The garden and the gardener is an excellent metaphor for the relationship between leaders and those that they lead. Considering the needs of the garden, and more specifically individual plants, alongside the outlook and activities of the Gardner provides insight into the role of the Christian servant leader.

This is the second post in a series adapted from a paper by Dr Thorsten Grahn, one of Claybury International’s associates. You can read Thorsten’s first Article in The Servant Leader’s Garden Series here and “Jesus: The Role Model for Christian Leaders”, Thorsten’s introduction to Christ-centred Servant Leadership

This article focuses on some key realities about the growth of people and the Christian servant leader’s role in its facilitation. First it’s the recognition that growth in organizations is as dependent upon God as is growth in a garden. However, growth needs to be fostered; it requires sufficient room for the individual to grow but excessive growth on the part of one can constrain and deprive another. Even then the difficult process of “pruning”  is required to help shape and direct people, increasing their fruitfulness. But perhaps the most uncomfortable aspect of growth is change. This is inevitable.

No Miraculous Growth without Miracles

A gardener can cultivate a garden with excellence and through his diligence come close to gardening perfection, but even then, without a sufficient supply of water and sunshine, the plants or even the whole garden might die. Man made nurturing in the garden is absolutely necessary but of itself it is not sufficient for growth.

All plants need a regular supply of water and sunshine, and the amount and intensity required will vary from plant to plant. Man works hard to control these supplies and so control the growth of plants   However, even though horticultural and agricultural technology is moving fast, it will never be able to fully replace the natural sunshine, wind and weather supplied by the creator who sustains his creation.

The same holds true for Christian leaders. In an organization, even when the leadership does everything possible to help the people and the organization to grow, there may be unforeseeable and uncontrollable events that hinder the organization’s ability to flourish. The best Christian leadership is dependent upon man and therefore has its limitations. Consequently, leadership alone will be insufficient for growth. The Christ-centered servant leader must rely upon God, whom he serves.

The Apostle Paul, who sees himself as a gardener in the Christian community, understood that in the final analysis, all Christian growth is only by God’s grace when he writes in 1 Corinthians 3:5-9:

What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe – as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

Effective Growth Requires Sufficient Room

Bamboo varies in height from small, one foot (30 cm) plants to giant timber bamboos that can grow to over 100 feet (30 m). It grows in many different climates, from jungles to high mountainsides. Bamboo is often classified by the type of root it has. Some, called runners, spread exuberantly, and others expand slowly from the original planting. Generally, the tropical bamboos tend to expand slowly and the temperate bamboos tend to propagate via runners.

In our garden, we had one of the temperate, running bamboos. It was a beautiful plant, and we had already made several attempts to limit its growth to keep it in a specific area. However, all attempts were to no avail, the bamboo cut through or grew under or over any set barrier and developed roots in other parts of our garden. The bamboo hindered the growth of other plants in the garden. It needed more space to grow. As we did not have more space, and the bamboo would not stay within its allocated area, we finally had to pull it up to protect the rest of the garden.

Similarly, people need space to grow, to try out new things, to develop new skills, to change themselves and the organization. To remain healthy an organization must provide sufficient space for growth within the organization, or the individual must transfer to another area, or even another organization. Otherwise, both the individual and the organization will suffer.

Servant leaders provide the necessary environment for growth for the individuals in the organization.

Lasting Growth Requires Regular Pruning

Trees are pruned to develop a strong branching pattern. The pruning of fruit trees not only shapes the future growth of the tree, it also increases the quality of the fruit. The goal of the pruning is to create a clear crown, which allows the air to pass through the crown preventing diseases and to let sunlight in. The sunlight is important for the flavor of the fruit.

In general, a strong pruning stimulates growth more than a cautious one. Often the inexperienced gardener makes the mistake of pruning too cautiously and then only on the outer part of the crown.

Pruning is important so that the tree will not invest too much of its resources into branches that bear no fruit.

Organizationally, the process of pruning is about prioritizing and focusing the work of individuals on what they are best at, and what is most needed for their individual growth.  As the gardener has to prune repeatedly, “pruning” should also become a regular process in any organization. In an organization it involves evaluating ongoing projects and ministries and cutting those areas that will not bear lasting fruit. It enables the available resources to be focused on the fruit-bearing branches.

Pruning is a very difficult leadership task, because it hurts people as it involves cutting projects that bear no lasting fruit. From this perspective only a few leaders are willing to take on the role of the gardener, especially if there is no pressing need. In difficult times, sometimes external consultants are invited to do the necessary pruning. This often happens so late in the process that, instead of pruning, the tree has to be cut down. It takes courage to prune. In the garden, as in many organizations, the pruning serves first the growth of the individual plant and only secondly the growth of the garden.

Servant leaders are not afraid of pruning. They know it will hurt the plant but it will also ensure improved growth and fruit bearing. When Servant leaders prune, their motivation is the same as God’s motivation for pruning as Jesus describes it in John 15:2: “Every branch that does bear fruit he (God) prunes, so that it will be even more fruitful.”

The One Who Outshines Others Limits Their Growth

All plants need sunlight to grow. However, some plants need more sunlight than others. Moreover, some plants take more of the sunlight at the expense of others leaving them in the shade. The gardener has to make sure that plants are placed in the right spots and that they get the sunlight they need.

In our garden, we have a cherry laurel sitting close to a rosebush. The roses need both regular fresh air and sunlight to flourish. However, the cherry laurel grows faster and thicker than the rosebush. We needed to prune the cherry laurel so that it does not grow into the rose bush. Instead of the cherry laurel outshining the rose bush and limiting its growth, both can flourish.

The leadership of an organization must be proactive in recognizing the growth needs of individual members of staff and must create the space and environment necessary so that everyone can blossom. Gary Yukl, a leading thinker and author on leadership, observed “Effective leaders help people develop their skills and empower people to become …… leaders themselves”

It’s Impossible to Grow without Change

In the garden, growth and death happen continuously at the same time, day by day. It is often invisible at first, but it happens. Also, in a garden there are many other changes, most of which are necessary to keep the plants growing. The garden needs the different seasons so that the plants can rest, gain new strength, multiply, flourish, and bear fruit at the right time. Sometimes, hurricanes, floods, or extreme heat drastically impact the plants in the garden.

This process of inevitable change is also true for people and the organizations in which they work. To foster growth in such circumstances organizational leadership needs to address the inevitable change that takes place. Thus, Christian servant leaders need to be prepared for the unexpected, continuously evaluating developments inside and outside of the organization.

There is one unchanging fact; the process of change occurs continuously whether anyone likes it or not. Moreover, change is a necessary outcome of growth; neither a plant nor a person can grow without there being change. Becoming people who achieve their full Kingdom potential is such a process.

“The scriptures focus more on process than on product, because all believers are in a process of becoming the people God meant us to be. Without change, growth is impossible” – Buzzell.

Reflection

What was your reaction to this statement “,.. leadership alone will be insufficient for growth. The Christ-centered servant leader must rely upon God, whom he serves.”? How can you make more space for God in your leadership?

Have you people who are bearing fruit but who could be much more fruitful?  What kind of “pruning” would bring that about?

Take a moment to ponder the people you lead. Is there anyone withering in the shade of  another who has grown faster. What can you do to enable each to develop to their full potential?

Do you welcome change or fear it? Why? How can you enable others to embrace change and so flourish where God is leading?

Image: LadyDragonFlyCC Flickr.com

You might never have thought of Christian leadership like this: being a servant leader modelled on Christ is much like being a gardener. Pondering the relationship between the gardener and his garden can provide us with some excellent insights into how to be a Christ-centered servant leader.

For the Christian, Jesus is the ultimate model of leadership and as members of his body, in order to be the leaders that we are called to be, there really is only one way to go. That is to follow his lead and be leaders in his style, just as he taught his disciples to be. You can gain an overview of Christ-centred servant leadership here Jesus: The Role Model for Christian Leaders

“The Servant Leader’s Garden” is a short series of articles adapted from a paper published by Dr. Thorsten Grahn. If you are a budding servant leader this series will provide you with food for thought about how you lead and how Christ-like is your leadership style. It will also provide you with a healthy challenge if your leadership style is based on one of the many secular models, even if it has been Christianised.

The Garden

The Britannica online dictionary defines “garden” as “a plot of ground where herbs, fruits, flowers, vegetables, or trees are cultivated.”, and “gardening” as “Laying out and tending a garden”. This definition covers a wide range of garden types, like a small garden in the backyard of a private home, a rose garden, a large recreational public garden, and even the biblical garden of Eden.

In many aspects, the task of the gardener in a garden is similar to the task of a servant leader in an organization. Both will study the environment, define a specific purpose, prepare a place that is conducive for growth, get the right plants/people in to be able to fulfil the purpose, and tend to the individual plants/people to help them grow and bear fruit. A garden is made up of single plants and much additional insight can be gained from considering the role of a single plant – or even parts of a plant – in the garden, and applying those insights to the role of a leader in an organization.

Every Christian leader can also be considered to be a plant (e.g., a “tree” as in Psalm 1) or a part of a plant (e.g., a vine branch in John 15) in God’s worldwide garden.

Naturally, the central theme of a garden is the growth of its plants. The gardener’s main concerns are when each plant grows, how fast it grows, in which soil it grows, how much water and sun it needs, what it produces, what stimulates or hinders its growth, how the growth of neighbouring plants affect each other, and so on.

As in the garden, in servant leadership the central theme is the growth of the individual parts, the people. This focus on the growth of the individual, and not primarily on the growth of the organization, is a unique characteristic of servant leadership. See Jesus: The Role Model for Christian Leaders

The Bible passage in John 15:1-8 is one of most obvious connections between the garden metaphor and biblical servant leadership. Here Jesus applies the garden metaphor to Christian leadership, with his father as the gardener whose concern is the fruit born by the branches. Most of the gardening analogies in the “The Servant Leader’s Garden” series directly relate to the servant leader’s focus on personal growth and on the growth of those being served.

Grass Doesn’t Grow Faster if You Pull It

An African proverb goes, “Grass does not grow faster if you pull it”.

Trying to make grass grow by pulling its blades kills the grass. First, the blade extends a little, especially if it is fresh grass, but by pulling a little harder, it tears off. It does not grow, instead it dies.

The same happens whenever the leadership of an organization tries to put pressure on people to make them grow. It finally kills the people; it kills their motivation, their health, and sometimes even takes lives. Sustainable personal growth needs personal commitment and inner motivation. The leadership can only create a healthy environment to support the individual’s growth process by providing encouragement, vision and training, but leadership cannot force people to grow. It needs intrinsic motivation to ensure continuous healthy growth according to the individual’s strengths, skills and gifts.

Kouzes and Posner observe that “For the servant leader, the main reason for leading is to help other people win”; helping people to win means helping them to grow. That is not possible by pulling or pushing, but only by encouraging their heart, enabling them to act and praying for them, as Jesus did.  Isa 42:3 says of the coming Christ “A bruised reed he will not break”. Instead, Jesus Christ, the ultimate servant leader, came to heal human brokenness. Trying to heal hurt and broken people, and bringing them back to healthy growth, is an outcome of the servant leader’s commitment to the growth of his followers.

Right Placement Turns Weeds into Roses

Every plant that grows in a place where it is not wanted is a weed. In a vegetable patch, roses are weeds. However, in most other parts of garden, roses are considered beautiful flowers.

Organisationally, sometimes what differentiates a poor achiever from a high achiever is only the person’s placement in the organisation.

One of the five key principles of servant leadership is to arrange each person in a team or in a business such that everyone contributes according to their strengths. Right placement is especially important when working with those who have high potential. Leaders have to create an environment in which they can thrive, otherwise, if they are put in the wrong place, they can cause more problems than the average person. However, they can also become a greater asset if they are put in the right place, a place where they are not “weeds” but where they can thrive and prosper.

All this means that the servant leader needs to get to know both the potential of each of their people (plants) and the possible work places (soil) in order to develop the most fruitful combinations.

Successfully Growing Up Requires Growing Down Regularly

The Great Indian Banyan Tree

The branches of the banyan tree send down aerial roots. When they reach the ground they take root. As the roots thicken and become strong they support the branches. The branches then grow out and send down more roots. And so the cycle repeats and the banyan tree is able to spread in amazing ways. Therefore, banyan trees have been called “trees that walk”. The Great Indian Banyan Tree is a single tree. It is over 250 years old, its canopy covers around 4 acres and has a circumference of about 1 Kilometer. The original trunk became diseased and was removed.

A strong tree needs a strong root. What makes the banyan tree unique is that it is continually growing completely new roots, which are not extensions of existing roots. In this way it not only grows new branches and leaves and fruits, but also new roots. The new roots do not make the old ones obsolete, but they complement them and together they strengthen the tree and make it grow into new areas.

Growing deeper to grow bigger and expand the area of influence is a growth process for all members of an organization. Growing deeper includes ongoing learning, working on personal issues, which might be hidden to others but none the less affect them, and remaining in touch with one’s foundation of life.

A leader who wants to help others grow must grow as well because modelling is at the core of servant leadership. As the banyan tree grows step by step by building increasingly firm foundations, leaders must commit themselves to an ongoing process of growing deeper.

Stephen Covey comments “The path to greatness is a process of sequential growth from the inside out”. It is a process that requires going back to the roots regularly. Drawing on 1Peter 2:1-2 Buzzell contends that “Leaders are not qualified merely because they practice good deeds (although they must do that). They are qualified by possessing a passion and a craving for high spiritual qualities and exhibiting a consistent pattern of growth in those qualities”. To model the way and to grow consistently, based on firm spiritual and ethical foundations, is a sound basis for effective leadership. Christ-centred servant leaders trust in the Lord and grow deep roots in God. Such leaders are like trees planted by water. Jer 17:7-8:

But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.

