s not the cause God has called us to.  We have been called to serve the church in Canada by providing our expertise to churches and agencies.

A ministry’s strategic planning is not based on leveraging assets but on solving a problem.  The problem is that people need to know God and experience his love.  How do we bring people to Christ?  How do we create more justice in the world?  These are problems that Christian ministries are called to solve.  The appropriate strategic planning model for Christian ministry is the same model used by many relief and development ministries, the theory of change/logic model.

A suggested strategic planning process for Christian ministries

I mentioned in a previous post, Is your ministry near its “Best before” date?, that CCCC is beginning a comprehensive strategic review.  I’ll be blogging that experience in real time, so as we complete major sections I’ll be reporting what we’ve done so you can see what I think a good Christian strategic planning process should look like.  The major structure will be:

• A group discernment process to be clear on what we understand God’s call to CCCC to be.  The output will be a set of strategic statements.
• The mission statement (or End statement in Carver policy governance terms) can be considered the statement of the problem that CCCC has been called to solve.
• A theory of change will be developed which makes explicit what we believe about how we can solve the problem.  For example, our implied theory of change to-date is that most of the problem can be fixed by education and awareness, which is why we have the conference, the Bulletin, regional seminars and so on.  Is that a valid theory of change?  The strategic review will probe that question.
• Once you have a theory of change, then you can build a logic model to show what you are going to do to solve the problem, what you need in order to do that, what you expect to happen as a result of your work and then what you think the consequences will be further down the road (hopefully the problem is solved!).
• Once you have the logic model you can develop the strategic initiatives that will ultimately be incorporated into your annual action plans.
• Next you can address the business model that will deliver on your plans.  This includes organizational structure, revenue model, and other operational aspects of making the core ministry happen.
• Lastly, you compare what you have designed for the future with what you have today.  You check to see if the organization is ready to move forward as is, or if some changes need to be made to align today’s organization with the one that will take you into the future.

Where do the traditional planning tools fit in?  The environmental scan can be helpful in gaining understanding of the problem and ensuring that the theory of change is comprehensive.  It can also help with the development of the strategic initiatives.   But all of this is only in a supporting role.

The scan may say the problem solving task will be more or less difficult, but it shouldn’t change the task itself.  It will likely surface a list of things you should be praying about and asking God to intervene in the situation on your behalf.

The SWOT analysis can be helpful at two places: 1) the SW part (strengths/weaknesses) is useful when you are checking organizational readiness and the OT part (Opportunities/Threats) is helpful when developing the strategic initiatives.

Remember though, that God works through our weaknesses and God is our defender, so weaknesses and threats should not be deterrents!

Be wise

Jesus did commend people who used their brains and the best of human wisdom (for example, the unrighteous steward in Luke 16) and he challenged his followers to do for him what they would do for themselves (eg., think ahead and count the cost before following him just as they would when building a tower or going to war – Luke 14:27-33) , so we shouldn’t be derelict and switch off our minds when planning for our ministries.

But if you reduce your plans to what you think you can do with human wisdom and strength, you’ve left no room for God to do what only he can do, and I suspect that when you can do it yourself, God lets you do it yourself!  But if you want to partner with God, then make a plan big enough that God has room to manoeuvre and do his thing.

I think this is a rather contrarian view of strategic planning, although there is support for it in the literature, so it may have challenged you.  I invite you to interact with this post in the comments.

Paul’s Example

Paul’s first missionary trip was very fruitful due to the many churches he planted in Asia.  Good leadership and strategic planning would dictate a return trip to ensure the churches were growing as they should and to further strengthen them, and that is what Paul intended to do (Acts 15:36).  He left Antioch after his church commended him to God with this mission in mind (v40).

Significantly, although the Holy Spirit gave specific instructions for the first trip, there is no mention that Paul received any direction from the Holy Spirit at all for this trip.  The way Luke tells the story, any reader would think that Paul’s plans are plain good sense and are just what they would have done if they had been in his sandals.  There is no foreshadowing of trouble at all.  Luke could have written, “But he failed to consult the Lord” to alert his readers to what was to come, but he didn’t.  Luke wanted us to experience the Holy Spirit pretty much as Paul did, so that the lesson would be all the more forceful for us today.  After visiting the churches Paul tries to venture further into Asia, but each time discerns the Spirit withholding his permission.  The frustration of Paul’s Asian plans mounts until finally, in a dramatic vision, the Spirit reveals to Paul what his mission trip is really about and calls him to Macedonia in Europe.  By blocking Paul from going deeper into Asia, the Holy Spirit was gradually corralling him into a port city from which he could easily embark on a ship to the place he wanted Paul to go.  At least this time God used a ship to transport Paul’s team and not, as he did with Jonah, a  great fish!  But then, Paul didn’t run from his call.