Reflection

So Christian leader, how does your garden grow?  Here are some points to ponder?

• Is your focus the personal growth of your people? Is your goal to help them win?  What are the needs of your people and what can you do to help them be more fruitful?

• Are any of your people hurting? It’s difficult to grow and bear good fruit in such circumstances. What can you do to help them heal?

• Have you any weeds in your garden? Would they become roses if they were placed elsewhere? What can you do to release them to achieve their full potential?

• Do you know the potential of each of your people? Could anyone be more fruitful in a different position?

• Are you modelling growth and with that increased fruitfulness? What can you do to develop your own personal growth?

• Are you nurturing your people that they may also grow, becoming deeper and broader in their capability?

You might also find this article of help Be The Best Christian Leader That You Can

Image: DanielFoster437 Flickr.com

In the autumn of 2011 the concept of leadership is definitely in view.  The “Arab Spring” has once more brought into focus failing and abusive forms of leadership; a style of leadership that demands and domineers and has little if any interest in people.  On the economic front we still see the repercussions of the poor, arguably self-centered leadership that caused the credit crunch, the banking crisis and the global recession.

There is a lot that is said and written about Christian leadership too. Much of it is not actually about leadership at all, but is focused on theological, expositional, hermeneutical, worship facilitation and communications skills. It’s also sad to say that Christian leadership today seems frequently to get confused with the modern concept of celebrity.  Where consideration is given to the vital skills of people and organizational leadership, the Christian world so often seems to call upon secular, worldly models, passing over the one role model who should be in focus – Jesus Christ.

This article is adapted from a paper published by Dr. Thorsten Grahn. It is a study on servant leadership which was modelled by Jesus as he grew and developed the disciples into the leaders of his Church.  As such, this is a model that should have primacy in Kingdom service.

What is Servant Leadership?

It is the focus on the growth of the individual, that they might flourish and achieve their full potential and not primarily the growth and potential of the organization, that distinguishes servant leadership from other leadership styles. The primary concern of the servant leader is service to their followers.

In the secular business schools it was Robert Greenleaf who, in the early 1970s, proposed the servant leader model. However, the concept of a servant leader is not such a modern concept, but can be found in the biblical account of the life of Jesus Christ. By examining his model we can identify a Christ-centred, Christ-like servant leadership style that works for Christians who lead people in any situation.

Jesus, the Model Servant Leader

Jesus submitted his own life to sacrificial service under the will of God (Luke 22:42), and he sacrificed his life freely out of service for others (John 10:30). He came to serve (Matthew 20:28) although he was God’s son and was thus more powerful than any other leader in the world. He healed the sick (Mark 7:31-37), drove out demons (Mark 5:1-20), was recognized as Teacher and Lord (John 13:13), and had power over the wind and the sea and even over death (Mark 4:35-41; Matthew 9:18-26).

In John 13:1-17 Jesus gives a very practical example of what it means to serve others (see also “The King Who Led With a Towel”).  He washes the feet of his followers, which was properly the responsibility of the house-servant. Examination of this passage shows that:

1. Jesus’ basic motivation was love for his followers (v. 1).
2. Jesus was fully aware of his position as leader (v. 14). Before the disciples experienced him as their servant, they had already experienced him many times before as Master, and as a strong and extremely powerful leader.
3. Jesus voluntarily becomes a servant to his followers (v. 5-12). He did not come primarily as their foot washer, but he was ready to do this service for his followers if needed.
4. Jesus wants to set an example for his followers to follow (v. 14-15).

The Servant Leader

From the teaching and example of Jesus Christ we learn that being a servant leader in the most general sense means being:

• A voluntary servant, who submits themselves to a higher purpose, which is beyond their personal interests or the interests of others,
• A leader who uses the power that is entrusted to them to serve others,
• A servant who, out of love, serves others needs before their own,
• A teacher who teaches their followers, in word and deed, how to become servant leaders themselves.

The Christian Servant Leader

Applying these considerations of Jesus as a role model for Christian leaders we can see that, from a Biblical perspective, a servant leader is a person, who is:

• Christ-centered in all aspects of life (a voluntary servant of Christ)
• Committed to serve the needs of others before their own,
• Courageous to lead with power and love as an expression of serving,
• Consistently developing others into servant leaders, and
• Continually inviting feedback from those that they want to serve in order to grow towards the ultimate servant leader, Jesus Christ.

There are some implications worthy of note that arise:

• The servant leader is a “servant in all things” in relationship to God.

This is the Christian servant leader’s higher purpose. He is also a “servant first” in relationship to people.

Jesus Christ came into this world as God’s servant (Isaiah 42:1, Isaiah 52:13, Acts 3:26, 4:27). He also came to serve man (Matthew 20:28). However, Christ did not come to be our servant, whereas he came out of obedience to God, serving him.

Christians are called to be God’s servants in every aspect of our lives. From the Bible it’s clear that this means serving fellow man in accordance with the higher purpose of serving God. Note however, that simply serving people is insufficient. It does not necessarily imply that a leader is serving God. It is possible, for instance, to serve people based on an humanistic worldview.

• There is a big difference between serving the needs of others and being a servant of others’ needs.
  • Serving the needs of others is liberating. It implies recognizing their needs (without judging them), and then doing what can be done, in line with the higher purpose of serving God first, to help satisfy that need. Whereas;
  • Being a servant of the needs of others, requires that one must do anything and everything possible to satisfy those needs, whether it is in line with one’s service to God or not.

• The servant leader themselves is a growing leader, led and grown by the Holy Spirit.

• Jesus was the only human being who never abused his power.

For a leader the abuse of power is a major issue and temptation. The keys to avoiding abuse of power are feedback from God and from the followers, along with sharing power. These factors are necessary to help the leader apply power in line with God’s purpose and for the best of the followers. The development and growth of followers into servant leaders inherently requires that the servant leader passes power on to them (sharing power), so that they can also grow in using that power to serve others according to the higher purpose.

• Servant leadership is more about being than about doing.

Without a serving heart it is almost impossible to become a servant leader. There are different ways to grow servant leaders, although Greenleaf (the founder of secular servant leadership) considers that a leader may need a “conversion experience” in order to become a servant leader. In any event, the highest priority should be given to help servant leaders to grow in their service to God. Out of the service to God, true service to others flows more easily.

3D Servant Leaders

There are three dimensions in which Christian servant leaders must grow:

1. As a voluntary servant of God
2. As a servant of others, and
3. As a leader.

If someone is already a committed servant of God and of others, they need to employ their leadership gifts to serve others as a leader with the right use of power and with love. Leadership skills training, continuous encouragement and feedback can support a servant leader in this growth process.

Someone, who is already a leader, but who wants to become a servant leader, also needs training, encouragement and feedback, but they need a conversion towards servanthood much more. This commitment must then be strengthened again and again. It is harder to learn to be a servant than to learn to be a leader, especially for those who have been senior leaders for many years. Old habits die hard.

The servant leader must be “learning servant” who wants to grow both as a leader and as a servant. Therefore, the servant leader invites feedback especially from God – through prayer, Bible reading, and communication with spiritual mentors – and from the people being served. One way to start a feedback process with the people being served is simply is to ask them how the leader can best serve them. Ideally the feedback will be an ongoing process, resulting in the servant leader serving more effectively according to the actual needs of the people.

According to the Bible, to become a servant of God and to enjoy serving others is not only a decision that a person needs to take, it is first a gracious gift from God. More than this, because of our new nature, as Christian leaders we should find ourselves readily drawn to the Christ-centred servant leadership model. It is the “leadership style” of our role model, Jesus Christ, and as we see throughout the Bible, serving God inherently includes serving others in line with his good plans and purposes.

Reflection

How do you compare to the leadership role model of Jesus? Are you drawn to the higher purpose of serving God? Are you focused on your people, those who follow you (remember leaders have followers) achieving their full potential for the Kingdom?  It requires a conscious decision to become a servant of a higher purpose and of others.

It may be that you have never looked at Jesus as a leadership role model. To discover more work through the references given in Thorsten’s article.  Take a look at the “King Who Led With a Towel” series on christian-leadership.org

An interesting exercise is to read through Mark’s Gospel and look to see how Jesus led and developed that disparate collection of men who became his disciples and to whom he entrusted his Church.

Remember, this Christ-centred servant leadership model is not just for Church leaders but Christian leaders in para-church and secular organisations too.

Image: Jesse Kruger flickr.com

The other morning I was reading the story in Mark’s Gospel chapter 6 where Jesus sends out the 12 disciples without him. They were to declare and demonstrate the coming of the Kingdom of God on their own for the first time.  As I pondered this story I saw an account of Jesus the servant leader, developing people to achieve their full potential for the Kingdom. Jesus’ goal was to turn this unlikely group into Christian servant leaders themselves and this story is about a particular episode on that journey.

Often as Christian leaders we look to Jesus only as a spiritual role model and then we look to the world for our models of leadership.  Whilst the world’s models are not always bad, many aspects of them are poor from a Christian perspective or need to be tempered with the Gospel. Because Jesus, amongst other things, is the role model for the whole of the Christian’s life we can, if we look, learn from him how to be Christ-like Christian leaders.

Jesus’ People Development Strategies

In the context of this Gospel story there are two leadership strategies that we see Jesus using. He uses others, but just here there are two to that are easily seen.

Recruit – Train – Deploy

Looking at the journey of the disciples from being a “motley crew” to becoming the twelve Apostles, we see that Jesus uses a simple straightforward strategy designed to enable them to develop and maximise their Kingdom potential: Recruit – Train – Deploy.

This may seem obvious, it may appear to be quite ordinary and expected.

Alas for many leaders, even in churches and Christian organisations, it is not what they do.  So often the “train” step is overlooked, completely ignored and never given a second thought. People are recruited with loads of potential but little competence in the new role. They are deployed immediately on the basis that they will “work it out” with only a limited orientation briefing.

You don’t have to be a genius to workout the damaging consequences for the individual and the organisation. It doesn’t take much experience to observe that many in that position simply become the unenthused with little competence and less productivity and probably move on quickly.

Show and Tell

We also see Jesus using a process that is not dissimilar to the “Situational Leadership” model set out by Blanchard and Hersey.  The goal is to move the individual from being the “enthusiastic beginner” with little competence to the competent achiever who simply needs to be pointed in the right direction. That individual’s journey, orchestrated by their leader, passes through several stages. This process is what Claybury International describes as the “Show and Tell” model. Together the leader and the trainee move through 4 phases:

• Phase 1:
  The leader shows the trainee what needs to be done and the trainee observes.
• Phase2:
  The leader leads the implementation of the task, explaining and directing the trainee who assists.
• Phase 3:
  The trainee leads the task and the leader assists.
• Phase 4:
  The trainee is delegated to complete the task while the leader observes.  The trainee becomes competent and eventually leaves the process fully fledged, no longer a trainee.

Evaluation is a vital step in each phase. It is important because it not only helps the leader and the trainee assesses progress and agree what still needs to be done. It also allows the trainee to reflect. This reflection process is key to effective learning as new connections are made, deeper understanding is developed and improved practices identified.

The four stages will overlap, especially where confidence and competence is growing. Based on the outcomes of evaluation, for instance, having moved to phase 3 it may be necessary to step back to phase 1 and/or phase 2 before continuing on in phase 3.

In most learning situations development is undertaken in parallel on more than one area. Progress is unlikely to be at an even pace across all areas. So for one area the student and leader could be working in Phase 3 or 4 while still being at phase 1 or 2 for another.

“Show and Tell” in Action.

The tasking of the 12 was to cast out demons and heal the sick. Although its not explicitly stated by Mark, Matthew tells us they were also to declare that the “Kingdom of heaven is near”.  Mark tells us that when they reported back they told Jesus “all that they done had taught”.  In short they were to declare and demonstrate the Kingdom of God.

How did they learn what to do and teach?  Virtually all of the story in the preceding chapters in Mark’s Gospel records Jesus doing the things he was now asking the disciples to do.  He spent time working with the disciples “showing and telling” them by explaining things while they observed him do them and also by allowing them to assist him.

In this episode, where they are sent out, Jesus is releasing them to use that which they have learned. They are moving in to the place where they take the lead and Jesus is the observer.  When its done they return and evaluate what they have done, telling Jesus all about it.

Where is phase 3 in the process? In this episode it is not evident but shortly after they are challenged by Jesus to feed the 5000. They just don’t know what is going on with that. Their view of how the world works is challenged by how the Kingdom of God works. It seems that exercising power over the physical world by healing the sick is easier for them to understand than is exercising power of the physical world by making 5 loaves and 2 fish feed 5000 plus. In this case Jesus assists them.  Later on in Mark 9 we also read of the disciple’s encounter with a demon possessed boy and they cannot remove the demon.  In fact they get into an argument with the boy’s father.  Jesus arrives and releases the boy and explains that “This kind can come out only by prayer”.

In the preceding chapters we see Jesus showing the disciples about healing and casting out demons. They have also witnessed his explaining the Kingdom of God to the people. Mark also tells us how he took them aside to help them understand the riddle of the parables he told.

This whole process is about growing and preparing the disciples to achieve their full potential for the Kingdom of God. It is a model of service. Jesus’ focus is not on command and control to get the disciples to simply follow instructions or else. He is concerned for them and his focus is on equipping them to be fully effective; to be the Christian leaders that God wants them to be.  This is the outlook of the Christ-centred servant leader.

Equipping the Disciples

There are some interesting things to learn from the detail of Jesus teaching and coaching of the disciples, especially as they go out and return.

People are important

They have been taught to be concerned for people not just their task. This is a hallmark of servant leadership.

Think back to Mark chapter 5 when Jesus was surrounded by a heaving crowd. One of his tasks was to declare the Kingdom of God to the people. Here was a key opportunity but then Jairus comes and asks Jesus to heal his child so that she will not die. Jesus gives himself to Jairus and his daughter. On the way to deal with what we would see as an emergency, while the child is dying, the woman with the issue of blood touches Jesus’ hem. He stops and gives her time, he blesses her and commends her faith.

In these episodes Jesus demonstrates that he is here to serve not simply to complete tasks.  He is showing the disciples what it is like to be a servant leader in the Kingdom of God. He is also showing the disciples that in the Kingdom of God we need to see that things work differently than in the world. Witness the episode with his friend Lazarus.

Both the responsibility and the authority to do the Job

Jesus gave the disciples a task (a responsibility) and also he gave them the authority to complete the task. Without the authority, even though they may have had the skills, they would not have been empowered to do what was expected of them.

This again seems obvious but quite often it is something that is overlooked and defeats the whole process.  This not something that a servant leader would do;  it prevents those in their charge from achieving their full potential. What is the point of that?

Placed outside their comfort zone

So far Jesus had always been there for them. Now they were off on their own; placed a situation way beyond their comfort zone. This is essential for growth and achieving full potential.  But note Jesus did not “drop them in it”. He made it safe for them by sending them in pairs. This is not about physical safety but having sufficient support.

How to deal with the issues that might arise

The thing that bleeds away confidence is the “What if…” scenarios that trouble us. In this case: “What if people take no notice of us?”   This is a “what if things go wrong question” and such questions generate fud – fear, uncertainty and doubt .  This in turn discourages people, preventing them from attempting the task in hand, in which case they never achieve their potential.

So Jesus, the servant leader, gave them instructions on what to do. It meant they could tell people and demonstrate that The Kingdom of God is near without fearing rejection.

Making mistakes and failing is OK

Remember the story of the talents, how the man given one talent was afraid of his master in case he failed and so he did nothing but bury his talent.  Fear of mistakes and failure paralyses.

This issue of people rejecting the disciples was also an issue of potential failure. The task given to the disciples was to tell and show people that the Kingdom was near. Rejection would mean that they had failed with those people.

In telling them how to deal with rejection, by moving on and shaking the dust from their feet as symbolic of their being rejected by God, he was giving the disciples permission to fail. In so doing he was releasing them to realise their potential. Otherwise they would have been constrained and tentative in the face of imagined opposition.

Value people

On their return they came to Jesus and debriefed.  Not only does this form the evaluation aspect of the “Show and Tell Model” it also allows upsets and concerns to be expressed where things may have gone wrong and advice and guidance to be received.

Often just speaking out concerns “to get them off one’s chest” is all that is needed. It also enables the trainees to share their successes and joys. It allows Jesus to show that the disciples are important to him. It is they that are valued as people and individuals not simply the completion of the task.

So , in taking time to listen to the disciples Jesus demonstrated that they and their achievement were important to him. It has been said that being listened to is the next best thing to being loved. It is important.

Reflection

If you are a Christian Leader take a moment to consider how you relate to and develop people?

Do you forget the training stage of the recruit – train -deploy process? If so what are you going to do about it?

If you haven’t done so, take time to read those first few chapters of Mark’s Gospel and see how Jesus  recruited, trained and deployed the disciples.  Take time to ponder the “Show and Tell Model” and some of the other lessons that emerge from the accounts of Jesus sending out the 12.

Learn more about Jesus as a servant leader by reading the “The King Who led with a Towel” series.

How will you change what you do as a Christian Leader?

Image: Steve Heron Flickr.com

This series on stress has been focusing on organisational stress and we have looked at the role that the Christian servant leader has to play by adopting strategies that help reduce stress for the people in his team or organisation. So far we have not considered what you can do if, through reading these articles, you identify high levels of occupational stress in yourself. Colin Buckland shared some more tips with me.

If you are in the ministry or on the mission field you may find this series on ministry stress helpful as well.

Dealing with Occupational Stress for Yourself

So, here are 5 things that you can do to help reduce the impact of occupational stress on your life.

Stress Self Diagnostic

Well, I think the first thing to do is a bit of a self-diagnostic really. You need to start thinking about you. “Are the things we have discussed in this series especially present in me?”

You can engage trusted others with this; your spouse, a close friend, or a near relative who knows you well and aren’t ‘yes’ people. By that I mean they’re not just going to tell you everything you want to hear, but they’re going to give you an honest response… you can ask them. Some times we’ve had leaders go home and ask, “Am I irritable?” And then their spouse would say, “My goodness, I’m so glad to hear you say that, because you’ve been irritable for a long time.” They just haven’t realized.

So, self-diagnostics; don’t just rely on yourself when you do that, but ask these trusted others.

Review Your Workload

When you discover that you are exhibiting signs of stress then you need to start doing something. It’s a bit like you’re burning yourself in a fire, you need to get out of the fire. So, you need to start looking at your workload. “What do I take on?” “What do I say ‘yes’ to?” “What do I say ‘no’ to?”

You could actually start charting your working week, and look at the hours that you do. So, over maybe a two or three week period draw up a table of hours, fill it in. Nobody really likes to do this, but it’s amazing what it can tell you. Over a two or three week period you can look at how much work you’ve been doing. That might be the very cause of your stress; you’re just doing too much.

Establish Good Eating habits

Diet is important. If we eat good food and healthy food that will start to help minimize our stress. (There are lots of good books on this, run a search on Amazon)

Engage in Exercise

One of the greatest stress-beaters is exercise. Learn to exercise. We don’t necessarily have to get a personal trainer who runs us into the ground. Start doing something that raises your heartbeat maybe thirty minutes three times a week. That will make a huge difference to your stress levels. This is a stress-beater.

Develop Relaxation

One other thing that you can do is learn to relax. Several times a day stop what you’re doing, relax. You’ll find that will make an enormous difference to you in your place of work.

You can use relaxation techniques like breathing, and thinking about warming liquid flowing through your body, and so on. There are lots of books that will give you lots of these exercises available in most good bookshops.

There are a couple of devices I could mention to help with relaxation.

One is a simple thing called a stress dot. This is a temperature sensitive dot that you can put on your hand. It’s colour-graded and the more stressed you get the more your body temperature changes and the colour of the dot changes. Your hands begin to get cool. It will show you, really in an instant, how you’re doing. These have been used on school children, to assess the stress levels of children at school. They are very effective so, it’s a good piece of work.

The other device  is a bio-feedback monitor, which looks a little bit like one of those 1960s transistor radios. I remember I used to listen to one of those under my bed clothes at night, just a little personal radio. Well, you get this electrode that you strap on your finger and the device makes this annoying sound. The more stressed you are, the more heightened your system is, the higher the squeal. As you use it you can learn to relax and slowly bring that sound down until it becomes a tic-tic-tic.  What you’re learning to do is relax.

Reflection

The first thing that you can do is that self diagnostic. Consider the symptoms of stress that we have discussed in the this series; do you recognize any of them in yourself? If you do, then begin to work through Colin’s tips.

If your stress seems extreme then of course you should go and visit your doctor as soon as you can as well as take steps to reduce the sources of your stress.

Even if you have not recognized stress in yourself, one day soon it could be there. So we recommend getting a head start, consider your diet and begin an exercise regime. But more than that consider the insights that you have gained from this series and apply the lessons to your work life and your approach to leading your organisation or team.

Image: TheeErin Flickr.com

A Servant Leadership Culture and Style is the Key to Organisational Stress Reduction

As we have seen in the first three articles, stress frequently arises because of the demands that are being placed on staff without a reasonable consideration of their capacity and capability and it is exacerbated when they feel they have no control over their situation. They feel that they are simply Cog-ware, parts of a machine that demands performance but has little care for their well being. The result is stress and with that declining performance.

The best, most productive organizations develop a servant leadership style that is inherently concerned with enabling people to achieve their full potential and in such an environment they do.

The Christian servant leader will be seeking to model a Jesus-style of  servant leadership as they outwork concern for the team members and contribute to their ability to achieve their full potential while reducing levels of stress. The result is an effective organisation even when the going gets tough. This approach is as applicable to church leaders as it is to leaders in para-church situations.

Now, here is the irony of leadership…..

Being so concerned with quality and productivity that the people come second or may be third on the list, results in less than the best in terms of quality and productivity. While, being concerned primarily for the people, working out a style of servant leadership modelled on Jesus, and actively engaging them results in improved quality and productivity.

Why?

Because the people become committed to the success of the team, the department and the organisation.

What aspects of such an anti-stress culture have the most effect on reducing organisational stress? Colin Buckland shared five aspects that you can start implementing today.

Servant Leaders Create a Sustainable Culture

One of the things that is more important than most people realize is the corporate culture; that is to say “it’s how things work around here”. Corporate culture is virtually always driven by the leaders. It starts with the most senior person and it runs through the senior leadership. How they behave and how they respond in certain circumstances will determine how other people will respond.

As an example, let’s say you model starting work at 6 AM and not leaving until 7 PM, taking few breaks through the day. You do it day-in and day-out. You’ve personally got a lot of productivity and you churn out the work. You may enjoy the feeling that somehow you’re a bit of a hero in the organization, but I want to remove that little rug from you and say, “Actually, you are modelling a style that is probably going to be quite destructive for other people.”

Typically, what happens is a leader sets a way of being and the people who report to that leader will begin to emulate that style which cascades down through the organisation. Now bear in mind that not everybody is the same, so not everybody’s got the same capacity for work, or even for stress as you, but they’ll try and be you. So your modelling is enormously important.

Also if we reward people, for example, who work long, long hours, it will go around the organization that long, long hours is what this organisation wants. So, people will start to try and do that. In the early stages we may think, “Hey, this is great. People are really throwing themselves into work.” But this is a false economy, this is not going to last, because a lot of these people are going to burn out and they’re going to get increasingly less productive over time.

The servant leader needs to consider the impact these kinds of dynamics and set about building a sustainable model. That is not about being green, it is about recognizing the culture that the leaders model can burnout the organization.

Servant Leaders Create an Open Communication Culture

First and foremost, as a servant leader you have to engage yourself more with the workforce, because the distance between leaders and workers is sometimes huge. We call it the power-distance ratio.

You know, sometimes there’s a big distance and so you may be isolated from what’s really going on. You won’t really be able to deal with an issue if you don’t know it’s there. All you’ll see is loss of productivity, more absenteeism and so on. It’s not adding up for you. When in actual fact, if you were to start to engage with the people more, you will learn more. The more you develop an open communication culture in your organization, the better that will be.

Part of doing that really means that people are able to tell their managers or indeed you or their leader, exactly what they think and feel without that somehow being considered rude, or a negative practice. So, you need to hear the voice of the people, because they are the soldiers that are carrying out the workload that you’re setting up for them. If you don’t know what that costs them, then you may be the cause of their difficulties and stress. In fact it’s quite possible, that a sole leader, a senior leader in an organization, could be the cause of major waste in that organization, simply by the way they go about their leadership. The root cause is that they don’t engage with the people, they are not being a servant leader let alone showing the concern that would be a hallmark of a Christian leader.

Servant Leaders Get Out Amongst Their People

In one particular case I was talking with a senior leader in Europe who I asked, “When do you get up from your desk and go and walk the halls, and chat with your workers to see how they’re doing?

He said, “I’ve never done that. I never do that. That’s not something that I do.”

And, I said to him, “Well, actually, it’s time you did.”

The story finishes well because he started to do that. The first time he walked into an office everybody stood up and said, “What can we do for you, sir?” That’s because they weren’t used to him turning up. Over time they got used to it. So, now he is able to be alongside the workers and understand what it’s like. It gave them a sense of “We’re all workers here, we’re all doing this together” and that really did help in that organisation.

Developing open communication is a cultural shift. So if you think, “Well, that’s a good idea. Next Monday we’ll do it. From now on, everybody, it’s open communication.” It’s not going to happen. It’s a cultural shift, so it has to happen over time. It begins with all the teams, and all the team leaders, and so on. It begins with you and over time you will develop this and reap the benefits; everybody will reap the benefits.

Servant Leaders Give Appropriate Feedback

Often leaders put staff appraisals low down on their list of priorities because we’ve invested appraisals with a kind of negative face. So, people think, “This is going to be my annual rap over the knuckles,” rather than something positive.

The servant leader can completely rescue that by the way that its done. It’s rescued by entering into a joint discussion about what is a reasonable expectation, and what would help the team member to thrive in this organization. That’s great, but if you don’t do it annually, or whatever the agreed period is, you’re actually harming your people.

It’s not sufficient just to have appraisal meetings but the feedback they provide must be effective. We’ve come across countless situations where a worker is stressed for want of feedback. They don’t know whether they’re doing a good job or a bad job. Interestingly this is further exacerbated by cross-cultural communication.

I’m thinking now of one particular story in Eastern Europe; it was an Eastern European worker reporting to a North American manager.

The Eastern European worker said to me, “I don’t know when I’m doing a good job.” This was a stressor, a major stressor.