Robert Tannehill wrote a brilliant narrative analysis of Luke-Acts and in Volume Two: The Acts Of The Apostles writes that:

The narrator shows a keen interest in the dialogue between human purpose and divine purpose, indicating that Jesus’ witnesses, too, must patiently endure the frustration of their own plans in order to discover the opportunity that God holds open.  This opportunity may not be the next logical step by human calculation.

The Gospel of Luke shows the Holy Spirit guiding Jesus at every step of the way and he continues to guide the church in Acts.  God interrupting human plans is a central theme in Acts.  Just as the Spirit interrupted Paul’s planned visits to Asia, so he interrupted Peter’s planned visits to the Jewish church in diaspora (Acts 10:10-20) and directed and even moved Philip to the places he needed him (Acts 8:26-40).  God’s plans were not what the apostles had in mind.  But to the benefit of the entire church throughout the ages since, the apostles trashed their own plans and and followed God.  Later the other apostles supported the new dimensions of mission introduced by Peter and Paul as they deviated from their own plans and accepted God’s plans (Acts  11 and 15).

God’s Leadership

From a planning standpoint, the essential point Luke makes is that it is the Lord who directs Christian missions.  The book should really be called “Acts of the Holy Spirit,” not “Acts of the Apostles“ because the book tells the continuing story of what Jesus only began to do and teach in the Gospel of Luke.  (I think it was Dr. Roger Stronstad who said this in a seminary class.)  Luke wants his readers to know that when the Spirit gave clear direction to Paul to start out on an entirely new mission, the conversion of Europe (a mission that was not at all contemplated in Antioch and that was completely outside the scope of his intended journey), Paul immediately followed the Spirit’s direction, just as we should today.  Many people regard Acts simply as a history book.  It does tell the history of the early church, and Luke did intend to bolster our faith by informing us of its origins (Luke 1:1), but that’s not the only reason why Luke wrote it.  Luke tells of the origin of our faith, and Acts is a manual for how the church should faithfully go about its work as a Spirit-led church.  Its purpose is to encourage and inspire us as we continue to fulfill the church’s mission today.  Paul’s team wasted no time in getting on board with the new mission.  Luke records in 16:10 that ”After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.”  And thus the Western church was born!  We need to follow God and not a plan.

My Experience

I have had to learn this lesson in my own life.  As a corporate leadership trainer, I was an enthusiastic supporter of strategic planning, goal setting and performance reviews based on measurable objectives.  My enthusiasm for planning changed, however, when I received my own very unexpected call ‘out of the blue’ from God to prepare for something new.  Believe, me, no plan of mine had that call from God in it!!  The Spirit did not reveal what the preparation was for, and I was challenged to trust God, give up my work and become a full-time student again in mid-life without knowing what the goal was, where I was headed, or what God had in mind.  All I knew was I had to go to seminary.

Half-way through my second year I felt abandoned by God and, at my age, despaired of ever having gainful employment again.  I dropped back into planning mode and ‘helped’ God by putting my resume out for work as an administrator at various Christian ministries.  In the midst of one interview, the Holy Spirit let me know that, “This is not what this is all about.  Withdraw your applications.”

The Spirit reminded me that,  “If my ways are not your ways, and if my thoughts are so much higher than yours that you can’t even conceive the depth and breadth of my thoughts, then the best your puny little plans can do is frustrate what I want to do through you.  Stop planning and let me lead!”  (I was, shall we say, overly-planful at the time!)  The image of me being blindfolded and holding on to God’s shirtsleeve was very vivid and God’s intent was quite clear: “When I take a step, you take a step.”  And that is how I have lived my life ever since.

Strategic Planning in Christian Ministry

So back to strategic planning.  I’m documenting in real time the strategic review I’m doing of CCCC, and you can follow that on this blog.  The key point about strategic planning for Christian ministry is that you can’t plan your way into the great and marvelous things God wants to do through you or your ministry.  (I wrote a tongue-in-cheek post asking “What if the apostles had tried to write a strategic plan?”)  I do not want my commitment to any plan to limit what God might want to do.  The logic of a plan may say to do one thing but the great deeds of history were often not very logical, they were daring.  We as Christian leaders need to leave room for God to do what only he, in his power, can do.