He explained, “When I turn in my work if I know in my heart that that’s not a great piece of work… He [the manager] says to me ‘great, great, well done’ – a kind of a high-five scenario, which is foreign to my culture anyway.” He went on, “But then if I turn in a good piece of work, a piece I’ve put many hours into he goes “Great, great, well done” and  high-fives.

This is all “well-done. I’m sure he’s trying to encourage me, but frankly I cannot work out what is good work, and what is bad work, and what the expectations are.”  That was becoming a source of stress for this man.

Effective feedback is essential.

Servant Leaders Give the People their Voice

Giving your people a voice is very much a part of open communication. We demonstrate in the cultural shift towards open communication that we value their point of view.

What that actually means is that stress -the silent killer has its teeth pulled because these people are not then going to suffer silently to the point where ill-health ensues. They’re going to talk to you about their experience of the workload. That’s probably one of the most valuable relationships that you could have with your staff, that level of communication. You see, they’ve got to feel safe for that. It’s really only the leaders that can generate that sense of safety.

What Can You Do Today?

Here we are talking about a process that takes time but it can draw the teeth of stress and have the benefits we discussed in the first article. Your people will be able to achieve their full potential, productivity and effectiveness will increase, staff sickness absenteeism and churn will reduce. It needs to start, so start it today.

• Because people will follow you as a role model, set a work style that is survivable.
• Establish open communication. That’s mixing with your people so that you can get a sense of where they are and they can get a sense of where you are. (You may find thinking on responsible communication skills helpful too.)
• Get up out of your seat and go amongst the people.
• Give the staff voice, so they can express their concerns and in response to giving them voice, ensure that they know they are valued.
• Give appropriate feedback, so that people know when they are doing a good job and when they’re not.
• Generate a sense of safety when they are open with you.

If you want to tread gently just pick one of those aspects and try it out. See what happens. It will take time so keep on keeping on. You can learn more about leadership qualities here

Reflection

Do you engage in these servant leadership strategies? If not where can you start? Make an opportunity to retreat to a park or a country walk for an hour or two and ponder the things you have learned about organisational stress.  Work out how to make a start on one or two of these strategies.

Image: quapan Flickr.com

The Stress/Performance Curve

Stress is part of life and to some extent stress, or at least benign stress (let’s call it pressure), helps to motivate us to perform well. To that extent it can be considered positive.

With too little pressure performance is sub-optimum. Witness the difficulties and boredom generated by too little work as well as insubstantial work that you can’t “get your teeth into”. The problem is that as the pressure increases performance peaks and then declines as the pressure turns to high level stress.

This stress/performance curve almost adds to the idea of being over-the-hill, although in this case it’s not about being “up to it”, it’s about being on that incline that leads to the cliff. It’s about the increasing inability to perform along with declining health brought on by stress.

I almost wrote “declining health brought on by excessive stress” but stopped myself because that seemed somewhat absolute. It does not recognise an important reality. The servant leader needs to keep in view that each individual is just that, individual, different to any one else. The stress that you can stand may wipe me out, or vica versa.

The idea of this stress/performance curve gives rise to the questions “How do I know when things have gone too far? What are the symptoms?” As a Christian servant leader this is an important thing to understand. I asked Colin Buckland about this, here are the insights that he shared.

How Does Stress Work On People?

Overwhelmed by Adrenaline

“Stress effectively is invoking what we call the fight and flight dynamic. This enables us to be energized to withstand and avoid threat, so it’s a good thing. The problem is that if we live in that state constantly, our health seriously breaks down. The reason why people die is that stress has broken down their health to the extent that death ensues.

What happens to us when we enter into a state of stress, regardless of the source, is that we invoke this flight and fight dynamic. This literally pumps chemicals, adrenaline, into our system. What’s interesting is that, thanks to the adrenaline,  people can achieve tremendous physical performances when fight or flight kicks in. We are given almost super human strength by these dynamics, but our system is not designed to stay at that level of heightened capability. It’s a bit like an aircraft or a kite, what goes up must come down. It can’t stay up.

If our stresses are heightened and the chemicals are flushing our system, we can’t stay there, or at least we can stay there, but we shouldn’t. What can happen is that we can develop what is sometimes graphically called “Hurry Sickness”, which is really an addiction to our own adrenaline, or high adrenaline states. The more that you find yourself having to live in a high adrenaline state, the more you will burn from the effects of stress, because your system wasn’t made for that. It’s just not physically good for you.

Cholesterol Retention

When stressed, for some of us at least, our bodies retain cholesterol, we won’t get into that too much in detail now. This cholesterol harms us and ultimately can lead to heart conditions, high blood pressure and stroke. Actually staying in a stressful state, in that heightened state, means that you can retain cholesterol that is ultimately having a negative effect on your body.

Skeletomuscular Stress

Staying in a heightened flight or fight state really places a heavy load on your muscles and your bones.

We often find that people have what we call concrete shoulders, their shoulders are constantly like rock. They are like that because they are held in tension, ready for the fight or the flight, and they find themselves in that condition regularly. That starts to give you strain in the body.

Typically most of our bodies have a weak spot somewhere, so you will find for example that they will struggle with back pain. A lot of the back conditions are as a result of being over stressed, staying in that condition, putting an undue load on the body, and the body reacting and breaking down.

Stress will find your weak spot. People often find that they have terrible headaches and it isn’t because they drank a glass of bad wine the night before, it’s because they are staying in this stressful state and their muscles are stiff and it starts to impact their body.

Increasing levels of illness

Now, over time what can then happen is that your ability to withstand illness declines so that you are actually getting more colds and flu, and even cuts and sores won’t heal. Your body is complaining that it is living in an unnatural place. That ultimately can lead to your death in extreme cases, and sadly there are a lot of those cases to report.

Sleep Problems

Finding it difficult to sleep, or finding it difficult to get up from sleeping is another issue.

People in extreme stress are often accused of being lazy and the reason for that is they say they won’t get out of bed. The psychology behind that is that the moment my toe hits the bedroom carpet the day begins. The longer I can put off the day beginning, maybe the safer I can keep myself.

The truth is that they are in a heightened, stressful state. So not only do they face aches and pains and the loss of the ability to fight off illness, but they struggle with sleep along with getting irritable with people, showing less patience.

Hurry Sickness

Frequently over-stressed people feel like they are achieving a lot when they are really not. This is a symptom of Hurry Sickness which often presents itself as racing around in ever decreasing circles but not really doing very much, and always feeling like someone is going to want something from you. You can find a great article on Hurry Sickness here

Reflection

As a servant leader, the condition of your team members will be of great importance to you.  Take a few minutes to reflect on your team. Do you recognize the symptoms identified above or those we mentioned in the first article in this series?

• Decreasing performance
• Increasing levels of sickness
• Increasing absenteeism
• Increase in staff churn

If you do, it may not affect everyone, because we each respond to stress differently. Try to identify what is causing the stress.

What can you do to help team members who may be exhibiting signs of stress? The remaining two parts of this series will give you some ideas.

Image: JB London Flickr.com

“The truth is we should minimize negative stress in the workplace if we want to maximize productivity. If you really want to get the best with your people, from your people, then actually minimizing work-related or occupational stress is really something worth looking at.” Colin Buckland

Stress and the Christian Servant Leader

A goal of the Christian servant leader is to enable his people to achieve their full potential. One of his enemies in this endeavour is stress because, unchecked it sucks the motivation and energy out of people, leaving them unable to come close to their best.

There is another dimension from the Christian perspective, Paul plainly instructs Christians to deal with each other in humility, with gentleness, consideration and compassion, looking out for each other’s best interests.   In this light the Christian leader has a significant issue to deal with when the people under his supervision become so stressed that they cannot function effectively.  Not only is there a responsibility for the well being of his people, he has a responsibility not to be the cause of the stress in the first place.

It is here that leadership style is important.

Organisationally, the consequence of operating in a stressful environment can be significant and, because organisations are populated with people,  it can arise just as easily in the Christian sphere as the secular. This i9s, therefore an issue for para-church organisations and team ministry churches alike. In fact in the Christian domain there are additional spiritual and material factors at work that can make it more prevalent.

The Organisational Cost of Occupational Stress

Stress dissipates energy uselessly, seizes-up ability and constricts capacity. That is why it not only reduces the ability of staff to perform, and therefore causes an organisation to under perform, it drives up sickness, absenteeism and staff churn. All of this prevents organisations from delivering the goods while driving up costs.

In the Christian sphere, where organisations are heavily dependent upon donors, finances are severely restricted and every penny possible is spent on achieving ministry goals.  This demands that such organisations deliver maximum effectiveness in order not to waste precious and scarce resources. Stress mitigates against this.

The UK’s Health and Safety Executive reported that stress caused 14 million working days to be lost in Great Britain in 2006. In 2009 they reported that over 400,000 people reported levels of stress that made them ill and that 16.7% of the workforce thought that their job was extremely stressful, that’s about 3 people in 20. They estimate that stress accounts for 10.5 million lost working days a year in Great Britain. In 2000 Wheatley reported that 75% of executives say that stress adversely affects their health, happiness and home life as well as their performance at work.

The 10,000 foot view of the symptoms of a stressed organisation are:

• Decreasing performance
• Increasing levels of sickness
• Increasing absenteeism
• Increase in staff churn

There are other symptoms and effects too which will emerge as we work through this series. Besides the obvious productivity and financial costs of stress on the organisation there is a potential legal cost. In the UK, under health and safety legislation, employers have a duty to undertake risk assessments and manage activities to reduce the incidence of stress at work.

The Origins of Occupational Stress

Occupational stress essentially arises under many situations, for example when an individual is:

• Required, or feels it necessary, to perform, in a way that is beyond their ability, capability or skill level.
• Unable to exercise control over a situation.
• Asked to complete an excessive volume of work
• Required to carry out some task for which they do not have the necessary resources to complete the task.
• Faced with the actual or implied consequences of failure. This may be particularly true where vital aid is provided to people in areas such as care, rehabilitation and relief services.
• Confronted with change, even if it is well managed
• Bullied or feels bullied, whether intended or inadvertent, can give rise to stress.

The pressures that cause stress can arise from explicit demands placed on staff or the implicit demands exerted by the force of a manager’s behaviour or the culture of the organisation.

Speaking with me Colin Buckland explains how this happens: “One of the things that is more important than most people realize is what I would call the corporate culture. It is virtually always driven by the leaders, and it starts with the most senior person, and it runs through the senior leadership. How they behave, and how they respond in certain circumstances, will determine how other people will respond.

So, let’s say you model starting work at 6 AM and not leaving until 7 PM, you take few breaks through the day and you do it day-in and day-out. You’ve got a lot of productivity and you churn out the work. You may enjoy the feeling that somehow you’re a bit of a hero in the organisation.  Actually, you are modelling a style that is probably going to be quite destructive for other people.

Typically, what happens is a leader sets a way of being and the people who report to that leader will begin to emulate that style. Now bear in mind that not everybody is the same, not everybody’s got the same capacity for work or even for stress, but they will try and be you. So your modelling is enormously important as is what the company measures.

If we reward people, for example, who work long, long hours, it will go around the organization that long, long hours is what this organization wants.  So, people will start to try and do that. In the early stages we may think, “Hey, this is great, people are really throwing themselves into work.” But this is a false economy, this is not going to last, because a lot of these people are going to burnout and they’re going to get increasingly less productive over time.”

What to do about stress in the Workplace

Plainly high levels of stress are not desirable from either a Christian or an economic perspective. They have the ability to drag down your organisation’s productivity and effectiveness as well as destroy the health of staff.

So what is to be done about it?

There are lots of resources available from organisations such as the UK’s Health and Safety Executive and CIPD (the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development). You can also follow this Creative Leader Bulletin series “Stress – Tips for the Servant Leader” which will answer the following questions about stress, enabling you to reduce and avoid stress in your team to recover and maintain productivity and performance and, identify and reduce stress in your own situation.

• What are the causes, symptoms and consequences of stress?
• How can I identify stress in my organisation or team?
• How can I reduce stress levels in my team?
• How can I identify and respond to my own stress?

Reflection

Take a moment to reflect on what you see in your team or organisation. Do your people seem stressed? Do you recognise any of the factors discussed in this article?

A good servant leadership practice is to get out among your people  and discover how they are doing. This will help you confirm your views about stress in your team.

How do you deal with stress? Do you enjoy it, thrive on it? Are you setting an example that is pressurising your people?

Image: AndYaDontStop flickr.com

“So Lord, how will I do all of that?” Moses asked. God had begun to instruct Moses regarding the construction of the Tabernacle. You can imagine Moses think “Oh my, where do I begin” and asking that question, so God told him:

“See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft”. Exodus 31:2-5

God also told Moses that he had similarly prepared Oholiab who could also teach others whom God had prepared. Whilst the text shows that God had especially equipped these men through the Holy Spirit, they still had to use the methods that God had provided to achieve his plan. Those methods were practical and could be taught and learned.

When it comes to doing things to fulfil God’s Kingdom plan we both need and rely upon methods. Think about it for a minute; you use a method to make the porridge in the morning. I am using several methods as a write these words. The question is, as Christian Leaders in Churches and organisations, when seeking to determine and do God’s will, how far can we go with methods? When are methods helpful and when do they hinder?

This third article in the “Man’s Plan and God’s Purposes” series examines some of the issues around this question.

Why God Provides Methods

Why did God provide Bezalel and Oholiab and equip with them with skill and teachable methods?

Because it required skill, ability and technique to make the Tabernacle to the standard required. God had described the key requirements for the Tabernacle. Bezalel and Oholiab would then have to take God’s instructions and work out the detailed plans concerning exactly how these were to be achieved; who would do what and when? This detailed planning required knowledge of the methods they world use, the specific special abilities of the craftsmen as well as project management skills to bring it all together.

Similar use of method can be seen underlying David’s preparation for the Temple and Solomon’s construction of it. Both men had received God’s direction and they designed the temple accordingly but then used construction and management skills to determine exactly how to achieve the construction in line with God’s requirements.

So it is plain that when it comes to executing plans that methods and skills have a role. Now, one must still be certain that a chosen approach fits with God’s plans. Why? Because God may only be revealing his purposes step by step and some change may be required. Some methods that we could use may be based on philosophies opposed to Godly thinking and behaviour. Also reliance on method, especially concerning direction, can make us deaf to God and would simply not be helpful.

The Use of Methods

The question that then arises is how should we go about making and executing our Kingdom plans as we seek to serve God?

Plainly we need to discern God’s plans, simply making our own plans is not sufficient. However, we are required to participate in the process, even where God sets it all up, as with Peter and Cornelius. Had Peter stuck with his wisdom and not gone with God’s plan he would never have gone with Cornelius’ servants. (See second  “Man’s Plans and God’s Purposes” article)

We need to be flexible enough to apply God’s direction appropriately as he makes it plain to us. Consequently we need to seek God’s mind through listening prayer and obedience. After all, we are seeking to align ourselves and be obedient to God’s plan. It’s his plan and purpose not ours.

• Paul planned his second missionary journey believing it to be God’s will. If Paul had not had the desire to bring glory and honour to God through obedience he might of ignored God and fought on, attempting to preach the Gospel in Asia. What would have become of Macedonia then?

• Joshua appears to have sought to use “conventional wisdom” (method) to plan his battles against Jericho and Ai. It was only when the assaults were according to God’s plan that he saw success.

• Moses was given Bezalel and Oholiab to teach methods to the Israelites called to build the Tabernacle. They were endowed with the skills by the Holy Spirit to lead and manage the work.

How should we use methods and processes in achieving God’s will?

And the answer is: With great care and with submission to God.

Reflections on Methods and Plans

The situations that we have looked at show that there is a role for methods without doubt, but we must avoid allowing those methods to displace God and his direction through the Holy Spirit. In the Kingdom context we are to bring about his will not make it up for him.

As figure 1 illustrates, methods become more useful and valid as we move from the point of God’s direction towards executing a plan that is compliant to God’s direction. Provided of course that those methods are not counter to God’s commands and expectations, and that we are always open to his leading to change course. Also some methods are just not Godly, as we discussed in the second article, and we need to avoid those at all costs.

Figure 1 God’s Direction & Man’s Methods

The further away from the point where God gives us his direction the more useful methods will become. At the execution stage it may be a completely methodical process but consecrated to God. This we see in the construction of the Tabernacle. Fundamentally hammering gold requires the skills of a goldsmith and embroidering garments requires the skills of a seamstress.

But here is the problem with reliance upon methods.

We can choose wrong methods to achieve a specific goal. When it comes to declaring the Gospel Paul avoided human wisdom as a means of persuasion to believe but rather relied upon the power of the Holy Spirit. “..my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5)

When it came to of the construction of the Tabernacle Bezalel, Oholiab and their workforce were anointed by God to have the necessary skills. However, they were given only the end goal, the description of the Tabernacle, and they had to use their skills and associated methods to plan and implement the execution.

When it came to execution planning Joshua forgot that God might have a specific plan when he only took notice of the intelligence he received from the Ai spies. He applied only human wisdom and method to the attack and he was faced with a disaster (see the first  “Man’s Plans and God’s Purposes”article).

Wisdom based methods can become a substitute for God’s will, especially when developing high level and strategic plans concerning Vision, Direction, Objectives and Strategies.

God is the director and we seek to implement our part in his plan. The fact is that it is his plan and his vision set according to his wisdom. This means that he must reveal it to us. Methods that derive from human wisdom will by definition be unable to show us God’s wisdom.

The attraction of these methods is that it is perhaps easier for us to try and work these things out ourselves than struggle to seek to understand God’s mind. It may also make us feel that we are doing something significant. Consequently we may have a tendency to use methods indiscriminately without understanding that they are likely to cause us to diverge from God’s plan. After all “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” We saw how Paul seemed to have planned to preach the gospel in Asia but that was not God’s plan.

Participating in God’s Plan

When it comes to our participation in God’s plans and purposes we need to keep in sight that:

• God has a plan and it his plan that will prevail, we must therefore seek God in order that we might obediently align ourselves and join in with his will. (Romans 12:2)
• God’s plan can be counter-intuitive or simply seem “off the wall” or even “unthinkable” from our perspective, in which case no planning method based on human wisdom can ever align with it.
• Often God will only reveal his plan a step at a time; we therefore need to be attentive to him and flexible enough to be obedient to him as it is progressively revealed.
• God’s wisdom is not man’s wisdom, which is the basis of man’s methods, so planning based solely on man’s method will likely miss the mark.
• Methods can provide insight into situations enabling us to ask the right questions of God and so more intelligently seek his will.
• Methods can enable us to think differently by developing new or different perspectives, releasing us to hear God when our thinking would otherwise constrain us only to the “thinkable”.
• Methods can enable us to execute God’s plan, but we must always be attentive to God’s will, especially if he is progressively revealing his plan.
• Nothing we do should be out of step with the Bible.

What can we do?

Apart from not using method to cut God out and not using methods that are in opposition to Biblical teaching, it is simply difficult to set out hard and fast rules about how to use methods for the Kingdom, they have their place.

When it comes to finding our direction, the more we can “tune in to God” the better. It’s his plans that prevail and it’s his purpose to which we need to be obedient. It’s here that using methods will at best cause us to ask God the right kind of questions. However, devising a Kingdom direction using human wisdom based methods alone will miss the mark.

When it comes to executing a plan, then methods come into their own because they are the outworking of our God given ability, intelligence, knowledge and craftsmanship. However, we must concecrate ourselves, our thinking and our efforts, always keeping close to God to be certain we are going his way and are attentive when he reveals his plan progressively.

As leaders, Jesus is our role model and it is notable that he explained that what he did was the father’s will not his own. “So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.’” John 5:19&20. We know from the Gospel account that Jesus stayed close to his father through times alone in prayer. When it comes to working out plans and strategies that is where we must be also.

Reflection

Take a moment to reflect upon how as a Servant Leader in God’s service you establish your plans.

• How heavily do you reply upon methods to bring about the Kingdom?
• How do you set about determining God’s direction and plan for you, your church or organisation?
• Do you seek God’s direction at all levels of your work, even for the detailed activities?
• Are you flexible enough to let God change your plans?

How far do you think it is appropriate to rely upon method when working out Kingdom plans?

This is part of a  three article series entitled “Man’s Plans and God’s Purposes” which looks at the issue of how we determine God’s plans and then execute them:

Part 1: Being Effective for the Kingdom

Part 2: According To Whose Plan?

Image: Patrick Hoesly Flickr

It had not gone according to plan and now they were hundreds of kilometres from where they expected to be. Then the man from Macedonia called out in a vision “Come over and help us.” This was not the first change to Paul’s plans on this trip.

Some time before in Antioch, Paul and Barnabas had discussed their plans. “Let’s go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing” Paul proposed.

In the end it was Silas who set off with Paul on his second missionary journey, which began by retracing the first one in reverse. Eventually they reached the region of Pisidian Antioch where they crossed the border into Asia, intending to preach the Gospel there. The journey through Asia took them some 600km on foot to Troas but the Holy Spirit prevented them from preaching there at all. When they reached the northern border of Asia they attempted to enter Bythinia but the Holy Spirit prevented them from leaving Asia.

In the first article in the “Mans Plans and God’s Purposes” series we learned about implementing God’s plan from the failures of Joshua. In this article we look at experiences of both Paul and Peter to learn a little more about the ways God uses to reveal his plans and some of the challenges that we face in working out how we align what we do with God’s plans and purposes.

The situation must have been frustrating for Paul. That Paul was not allowed to preach the gospel in Asia was clearly an issue because we are told about it. This also clearly implies that Paul had intended to preach in Asia. His passion was to preach the Good News and establish new churches whenever and wherever he could, and yet he was constrained from preaching in Asia but not allowed to leave. That journey across Asia would have taken at least 40 days but Paul was constrained not to declare the “good news of the gospel of the glory of Christ“.

What was happening to Paul’s plans? Surely he should preach the good news when he could?

Things were not going as Paul had expected but they were going how God had planned. God was directing Paul to Macedonia, which was where he wanted Paul to minister and to see rich results. Preventing Paul from preaching in Asia meant that he and his party arrived in Macedonia relatively quickly.

Who’s Plan Is It Anyway?

Paul’s encounter with God’s plan regarding his ministry, recorded in Acts 15 and 16, highlights the tensions between man’s plans and God’s purposes. Given what we know of Paul’s character it seems impossible that he would not have prayed over his plans and listened to God before formulating the details.

So what happened?

God Reveals His Plans A Step At A Time

The least likely reason for Paul’s plans being constrained is that he had gone his own way until God had disrupted and overridden them. The most likely; God had only showed Paul part of his plan to start with and the rest in due course, in his own time. That meant that Paul probably did not have the full picture of God’s plan when he embarked on his journey.

It seems that Paul had in mind evangelising Asia. It was a highly credible and sensible plan, however, God wanted him to go to Macedonia and that is where he ended up. Had he preached in Asia he may have spent months in each place establishing new churches, as was his practice, and so conceivably taken a year or two to get to Troas and Macedonia.

It is more likely that it was God’s will that Paul arrived in Macedonia in a timely manner than to deprive Asia of the Gospel.

What can we learn here? Because God sometimes only reveal his plans a step at a time we must always be ready for his “mid course correction” and not be so wedded to what we are doing that we are reluctant to change course as he directs. Sometimes, we may need to embark on the journey knowing that we do not have the full plan yet.  That of course brings Abraham to mind of whom we read in Hebrews 11  “and he went out, not knowing where he was going“. That can be a test of faith that is unnerving in the extreme.

Understanding God’s Will Can Be Difficult

There is another potential explanation as to why Paul’s plans were changed.

When it comes to responding to God’s will, whether it be set out in the Bible or as some specific response from him to prayer, there are three points at which we can get it wrong. We have to hear God clearly, interpret what he says correctly and then apply that by taking appropriate action. It is easy to “get it wrong” at each step.

Conceivably, God may have told Paul to go into Asia on this trip and Paul then interpreted this to mean that he was to do what he normally did and preach the Gospel in Asia. So he made his plans appropriately. If this were the case, God’s intent was plainly for Paul to go to Macedonia for which he needed to cross Asia, heading for Troas. This is would explain why Paul was inhibited from preaching the Gospel in Asia. The intent to preach the Gospel in Asia could have arisen from an incorrect interpretation of God’s instruction to Paul.

The lesson from this is that we need to be careful when seeking God’s direction. We need to check out what we heard and how we respond before we leap in with both feet. That said, it is hard to believe that Paul was not careful to be as confident about his plans before God as he could be.

It is God’s plan that prevails

Whatever the reason for the constraint upon Paul and the change of plan, the point is that given God’s sovereign and omnipotent nature, it is his plans that come to fruition, not those of man.

• Isaiah recorded God’s intent for the Assyrians and declares “This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations. For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?”
  Is 14:26-27.
• In Proverbs 19:21 Solomon wrote “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”
• In Ephesians Paul explains that God “…works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will…” Eph 1:11.
  

God Reveals His Plans in His Time

The other thing that emerges from Paul’s story is that aspects of God’s plan are not necessarily made plain until he is ready to do so. When Paul planned his journey the sovereign, omnipotent God could have directed him to add Macedonia to his itinerary, or even to go there directly after Pisidian Antioch, but he didn’t. He waited until he was ready. Why? I guess that this side of heaven we will never know.

The Importance of God’s Plan

The importance of our compliance with God’s will is made plain by John in his first letter “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him.”
1 Jn 5: 14 & 15. In short, our prayers need to be aligned to God’s will in order that we have the confidence that “[we will] have what we asked of him“. By extension, this applies to the things we plan to do for the Kingdom, for him.

There are two major aspects to God’s will: That which is revealed in the Bible and that which he may reveal directly in some way, Paul’s vision of the man in Macedonia being an example of the latter.

Paul’s obvious desire to preach the Gospel in Asia was plainly in line with the Bible. Not preaching the Gospel in Asia was God’s specific will for that situation. The purpose of that prohibition would only become clear later in Troas.

When it comes to planning our contribution to the Kingdom of God it is plain that we need to have a sound, but not necessarily expert Bible knowledge. Operating in line with what God has revealed in the Bible is a prerequisite.

In seeking to determine God’s plans for specific situations we must rely upon God and thus stay away from philosophies and methods – the wisdom of the world – which are contrary to or divert from Biblical principles. For instance consultation of mediums is a no-no (Leviticus 19:31)  as is reliance upon human wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:20-25) and this by extension should make us careful about methods based on human wisdom. There is more about that in the third article in this series.

When God’s Plan Is Beyond Our Conception”

“Surely not Lord!”