I agree that planning is useful and much good can come from it.  Paul’s planned second missionary journey led him to Timothy as an addition to his team, strengthened the churches that had been planted and added many converts in those areas (Acts 16:1-5).  Strategic planning does get results.  It just can’t, on its own, get all the results that God desires to give.  Any planning process used in Christian ministry must honour the leadership of the Holy Spirit.  Commit first to the mission God gave your ministry.  When God leads you in a different way than your plan lays out, follow God, not the plan.

I know firsthand God’s ability to orchestrate things so you end up doing something far more significant than you ever could have planned for on your own.   Just before God told me to withdraw my job applications, I had submitted my resume to CCCC.  Both my wife and my pastor saw the job ad and encouraged me to apply because they thought I was  a perfect fit for the job.  When I was told to withdraw my applications, I had not yet had any response from CCCC.  The Spirit let me know that I should leave this one application alone, and simply respond if they should call (which, obviously, they did).  The Spirit said, “Just sit back and watch what I can do.”  The rest is history.

I do plan, but I only ever regard my plans as default plans.  Plans that I will follow should nothing better come up.  I do my best to stay sensitive and receptive to the Spirit’s guidance each and every day.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:10

A Christian Understanding of the Human Person as an Employee

Every staff member is valued as a person – a whole person who has physical and intellectual capacity to contribute to the work of the ministry.  Being human, every staff member is also an emotional and a spiritual being and each has a unique mix of personality, experience, talent, skills, education and interests.  All employees are appreciated for the potential they bring to their work and each is presumed to be a blessing sent by God to this ministry.  It is our shared responsibility as employer and employee to discern with each staff member how to use their gifts and fulfill God’s vocational plan for them during the time that God has called them to this ministry.

What this means to me is that I feel a tremendous responsibility for the stewardship of the people God has placed on the team I lead.  I and the other leaders on the team have been entrusted by God with the people as he equipped them.  Have we cared for them and allowed them to contribute as God intended them to?  Leaders are like gardeners.  In fact, when Frank Luellau welcomed me as his successor at the 2003 conference, he presented me with a pair of pruning shears (he had just read Les Stahlke’s book Governance Matters: Relationship Model of Governance, Leadership and Management, so that gift made sense).  I did wonder what the staff would think of the shears, but he meant that I should tend and care for the ministry as a gardener does for a garden.  So the shears still sit today (amidst some greenery) on top of a bookshelf in my office as a reminder of the gardening image.  A gardener  determines which flowers, shrubs and trees fit the garden’s design and where they should be placed.  But once placed, the gardener’s job is to feed and water them, prune them and do everything necessary for them to bloom and grow.  And what a joy it is when a garden blooms!  So at CCCC I and the other team leaders:

• notice what gives people joy.  Sometimes we have shifted or delegated duties to let staff members do more of what they enjoy.  Sometimes it is simply providing someone with opportunity to bring more of what they find joyful into the workplace.  That might be encouraging a gardener with compliments when she brings in nice floral arrangements she has made, or sharing worship music at devotionals that they find particularly inspiring.
• watch carefully to see and appreciate an employee’s giftedness.  One staff member has a golden voice that is a joy for me to listen to, so I was quite happy he was assigned to do many of our webcasts.

My post Loving Leadership includes a section on loving your team members and all of that section could be repeated here.  In essence, providing for your staff in terms of compensation, resourcing tools so they can do their work, and giving opportunities for professional development are ways that we tend our gardens.

Governance Perspective

At CCCC we use policy governance, so the senior staff person serves as the link between staff and board.  From the board’s point-of-view, they have assigned responsibilities and goals to the CEO and provided the CEO with a budget to accomplish the task.  The CEO has the board’s permission to do anything to accomplish the Ends statements except what has been prohibited in the Executive Limitations.  The CEO can delegate to the staff any level of authority which fits within the authority delegated by the board to the CEO, but the CEO alone retains accountability to the board for the results and actions of the staff.