Peter had just been invited to eat what he considered to be unclean food, more than that it was God that had made the invitation three times by means of a vision (Acts 10). Peter who was a leader of the church, Peter who had walked with Jesus was being asked to do the unthinkable. He had gone through so much before and after the Crucifixion: he had been taught by Jesus and learned from him, he had been filled with the Holy Spirit and delivered the Pentecost sermon, he healed the crippled beggar, he stood his ground before the Sanhedrin, he saw Ananinas and Saphira drop down dead and more. Despite all this, he was simply unable to conceive of what God was asking him to do; it was so alien to his way of thinking. God wanted him to minister to gentiles, this was unthinkable, and yet it was God’s intent.

Sometimes God’s plan is so contrary to the way that we think that, unless he directs us more plainly, we are unable to participate. Then our wisdom, and by implication the methods that arise from such wisdom, is of no use, in fact it stands in the way of God’s plan because these methods, that originate from man’s wisdom,  inherently encompass this lack of conception regarding God’s will.

Of course, our sovereign God can do anything that he chooses to do, nevertheless we should not test him by using the world’s wisdom as  matter of course and hope that he will overrule the outcome. Sometimes, we may find ourselves in a place where in faith we feel that we have no choice to do so. That should not be the norm but even then we would proceed prayerfully.

Reflection

Take a moment to reflect upon how you establish your plans.

• How do you keep close to God’s Kingdom plans?
• Is your thinking open to the unthinkable?
• Dare you step out without the full plan?
• When things go wrong what has failed; execution or planning?

Is it difficult to be flexible to God’s course corrections? What is your experience?

This is part of a three article series entitled “Man’s Plans and God’s Purposes” which looks at the issue of how we determine God’s plans and then execute them:

Part 1: Being Effective for the Kingdom

Part 3: When Methods Have Their Place

Image: Panegyrics of Granovette flickr.com

Joshua lay face down in the dirt. Things had not gone according to plan. He had been there all day and had failed to work out what had happened. It was only now that God said to him “What are you doing down on your face?”

It had all been going so well, Jericho had fallen just as God said it would, albeit in a very strange way and the Canaanites had melted in fear. Now Joshua had instructed his men to attack Ai and they had been defeated, routed with 36 men killed. What had gone wrong?

Man’s Plans and God’s Purposes

Identifying our objectives and planning how to achieve them is an unavoidable process as we seek to fulfil our part in bringing about the Kingdom of God. But, and it is a big “BUT”, it is often difficult to discern what God’s plan is and what part we must play. Perhaps more often than we would like, we end up like Joshua, disappointed with the outcomes and asking God “What happened?”.

This article, the first of three on Kingdom planning, looks at lessons that we can learn about planning and execution from Joshua’s experience so that we can perhaps avoid some of the disappointments and be more effective for the Kingdom of God. Understanding God’s plan is a significant challenge for Servant Leaders in Churches and Christian Organisations.

In business we often are given a goal and its up to us to achieve it using the people, resources and methods at our disposal. But does it work like that in Christian service? This series, “Man’s Plans and God’s Purposes” poses this question and examines some of the incidents in the Bible from which we can learn. It will challenge you to think about how, as a Christian leader, you workout and execute Kingdom plans.

When Plans Go Wrong

The plan to be victorious over Ai had not worked. Joshua’s reaction was to blame God for enticing them into the Promised Land. Now, with the River Jordan at their backs, he feared an overwhelming onslaught from the Canaanites. So Joshua fell, face to the ground before the Ark “Ah, Sovereign Lord, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan!” (Joshua 7:7). It’s your fault God, Joshua was saying, we were only doing what you told us to do, take the land and we cannot even take this place that has only a few men. You are the sovereign God, so it was you who caused us to be routed. What have you done to us? What will you do to us?

We know that the root cause of the defeat was “Achan’s sin”, God explains this in the following verses. There was to be no booty taken form Jericho, it was all devoted to God and the gold and silver was to go into God’s treasury. Achan took some of the devoted things and hid them under his tent, later he and his family paid for their rebelliousness. This sin, a direct violation of God’s command, had been the root cause of the defeat. However, there is something more subtle going on that meant that the defeat and those 36 deaths could have been avoided.

Read through the story of Israel’s entry to the Land, the fall of Jericho and the taking of Ai. Ponder Joshua’s behaviour and attitude.

Whose Plans and Whose Methods?

Ahead of the assault on Jericho, the gateway to the land, Joshua was reconnoitring for himself (Joshua 5:13). The text says that he was near Jericho. Why would the leader of the Israelites, who had already received the report of his spies, be near Jericho? The story shows us that he felt the need for intelligence about the enemy. He had sent spies to Jericho and later to Ai, so it was quite likely that he wanted to see Jericho for himself as he formulated his battle plan.

In the opening verses of the Book of Joshua, God promises that no one will stand against the Israelites and he told Joshua “Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them.” (Joshua 1:6). So here was Joshua trying to work out how he was going to lead the Israelites to victory by overcoming the first hurdle, Jericho. Joshua had a man-centred perspective as he recalled all he had learned about warfare. What would be the winning plan? This is why I think that when confronted with the “Commander of the Lord’s Army” (Joshua 5:13) Joshua asked “Are you for us or our enemies?” The answer was enlightening, “Neither“.

Hold on a moment. Was not Israel there because God had promised them the land? Were they not there because God had instructed them to take the land? Was Joshua not to lead them to inherit the land? Was this not the task that God had given Israel? Was this not their objective? How could the Commander of the Lord’s Army not be for Israel?

This does not make sense until you consider an alternative perspective.

Indeed, Israel and Joshua and been so commissioned but did Joshua now consider it to be his task to bring about God’s plan? To do this it was down to him to work out how. Was that why he was near Jericho?

This was not Israel’s plan; it was not theirs to work out how it would be achieved. It was God’s plan and yes, he had commissioned Israel and Joshua to play a part, but the means was to be God’s means. This is why the Commander of the Lord’s Army replied to Joshua “Neither“. It would not be sufficient for Joshua to take on the God given objective. It would not be appropriate for Joshua to plan how this would be achieved. “The battle is not yours but God’s” were the Lord’s words to Jehoshaphat some 550 years later and so it was here and now for Joshua. This meant that it was Israel and Joshua that had to be for God and his plan and not the other way round.

It was God’s plan that had to be executed in order to fulfil his purpose, not Joshua’s. Joshua’s question “Are you for us or our enemies?” belies a wrong outlook, a wrong perception of what was going on.

This is the subtle thing that was wrong and it meant that the defeat at Ai was not avoided and 36 people died. It was this perspective that left Joshua on his face, in the dirt, complaining that God had let them down because his plan had not been honoured by God.

But let’s look further at the working out of God’s plan at Jericho.

God’s Plan for Jericho

God gave explicit instructions on how the battle of Jericho was to be conducted and victory won. From the human perspective the battle looks strange. Joshua was instructed to lead Israel to do some peculiar things; things that were not at all militarily logical and which simply do not fit with the human perspective of warfare. However, it is plain that there is more to this battle than meets the eye, after all the Commander of the Lord’s Army is in charge. This leads us to expect that a battle invisible to Joshua and Israel also took place according to a plan that was not fully known by them. However, they had to do certain things for that plan to be fulfilled and God’s objective to be achieved.

(Daniel gives us some insight into invisible battles in the spiritual realm while men struggle – Daniel 10:12&13, 20)

What would have happened if Joshua had tried to execute his own plan for the taking of Jericho? Israel would simply have been doing the wrong thing, in the wrong place at the wrong time when, or even if, the walls had fallen. It was imperative that Joshua not only look to the achievement of the goals that God had set out for Israel but that he lead Israel in accordance with God’s directions such that the plan is achieved in God’s way.

For instance, would the walls of Jericho have fallen if Israel had engaged in classic siege warfare? From the human perspective it would seem like an obedient plan because it is seeking to fulfil God’s command. However, it would not have been following God’s plan. Israel would not have been in the right place, doing the right thing at the right time.

A siege would have been logical and in keeping with the wisdom of the best battle planners. How could doing that be wrong? Paul gave us the answer in 1 Corinthians 1:25 “For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” but more than that it would not have been obedient to God. Not out of  deliberate disobedience necessarily, but because of lack of care to consult God resulting in an unthinking conformance to the ways of this world, through a reliance on man’s wisdom.

The result of following the detail of God’s plan, even if it was counter-intuitive and counter-logical, was that Jericho fell.

What went wrong with Ai?

Why did Joshua end up on his face before the Ark to all intents and purposes asking God what he thought he was doing? Let’s look at what happened.

Joshua followed his practice of sending spies to reconnoitre and provide intelligence on the situation at Ai. After all knowing the enemy, finding out his disposition and weaknesses, understanding the lie of the land is what a good commander does. Only then can he form his plans, based on his wisdom and his experience and so lead his army to victory. Why did Joshua do this? After all, the war was being led by the Commander of the Lord’s Army in accordance with God’s plans. How did such intelligence help take Jericho? It didn’t, it wasn’t needed at all. God had all the intelligence he needed and he instructed Joshua to deploy Israel in a particular way so that the victory was achieved, in the manner that God wanted.

That Joshua sought the intelligence indicates that he was not thinking here in terms of God’s plans. He was about to make his own and, as a consequence, go it alone without God.

When the intelligence came back, what was the result? Puffed up by what they thought was their victory over Jericho the spies said “Not all the people will have to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary all the people, for only a few men are there.” (Joshua 7:3). Joshua showed that he also had the same mindset by sending only 3000 men. He had missed what had really happened at Jericho and he sought to win Ai in Israel’s own strength, without consulting God. He had failed to realise that whilst Israel had been given a goal by God, they could only achieve that goal God’s way. Rushing off to fulfil God’s plan in man’s way fails. The result? Israel was routed and 36 men were killed.

What would have happened if Joshua had sought God’s wisdom before the assault on Ai? He would have learned of Achan’s sin before things had gone wrong! God would have said then and not later, “Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction”. The devoted things would have been returned to God and the sin dealt with. More than that, God would have explained the battle plan for Ai to Joshua, as he did at the beginning of Joshua 8, and success would have been with Israel.

Kingdom Planning

What guides can we draw about Kingdom planning from Joshua and the battles for Jericho and Ai?

• The sovereign God has a plan and purpose and in any situation that plan has at least two parts decreed by God: the goal or purpose and the method.
• God’s plans and methods sometimes defy man’s logic and wisdom.
• Attempting to fulfil God’s purpose with our own plan and man’s methods will not lead to success
• Executing our plans puts us in the wrong place doing the wrong thing at the wrong time when God is seeking to fulfil his plan in another way. In short, our plans based on our wisdom, even if we think we are being obedient, will work against the Kingdom.
• To be useful to God as he fulfils his plans and before we make any plans, we need to seek his wisdom and obediently employ his ways.
• Humility is vital so that we do not think more of our ability than is real, lest we forget to seek God’s guidance or we think that we know better than God.

All of this means that we must earnestly seek God’s insights and direction in prayer for all of our plans, not simply the key objectives and broad direction. Nor should we simply seek his approval of our plans to achieve his objectives but we need to seek God’s mind that he might reveal his plans and our role in those plans.

Is this easy to do? Not necessarily. Will we get it wrong? Almost certainly. However, by trying and reviewing the results before God we will learn as he instructs us and we will become more effective for the Kingdom.

Reflection

Take a moment to ponder the approach that you take to planning your contribution to the Kingdom. Whose aims do you achieve, yours or God’s? Whose methods do you use when you work out what to do, yours or God’s?

Take time to prayerfully review one of your projects for the Lord and ask him to help you see what he sees and to learn from your experience. Remember, the best learning comes from our failures not our successes. In that sense even the worst failures can have a positive outcome.

What is the biggest challenge that you face in identifying God’s plans?

This is part of a three article series entitled “Man’s Plans and God’s Purposes” that looks at the issue of how we determine God’s plans and then execute them:

Part 2: According To Plan?

Part 3: When Methods Have Their Place

Image: Mykl Roventine Flickr.com

This post is reproduced with the kind permission of Tim van Gelder. http://timvangelder.com Originally posted 15th March 2010

A few months back I discussed Benjamin Franklin’s “moral algebra,” his simple prescription for good deliberative decision making.  We know of Franklin’s moral algebra only because he succinctly summarized it in a now-famous short letter to his longtime scientific colleague and friend, Joseph Priestley.  In that letter Franklin seemed to suggest that the moral algebra was his own invention, using phrases such as “My way [of making decisions]…”, but he didn’t explicitly claim it as his own creation.

One FelixM cryptically commented on my blog that:

St Ignatius of Loyola (founder of the Jesuits) recommended this approach, about two hundred years earlier. Presumably other people used it before him.

This was intriguing. What was the method that St Ignatius allegedly used? Was it indeed the same or very similar to Franklin’s moral algebra? And did Franklin know of it? Was it indeed the original formulation of the method?

I contacted FelixM, who kindly informed me that St Ignatius’ version of the method could be found in his major work “The Spiritual Exercises“, which to this day remains a key Jesuit text. The full text of the relevant section is appended below.

Felix was quite right; Franklin’s moral algebra, and Ignatius’ version, which we might call his “spiritual algebra,” are indeed very similar.

The Ignatius version is however expressed in what appears (to us) archaic and floridly religious language. Here’s my take: a contemporary, secular version of St. Ignatius’ spiritual algebra:

1. Identify the issue you need to decide upon, framed as whether to take a proposed action or not
2. Identify and keep in mind  your most important values and objectives.
3. Cultivate an indifference to the outcome.
4. List and weigh up the pros and cons of acting in the proposed way, and the pros and cons of not acting.
5. Determine whether acting has the greater net benefit
6. Choose what to do based on this determination rather than your gut feeling (“inclination of sense”).

The parallels are striking, but there are some differences:

1. St Ignatius’ step 2 – identify and keep in mind your most important values and objectives – is not mentioned by Franklin
2. Franklin recommends listing the pros and cons of taking the action only; he doesn’t recommend also listing the pros and cons of not acting.  [Arguably, these are just the inverse of the pros and cons of acting, and so there is no need to list both.]
3. Franklin provides a heuristic for determining the balance of considerations (i.e. “cancelling out” considerations of equal weight, etc.) whereas St Ignatius simply instructs us to “reckon” the overall balance.

As to whether Franklin knew of St Ignatius’ method, Felix says:

This may well be right, but I haven’t been able to find any independent evidence for it.

_____________________________

From The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola

THE FIRST WAY  TO MAKE A SOUND AND GOOD ELECTION

It contains six Points.

First Point. The first Point is to put before me the thing on which I
want to make election, such as an office or benefice, either to take or
leave it; or any other thing whatever which falls under an election
that can be changed.

Second Point. Second: It is necessary to keep as aim the end for which
I am created, which is to praise God our Lord and save my soul, and,
this supposed, to find myself indifferent, without any inordinate
propensity; so that I be not more inclined or disposed to take the
thing proposed than to leave it, nor more to leave it than to take it,
but find myself as in the middle of a balance, to follow what I feel to
be more for the glory and praise of God our Lord and the salvation of
my soul.

Third Point. Third: To ask of God our Lord to be pleased to move my
will and put in my soul what I ought to do regarding the thing
proposed, so as to promote more His praise and glory; discussing well
and faithfully with my intellect, and choosing agreeably to His most
holy pleasure and will.

Fourth Point. Fourth: To consider, reckoning up, how many advantages
and utilities follow for me from holding the proposed office or
benefice for only the praise of God our Lord and the salvation of my
soul, and, to consider likewise, on the contrary, the disadvantages and
dangers which there are in having it. Doing the same in the second
part, that is, looking at the advantages and utilities there are in not
having it, and likewise, on the contrary, the disadvantages and dangers
in not having the same.

Fifth Point. Fifth: After I have thus discussed and reckoned up on all
sides about the thing proposed, to look where reason more inclines: and
so, according to the greater inclination of reason, and not according
to any inclination of sense, deliberation should be made on the thing
proposed.

Sixth Point. Sixth, such election, or deliberation, made, the person
who has made it ought to go with much diligence to prayer before God
our Lord and offer Him such election, that His Divine Majesty may be
pleased to receive and confirm it, if it is to His greater service and
praise.

EDITOR: A more extensive and easily understood interpretaion of St Ignatius’ method for decision can be found at An Ignatian Framework for Making a Decision – 11 Steps for Making a Decision Following the Ignatian Method

Many thanks to Tim for allowing us to reproduce his original article.

Image: Serge Melki Flickr.com

Christian leaders in all spheres lead teams and Jesus’ servant leadership model is key to being a team builder and developing a team that achieves its full potential. Check out how your team is doing.

I remember studying English Literature at school, not my greatest achievement I have to say. However, I remember a phrase from one poem that we studied. I cannot remember the title or the poet, just the phrase.  As far as I remember it went something like this: the hero of the poem – whoever he was – “leapt onto his horse and rode off in all directions at once”*. Does that sound like your team – riding off in all directions at once?  It’s not uncommon and its one of the reasons that as a leader there is hope. You can do more with what you’ve got, the secret is to get the team to all ride off in the same direction! Its like the guys in the picture of the yacht. If they were not all in the same place, working together, the boat would capsize and the race lost. Many teams, even Christian teams, do not deliver the goods because they have never gelled into a team and they remain a group of individuals, and to the frustration of their leader they each riding off in a different direction.

The Christian Leader’s Approach is Crucial

It has been said that a team is not a team until it has been made into one, before then it remains a group. At best a group delivers the same result as if its members worked individually. At worst they work against each other reducing effectiveness. This can sometimes create a toxic atmosphere which spills over and demotivates everyone else. But when they are formed into a properly functioning team they will be many times more effective; only then will the individual team members be achieving their full potential. The approach of the Christian leader is crucial to enabling their team to reach its full potential by developing a Christ-centered servant leadership, after all it will be distinctively Christian.

So, Christian leader,where is your team on the scale ranging from: pulling against each other, through to parity with a group of individuals, to being a team whose performance that exceeds expectations? Answering this question is just as important for Christian leaders as anyone else. Just because team members have a common faith does not mean that they will work well together without wise guidance and a clear role model from someone who is grounded in Christ and lives out his example.  To learn more about this Christian, servant leadership attitude take a look at “The King who Led with a Towel” series.

How well does your team do?

Based on the work of Pat MacMillan (The Performance Factor**) here is a simple diagnostic tool to help you decide.

Alignment

For your team to be a great team the members must be “aligned”. This is not about the team being aligned to the leader necessarily, but the team, including the leader, having  a clear and shared purpose and a 100% commitment to realising that shared purpose in a common and coherent way. Plainly the Christian leader has a great responsibility to facilitate this achievement.  The following questions will help you consider exactly how aligned your team is:

• Does your team have a declared purpose that is clear, relevant, significant, believed, urgent and motivational?
• If you asked your team members what the purpose of the team was, do they all give the same answer?
• Does that represent an agreed, common and shared view or are there gaps?
• Is all your team involved in developing the strategies and plans to achieve the purpose?
• Is each team member’s commitment to achievement practically demonstrated by higher levels of cooperation?

Crystal Clear Roles

Clarity is required in the minds of the team as to exactly what is the role of each member. The Christian leader needs to help the team develop this clarity, fudges don’t work.

• Do your team members have specific roles with well defined boundaries, responsibilities and accountabilities?
• Can each of your team members accurately tell you what the other team members do?
• Has anything that your team is responsible for ever “fallen through the cracks” or disappeared into “black holes”?
• Does conflict arise between your team members because of differing opinions about responsibilities?
• When you look at your team members honestly are their roles compatible with their abilities?

Accepted Leadership

A High Performing Team requires clear and competent leadership to facilitate and orchestrate the achievement of its goals. However, for specific activities task leadership will be provided by individual team members who have the necessary competence and capability to guide on that issue. Christian leaders can often fall into the “I’m in charge” trap for a host of reasons and many pastors and ministers have been trained in, and are expected to adopt a “one-man” style. However, effective leadership at any specific time is not based on a static position but by dynamic response to the encountered need and individual role.  The effective Christian leader facilitates this flexibility.

• Are you the only one that ever provides direction for your team?
• Do you delegate responsibility for specific tasks to team members?
• Do individual team members with expertise offer formal and informal guidance and direction in accordance with that expertise?
• Do you call upon the team’s wisdom and expertise by encouraging team members to offer their insights and leadership based on their expertise and experience?
• When you ask your team members do they express frustration at lack of direction and guidance?

Effective Team Processes

Team processes are not so much about individual jobs but are more about how the team interacts and functions as it makes decisions, solves problems and resolves conflicts. It’s about how the team members work together, encouraging and facilitating this is a key role for any Christian leader who wishes to model his style on Jesus.

• Do you understand the roles that each individual team member prefers and plays in your team (Take a look at Belbin Team Roles to help you )?
• Do the team members understand the roles that both they and their colleagues individually play in the team process?
• Given the purpose of your team, do you have any gaps in its make up in terms of the roles each member plays (For example  do you have people who are able to initiate; people who are able to coordinate; people who make sure everything is complete and so on?)
• Does the team work effectively because its members are playing to their strengths, have  a desire to serve the team as a whole and know how to use each other’s strengths?
• Is the structure of your team rigid or is it flexible enough to maximise the individual and collective achievement of all members?

Solid Relationships

Solid relationships are essential in a team but they are not about friendships but solid relationships; they are about being able to work together well. They are also about developing a trust in and appreciation of fellow team members so that collectively the team can deal with setbacks, misunderstandings, conflicts as well as those plain and simple bad days. This ought to be easy for Christians…… apart from the fact that we are all endowed with a fallen nature. The Christian leader needs prayerful wisdom in this area.

• Are your team members reliable, doing what they say they will do?
• Do you see your team members “doing it themselves” because that is the only way that they can be sure that the job gets done?
• Does your team squabble and play the “blame game”?
• Are there any personality clashes in your team?
• On the bad days does your team pull together or does it tend to fall apart?
• When one team member has difficulties do the others share the burden and make sure that the job gets done?

Excellent Communications

Excellent communications is a prerequisite for all the other characteristics. To function as a High Performing Team, members must understand not only how to share information in a way that others can receive but also to assume a responsibility for ensuring that they understand the communications that they receive. This short series on Effective Communications Skills can get the whole team moving in the right direction. If Email is a problem then this 0n-line training module Taming the Email Dragon: How To Be Responsible Emailer may be of help.

• Do your team members communicate via email excessively even when it would be better to speak to each other?
• Is email used well for collecting data and documenting conversations?
• Do any of your team members get frustrated because they seem simply unable to communicate with specific team members?
• Do any of your team members overwhelm others with words or emails in an attempt to communicate?
• Do any of your team members always seem to miss out on what is happening or what was agreed?
• Do you and your team members understand each others’ preferred means of receiving information?
• Have your team ever been trained to communicate effectively?

The process of building a High Performing Team requires that the team, as a whole, take stock of itself against these characteristics. It must then, together, undertake an appropriate plan of action to achieve its full potential. This is necessarily a process of individual steps which inevitably takes time to mature, although it is possible to make rapid strides. For instance a days training on the Responsible Communication style that a servant leader would use can begin to have an impact the very next day. As the team works, evaluates, learns and applies its learning, it will improve in performance as it becomes a High Performing Team. It will work more effectively, more collaboratively and refocus previously lost energy on achieving its purpose.  More than that the coherence of the team will magnify its achievement  as it begins to out perform its previous track record. This is a journey upon which a servant leader will take his team.

Reflection

Find a quiet place for half an hour and ask yourself these questions about your team and see how they score.  In the light of the answers you get begin to work out an action plan to address your team’s weaknesses. Then sit down with your team and do the whole assessment together as the first step to involving the team in their journey toward becoming a High Performing Team.

What are the differences between a team of volunteers, a team of people who are vocationally motivated, a team of employees and a team of professionals? Is there a difference in their needs from a leadership perspective?

* Thanks to the power of the internet I have since discovered  the actual quotation is “Lord Ronald … flung himself upon his horse and rode madly off in all directions. ” from Nonsense Novels, “Gertrude the Governess” by Stephen Leacock. It subsequently gave rise to the name of a Canadian Radio show “Madly Off in All Directions”.

**The Performance Factor, Pat MacMillan, B&H Publishing, ISBN-8-8054-2375-3

Image : Darren Baker-Fotolia.com

The teachings and life style of Jesus are significant in the Christian’s life. He is the essential role model for how we seek to live out our lives. It’s interesting, therefore, that his model is often sadly neglected when it comes to aspects of church and organisational leadership. He was the prototype of Christian leadership.

“The King Who Led with a Towel” is a three part article that examines Jesus’ leadership style and example. It is extracted from “Culture Craft” by Rick Sessoms and Colin Buckland and Rick’s original 2003 paper. Their dialogue introduces us to the explicit leadership lessons that Jesus gave to his Disciples and his leadership values. They provide key insights into a practical and effective style of leadership for Christian leaders in both churches and other organisations.

This first part of “The King Who Led with a Towel” considers the lessons that Jesus taught his Disciples about leadership and part two looks at the  servant leadership values that Jesus demonstrated.

A Different Leadership Style

John 13:3-14 is a classic biblical account that demonstrates Jesus’ leadership perspectives and practice:

“Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin, and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ Jesus replied, ‘You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’

‘No,’ said Peter, ‘you shall never wash my feet.’

Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.’

‘Then, Lord,’ Simon Peter replied, ‘not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!’

Jesus answered, ‘A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.’ For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. ‘Do you understand what I have done for you?’ he asked them. ‘You call me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.”

The time was Passover, the most sacred of Jewish feasts. Three million people would have been in Jerusalem for this Celebration Week. Word had spread like wildfire through the city that Jesus of Nazareth was on his way to the feast. Thousands lined the road as Jesus made his way into Jerusalem. “Hosanna!” they chanted. “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the kingdom of our father David!”

But Jesus wasn’t what the crowd expected. They expected a conquering King. He disappointed the Passover pilgrims that week. But in so doing, he fulfilled their most profound need. This is made graphically clear a few days later when Jesus and his friends had gathered for a meal. Since the streets and roads of Palestine were plain dirt – in dry weather they were deep in dust, and in wet weather they could become liquid mud – the shoes people wore in that day were simple: a flat sole, held onto the feet by a few straps. So every walk in the street soiled the feet. That’s why just inside the doorway of homes sat a basin of water with a towel. The custom was for a servant to greet visitors and wash their feet.

But on this night when Jesus gathered his disciples for a meal, the wash basin sat unused. Of course, the disciples had their minds riveted on more noble thoughts. The talk of the week had ignited their imaginations of the Kingdom of God – dreams of thrones and power and glory. In fact, they were conflicted about which of them would be the greatest in this Kingdom – while everybody in the house had dirty feet.

So Jesus got up from the table, prepared himself, and started to wash the feet of his followers. Here is the King of Kings, washing filthy feet, and drying them with a towel. Here is a King whose symbol of authority is a towel. Jesus demonstrated and taught three lessons about leadership in his use of the towel that night.