The main way this perspective influences my leadership is in how I delegate.  The board has given me a free hand to lead, so I have lots of room to give everything I’ve got to the ministry, to be creative and to explore possibilities.  This makes my work a lot of fun, it gives me great joy and I believe I end up contributing the most I can to helping CCCC fulfill its mission.  As I reflect on how the board delegates to me, can I do any less for my two direct reports?  I really feel very blessed by the way the board treats me, so why would I not want my direct reports to feel the same way about how I delegate to them?  My struggle with delegation is that, like everyone, I have my way of doing things.  The governance perspective reminds me that unless they are doing something in a way I just can’t live with, I should bite my tongue.  They know they have to abide by the same executive limitations that I do, and they also know the parameters that I have placed on the way the ministry works.  Within those constraints, they should enjoy the same freedom that I have.  Delegation like this is real leverage that expands the possibilities of what CCCC will do beyond what I can think of or do myself.  It also ensures that I do not become a bottleneck.  In essence, my role for delegated responsibility is a governance role.  The trick for a leader is to wrestle the natural inclination to control to the ground!

Theological Perspective

As soon as the CEO hires a person, a team has been created, which from the board’s perspective reports to the CEO.  However, when the focus shifts from the board-staff relationship to the CEO-staff relationship, the CEO is no longer over the team but part of the team, on the same basis that every staff person is part of the team.  Just as each member of the Trinity has distinct roles and functions but together are one God, so each member of the CCCC team has distinct roles and functions but together are one team.

While there is a hierarchy within the Trinity, Trinitarian theology gives us a beautiful picture of mutual love and respect between team members.  I accept the responsibility and accountability that the governance perspective puts on my shoulders alone, but the theological perspective is the one that I think about on a daily basis.  It is a healthy perspective in which I see my teammates as partners with me in accomplishing the mission.  We are working together.  They are not working for me; rather we all are working for the Lord.  They have just as close a relationship with Jesus as I do.  This perspective modifies what otherwise might be an impersonal employer-employee relationship based on employment law and management practices (as important as they are).  Finally, this perspective reminds us that we leaders, managers and supervisors are all followers before we are anything else, and we can only lead people if we are successfully following God.  Leaders should find a lot of humility as they contemplate the biblical theology of leadership.

Systems Perspective

Distinct roles and functions are necessary in order to get work done effectively and efficiently.  In other words, specialization is a critical part of how we work together.  Specialized roles are assigned to people in a way that takes advantage of how God has equipped individual team members.  Specialization, though, necessitates direction of work so that order is maintained.  The specialty work must be integrated into the work of the whole team and coordinated with the work of other specialists.  Someone must take responsibility for directing the team’s work and thus there must be, even among peers, some form of leadership.  This does not lessen the fact that team members are peers and, as Paul wrote, fellow-workers.  The Greek word for ‘fellow-worker’ is synergon (syn means ‘with’, erg means ‘work’, on signifies ‘person’) from which we get our English word ‘synergy,’ which means we accomplish more working together than we do working separately.

The governance perspective unavoidably introduces a hierarchical aspect to the employee structure, as does the systems perspective, so it is understandable that some people think the person ‘at the top’ should make all the final decisions, but from a systems perspective I don’t think that is so.  On what basis would I as CEO be better able to make a decision than the person I have put in charge of an area?  They are far more familiar and knowledgeable with the specific issues than I am (that’s why I chose them for the role), so I defer to their judgment, unless there is a strategic or policy matter that they are not aware of.  If board policy or the law says I must make the decision, then I will, but it is on the advice of the experts and after asking the due diligence questions.  I had a meeting yesterday where there were some things on a project list that I know little about and I simply have to trust that the person knows what she’s talking about. That’s how systems work.  They are created as specialized functions to make something happen.  Especially in a knowledge-based organization such as CCCC, the expertise is in the systems.  My role as the senior leader is to hold all the systems together to ensure we have a functional organization.  So just like the board, unless an issue is in my area of expertise, what I do is set the parameters and ask the questions.

When it comes to how we think about the leader-staff relationship, Paul expressed a great sentiment when introducing someone to the Colossians (4:7).  May every leader care for their garden, pruning, arranging, and nurturing every part of it, so that, like Paul, we can honestly say about each of our team members (adjusting for gender of course!):

He is a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant  in the Lord.

“Behind it all is surely an idea so simple, so beautiful, so compelling that when — in a decade, a century, or a millenium — we grasp it, we will say to each other, how could it have been otherwise?  How could we have been so blind for so long?”

What is the simple, beautiful, compelling idea? The quote comes from a book that suggests there is a god beneath all the science we know.  As Christians, we know the simple, beautiful and compelling truth is much more profound than that, that we were created by God to enjoy loving relationships.  Jesus made it very clear:

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

So everything else hangs on this one idea of love, including (we can infer) everything to do with leadership.  How do we incorporate love into leadership?  Let’s turn to biblical-theology for some help.

As individuals, we are made in the image of God.  The corollary is that as a community, we are made in the image of the Trinity.

• Being made in the image of God means that we are made to love, because “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” 1 John 4:8
• Being made in the image of the Trinity means that we are made to love, respect and honour one another, just as the three persons of the Trinity do.  As one theologian says, “Because all human beings are created in the image of God, the perfect community of love in God’s inner relationships are the foundation for all social ethics.  Presence, reciprocity, giving, receiving and returning define the deep law of structure of both divine and human life.”  (Donald Faris, “The Trinity as our guide” in The Trinity .)
• Also in The Trinity, Andrew Stirling wrote about the community of the Trinity being a role model for humanity.  God wants us to enjoy the same quality of relationships as the three persons of the Trinity enjoy with each other.

Leaders must therefore love the communities they lead, and care for them just as God loves and cares for the entire human community.

So what does infusing leadership with love look like?

• Loving leadership will be patient and kind, not envious, boastful or proud.  It will not dishonour others or be self-seeking.  Leaders will not be easily angered nor will they keep a record of wrongs.  Leaders will rejoice in the truth, and they will always protect, trust, hope and persevere.  Those words from 1 Corinthians 13 are easily written and more difficult to live, and they are challenging in that in the workplace we need standards of performance and accountability for performance, and employment law effectively requires a record of any problems should it come to dismissal. So, leaders need to be wise as to how to meet civil requirements while always living out the godly life that God has called us to. That leads to the next point…
• Leaders need to be immersed in prayer, Bible study and other Christian spiritual practices in order to know God’s mind so well that they have the wisdom to deal with the issues they face in a Christ-honouring way.  Returning to the question of meeting civil requirements in a godly way, just as Jesus had to confront his disciples about their lack of performance from time to time, ministry leaders will also need to confront and not gloss over performance issues, but it will be a confrontation based on love and not anger.  It will be about looking for a better solution than the one that caused the confrontation.  It will be about helping a person give the best performance they are capable of giving or helping them find a job they can perform well.  It will be confrontation that honours and respects the other person while challenging the negative issue.
• Loving others surely includes loving Christ’s church and it must also include loving all who are called to vocational ministry (as a subset of loving ‘others’).  That means that as leaders we will take into account the effect of our ministry’s actions on other ministries and we will do no harm to other ministries.  We will not use their good ideas in competition against them nor will we do anything meant for our good at their cost.  We will work together as much as possible to demonstrate Christian love and unity, because as a community we bear the image of the Trinity.
• Loving your staff includes:
  • providing for them in terms of fair compensation so they can live reasonably well and providing them the tools they need to do their work (so resourcing your ministry is an important leadership responsibility)
  • developing them to be all that God wants them to be in terms of their vocation (so you should have a continuing education budget and a professional development plan for each person)
  • developing policies and defining values that support their Christian life in a work context (for instance, some reward systems pit staff members against each other in a competitive environment, or expediency takes priority over what is right).  Create a culture supported by policies that supports your stafff’s Christian walk.
  • respecting staff for their contributions to the ministry (not only for the regular on-going work they perform, but also for the ideas they contribute).  To help them contribute well, make sure you have conveyed the criteria for good contributions, including how you weigh one idea against another.  What are you looking for?  What are the priorities?
  • Of course, in a Trinitarian model all persons have the obligation to love, honour and respect one another, and that includes team members loving, honouring and respecting their team leader!  Leaders are just as entitled as staff are to be loved.

I’m sure there is much more to write about love and leadership, but this is enough to prime the pump and get you thinking about it.  If you think of any ways to apply the idea of “loving leadership,” please post them below.  And if you have other points to add about what loving leadership looks like, please add them too.

Please note that I am using “Loving Leadership” in distinction to “Servant Leadership” or “Visionary Leadership,” not as a replacement but as an additional aspect of leadership.  The flip side of this post is that team members should also love their team leaders.

By the way, I found the quote at the top while on retreat at The Sabbath House in The Hand of God: Thoughts and Images Reflecting the Spirit of the Universe, one of the books out on a coffee table.  The quote is from a scientist, John Wheeler.  The book is full of beautiful pictures from space combined with quotes such as this one from scientists and theologians.  The theme is that science and religion can peacefully co-exist.

An article by Dr. John Jefferson (“The Role of Theology in the Life of the Church“) makes a strong case for why theological training is critical for church leaders, and I believe his arguments apply just as well to agency leaders.  I believe theology helps us understand what we are doing, why we are doing it, how we should do it, and how we should evaluate both our options and our results.

Dr. Jefferson writes that theology:

• provides the grounding for a vision that will not let you get off-track.  It will ensure you approach your mission holistically.  Always remember that we are not just trying to solve problems (hunger, people not in relationship with God, guilt, etc.) but we are helping bring this world into God’s kingdom where everyone can experience the fullness of God’s love and peace, and truly be the people God made them to be.  So our vision must be bigger than overcoming the problem; it must incorporate God’s intended result.  Theology should broaden and elevate our vision for the work God has called us to so that we always have God’s end in mind.
• keeps ministries healthy.  Based on some research, Dr. Jefferson states that denominations that have “tolerated doctrinal erosion” have suffered great membership losses between 1965 and 1999 while denominations committed to a strong biblical theology have grown and shown great vitality.  Staying true to your theological foundation gives workers and supporters something solid to commit to that fully engages them.  Taking action based on a strong theology puts your ministry in a place where it is most likely to enjoy God’s many blessings.
• provides a standard against which to measure your success.  How are you doing, really?  How would God assess your results?  Thinking about your performance from God’s perspective will likely lead you to include some additional performance criteria such as the manner in which you achieved results, and it will almost always lead to little niggling questions such as “Who did we overlook?” and “Did we do anything that really required faith?”  I think it will also keep the leadership team humble as they analyze their own performance in light of God’s standards.

If you’d like to find a Bible college or seminary to take a course or two, or even to get a degree, a pretty comprehensive listing of them can be found at Christian Higher Education Canada’s website.

The temptation to use power for personal benefit must be resisted.  You would think that our commitment to living a godly life would prevent us from abusing our power and authority and I’m sure it does in most cases.  But it is possible that for a few leaders the positive motivation is not enough to keep them safe from temptation.  For those who need some fear motivation, here’s a thought that might bring you back to your senses:

The LORD sent Nathan to David and he came to him and said, “Now a traveler came to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take from his own flock or his own herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him; rather he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”  Then David’s anger burned greatly against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the LORD lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die.  He must make restitution for the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing and had no compassion.”  Nathan then said to David, “You are the man!”
2 Samuel 12:4-7

King David was rightfully indignant at the mistreatment a powerful man inflicted on a man who was weak and defenseless against him.  Imagine David’s shock, therefore, when it turned out that he himself was the man!  In biblical days, the weakest and most defenseless members of society were the widows, the orphans and the aliens.  Search the Bible for “widow orphan” and you will find that God says many times to defend widows, orphans, and aliens, to leave the ‘gleanings’ for them, to give them justice, and to bless them.  We are told not to afflict them, not to distort justice, nor to crush or oppress them, mistreat them or send them away empty-handed.  Jeremiah is filled with God’s accusations against his shepherds, and so is Ezekiel.  God will hold his shepherds to account and therefore pleads with them to perform their duties.  This exhortation continues in the New Testament in, for example, James 1:27, which says that “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress…”

So as a leader, who are the weak and the defenseless in your world?  By definition, you have power and authority over those who report to you and therefore your team members, with respect to yourself, turn out to be among the weak and the defenseless.  They are people you should seek to defend and bless.  Jesus contrasted Christian leadership with secular leadership, saying in Matthew 20:25-28:

“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them.  “It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.”

The secular world caught up with Christian ideas of leadership when Robert Greenleaf wrote his classic book Servant Leadership: A Journey Into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness.  A whole generation of leaders has been influenced by this book.  Christians should applaud and support society when it moves in the right direction, and this is one of those times when it has.  So Christian leaders should not be found lagging behind society by power-tripping over their teams.

When you abuse your power and authority for your own benefit, the ultimate defense for the weak and defenseless is the Lord himself, who promised in Malachi 3:15:

“Then I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages, the widow and the orphan, and those who turn aside the alien and do not fear Me,” says the LORD of hosts.

Wow!  If you abuse your power, you are up against a formidable foe!!!  My prayer is that if you have fallen to temptation, having realized what you have done you will now ask God for forgiveness, make things right with others and get on with life.