Lesson #1: Jesus’ use of the “towel” represented His whole life and leadership.

The first lesson is that the towel dramatizes not only Jesus’ leadership, but also his whole life. Washing his disciples’ feet was no isolated event. On the contrary, what Jesus did that night in the upper room vividly portrays the whole journey He made from the Father into the world and back to the Father. Jesus laid aside His garments that night just as He had laid aside His glory in heaven and His privileges as the Son of God. He washed men’s feet – a menial act of service – just as He died the degrading death of a common criminal. And when Jesus had finished washing their feet, He took up His garments and returned to His place of honour, just as He was taken up from the grave and was seated again with God the Father. In this upper room, the Son of Man stripped off His garments, got down on his knees, and washed dirt from the feet of those whom He had called to follow Him as a fitting symbol of His whole life and leadership.

Lesson #2: Jesus’ use of the “towel” revealed His perspective on positional power.

The second lesson is that the towel revealed Jesus’ own concept of positional power. From a human perspective, washing feet is beneath the dignity of a King. In fact, Peter reflected his shock at Jesus’ actions when he responded, ” You shall never wash my feet”. Peter wanted Jesus to fit into human ideas of royalty and privilege. In this foot-washing, Jesus dismantled our concept of position and pecking order. We live with the notion that to be leader is to be exalted. But in His use of the towel, Jesus revealed that being God means coming down from His throne and giving Himself to serve.

Peter would have been perfectly comfortable washing Jesus’ feet. That would be normal according to human ideas. But to see Jesus – the great I AM – stoop before Peter and begin to reach for his dirty feet is not normal.

Just before coming into Jerusalem that week, Jesus told His disciples, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and give his life a ransom for many.“ In that one line He turned everything upside down.

Colin:     I have to admit that these words of Jesus stir in me a mixed reaction. On the one hand, I’m touched by such a King. But on the other hand, like Peter, I’m disturbed. For at first glance, if I hold to a view of God as the One who serves me, will it not create in me an inappropriate pride?

Rick:    I see what you mean. Will it cause a person to be self-centred?

Colin:    But as I take a second look, the opposite is actually true. A God on His knees humbles me. For if my only view of God is that of a supreme King at the top rung of the ladder, then I’m always wondering how I will get to Him and worrying how I am doing. Am I making progress toward Him? What can I do to make my way up to Him? In the name of religion, I become preoccupied with myself compared to where everybody else is on the ladder. But this kind of love knocks me off the ladder and out of the centre. Jesus was revealing the King’s own idea about what it means to be King.

Lesson #3: Jesus’ use of the “towel” teaches us to serve God by serving others.

After washing their feet, Jesus said to His disciples, “Do you understand what I have done for you? You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord’, and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you should wash one another’s feet.”

What a profound statement. If Jesus had said “Now that I’ve washed your feet, you wash my feet”, we would be standing in line for the privilege of being first with the towel and the basin to wash God’s feet. But Jesus said, “Now that I have washed your feet, you wash one another’s feet.” I am a debtor to Jesus the King for what He has paid for me.

Rick:    I once heard a preacher interpret Jesus’ words here to imply that my neighbour is now the appointed agent authorized to receive what I owe the Master.

Colin:     You know, if this is true, it means that my wife is the appointed agent authorized to receive my gratitude to Jesus Christ the King. I wash my Lord’s feet as I wash her feet. My children are the appointed agents authorized to receive my gratitude to the King. I wash Jesus’ feet as I wash their feet. My work colleagues are the appointed agents authorized to receive my gratitude to the King. I wash Jesus’ feet as I wash their feet.

Rick:     Leading with the “towel” means believing in people enough to empower them with the authority and the resources and the information as well the accountability they need to be the best they can be. It means creating an environment safe enough for them to risk giving all …and sometimes fail in their giving …and encouraging them to risk again. Leading with the “towel” implies that I don’t have to be the source of every good idea, but we discover the vision together. It is all about creating an atmosphere where everyone is free to tell the truth, especially to the leaders. Leading with the “towel” means allowing people to express their passion and defending privately and publicly those who don’t compromise principle for profit. It also means treating each person with the sacred understanding that they are uniquely crafted in the image of their Creator – not in mine. Leading with the “towel” is enabling people to make decisions and to pursue their God given dreams, and celebrating their accomplishments. Leading with the “towel” means serving those I lead not so that they will serve me, but so that they will serve others.

But I have to admit, there is a tension in me as I write these things. As a leader, this way of relating to people isn’t normal. It’s often not the way I have related to people in the past. This way of relating to people reverses the order. It is subversive. It destabilizes.

Colin:    But isn’t that precisely what Jesus intends? I think we’re beginning to grasp the Gospel of the Kingdom. Jesus changes our whole concept of power, of authority, of status. When the disciples were arguing about who would be greatest, He said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them … But it is not so among you. Whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be number one shall be slave to all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve” (Matthew 20:25-28).

The King who led with a towel inaugurated a kingdom of foot washers. He deleted the icon of leaders clamouring for power, people climbing over each other to get to the top. Jesus’ example even puts to rest the notion that I wash your feet so that you wash mine. Rather, I wash your feet so that you can in turn wash another’s feet.

That which distinguishes Jesus’ way of leadership is brought into being by the self-emptying love of Jesus Himself. When leaders belong to King Jesus, we can no longer write on our resume, “I don’t wash feet.” That’s precisely what leaders do, because that’s what Jesus does.

Rick:     As liberating as it is, this way of leadership doesn’t just happen. As much as I may want to be this kind of leader, I find myself expressing with the Apostle Paul, “Lord, what I do is not the good I want to do, and the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. . . who will rescue me?” (Romans 7:19-24). I’m unable to lead this way – at least with any consistency. In those times, when I’m unable – or unwilling – to take up the “towel,” when I find myself in that place where Jesus’ way of leadership just doesn’t make sense, it usually means that it’s time to let Him wash my feet again. It’s time to let the King wash me again. It’s time to let this King who knew where he had come from and where he was going, this King who knew that He was in the absolute centre of His Father’s will, this King whose heart is overflowing with love, to wash my feet again. For to the degree that I allow him to love me and serve me, to that degree I can wash the feet of those I lead into the liberty of the Kingdom of God.

Reflection

As you ponder Jesus’ leadership style how does it compare your own?

Image: Nick Cummings Flickr.com

“The King Who Led with a Towel” is a three part article that examines Jesus’ leadership style and example. It is extracted from “Culture Craft” by Rick Sessoms and Colin Buckland and Rick’s original 2003 paper. Their dialogue introduces us to the explicit leadership lessons that Jesus gave to his Disciples and his leadership values. They provide key insights into a practical and effective style of leadership for Christian leaders in both churches and other organisations.

The first part of  “The King Who Led with a Towel” looked at the lessons that Jesus taught his disciples about his different leadership style. This part looks at the different leadership values he exhibited and the third part, “Applying the Towel” , will outline the frame work that underpins its practical application.

Different Leadership Values

There is so much more biblical insight into Jesus’ life and leadership that will have to wait for a more complete treatment. But for now, let’s look at the practical implications. What does it mean to lead with these principles of Jesus to craft a healthier organization?

We don’t want to imply that there is a simple answer, but we can begin by looking at three cardinal values that shaped Jesus’ leadership.

Value #1: Jesus; leadership was established upon a relationship with his followers.

Genesis to Revelation describes a God who desires relationship with the people He created. Restored relationship with God is central to the Gospel message. In the same theme, leadership for Jesus existed in the context of relationship with His followers.

Colin:    Regarding the importance of relationship in leadership, I think of the account in Luke when Jesus inspired Simon Peter to leave his nets and fish for men. In order to lead Simon, Jesus entered Simon’s world (the fishing boat), met his need (catching fish), and spoke to him with dignity (invited him to a higher calling). In these practical ways, Jesus summoned Simon to follow Him through relationship. In other Gospel accounts, we read that Jesus invested time eating, socializing and travelling with his disciples and others.

I also think of other examples from Jesus’ leadership that demonstrated his commitment to relationships with followers:

• His vulnerability in the Garden to His three friends when He was facing Gethsemane.
• His patient explanation of parables to the disciples.
  
• His statement to his disciples: “You are my friends.”
  
• His encounter with the Samaritan woman when He engaged her in conversation and communicated His concern and care for her as a person.
  
• His healing of Jairus’ daughter.

From these biblical examples and many others, we can conclude that many people chose to follow Jesus because of His relationship with them.

Through the Bible, God led people through a relationship with those who chose to follow Him.

Value #2: Jesus’ leadership was activated by influence, not coercive power.

Jesus demonstrated that leadership is activated by influence, not coercive force. Jesus held no positional power over those he was leading. They had a choice to follow Him or to turn away and reject His invitation.

Therefore, God’s creation of human will – our freedom to choose – was one of God’s most profound acts of authentic leadership. The fact that Jesus came as a baby – of low socioeconomic status– implies a God who leads not based on power, but through influencing His willing followers.

Rick:     The Gospels are filled with examples of Jesus’ incredible personal and spiritual influence with his disciples and many others, including those who disagreed with Him and those who ultimately crucified Him.

Some examples include:

• Multitudes came to hear him speak on many occasions.
  
• Simon dropped everything and followed Him.
• Large crowds followed him.
  
• Jesus’ encounter with His accusers on the morning of the Crucifixion.
  
• Jesus’ conversation with the thief on the cross.

People who had the free choice followed Jesus because of His massive personal and spiritual influence.

Colin:     So what are implications of this principle?

Rick:     The capacity to influence others is the characteristic that primarily distinguishes leaders from followers. The true leaders in an organization are not necessarily those people who are appointed by the board. Authentic leadership by influence is not subject to organizational charts; the real leaders in any organization influence both those “above” and “below” them on the organizational chart. One way to determine whether one is a leader is to evaluate whether others are following because they want to – free will – or because they have to.

In my own personal experience, I have followed some people no longer than I absolutely had to, and others I have followed regardless of their title or position.

Colin:     Unfortunately, many Christian organizations make the mistake of appointing people as the spiritual leaders rather than affirming those who are already recognized as the spiritual leaders. This is often a tragic misstep for the welfare of the organization since these appointed individuals establish the spiritual climate into the organization’s future.

Value #3: Jesus’ prioritized His followers’ potential over His own benefit.

The value that really set apart Jesus’ way of leadership from all other leadership approaches was His priority on the followers’ potential. Jesus’ leadership was focused on His followers’ Kingdom potential, not on His well-being or the benefit of any religious organization that He was building.

Colin:     I think I understand what you’re saying, but this principle seems to be very controversial since leaders are usually appointed to build a successful organization.

Rick:     You’re right. All leaders desire to be successful, or at least “fruitful”. And after all, how will the organization be successful unless the leader is successful? But this third value is radical. Jesus did not invest His life in others to build a successful organization. Jesus invested His life in others so that they could grow to their maximum Kingdom potential.

This type of leadership is risky, but it stands at the heart of Jesus’ way of leadership. The religious establishment in Jesus’ day was building a system that seemed infinitely stronger and more permanent than what Jesus was doing. But He was building people to be their very best. In reality, the church was a by-product of Jesus’ primary focus during His three years of ministry. He developed eleven followers who were transformed to reach their highest potential.

Colin:     If the weight of the Gospel writings is any indication of where Jesus spent his time and energy, Jesus evidently spent almost no time investing in a religious system. In fact, He consistently challenged the religious system and its leaders. Rather, the majority of Jesus’ time was spent teaching and preaching with the goal of transforming lives and reproducing His heart for the world into those who would carry the torch after His departure. On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus foretold the coming of the Holy Spirit who would lead them to do even greater things than they had heretofore experienced. Also, in His appearance to them just before His ascension, Jesus exhorted His disciples to be empowered by the Spirit and be witnesses. These priorities demonstrate a deep commitment for His disciples to reach their highest Kingdom potential. The church’s early momentum and sustained perpetuity for twenty-one centuries was birthed through Jesus’ sacrificial resolve to lead by focusing on His followers’ highest potential.

Rick:     If this is true, it distinguishes Jesus’ leadership from so many utilitarian leadership models that are discarded if they aren’t successful. Those who lead Jesus’ way do so not because it is the most successful way to lead, but because it is right way to lead.

Reflection

As you ponder Jesus’ way of leadership (based on a relationship with followers activated by personal and spiritual influence that seeks the highest potential of followers), can you identify 4-5 practical steps that you can take as a leader to emulate more faithfully Jesus’ way of leadership.

Image: Frenkieb Flickr

We have seen how Jesus’ leadership model turns the world’s view of leadership on its head. The one with ultimate power and authority over the world led not in power but as a servant and in so doing Jesus demonstrated Kingdom values. These are practical values that aspire to help those who are led, in church or organization, to achieve their full potential for the Kingdom of God.

In Rick Sessoms’ original paper in 2003 he set the “leadership with a towel” theme in the context of Robert Greenleaf’s rediscovery of servant leadership in the 1960s. Greenleaf’s classic book entitled “Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness” was published in 1977. This book coined for the first time in the corporate community the concept “servant leader.”

Leading with the Towel

As we have seen, in the previous parts of “The King Who Led with a Towel” series, the concept of servant leadership, Jesus’ leadership with a towel, is not simply a concept of the 1960s but has its origins in the Kingdom of God. It is fundamental to how Jesus approached leadership and as such, leadership with a towel is a model for Christian Leadership today, whether in churches or other organizations.

The question is how do we “lead with a towel”? How, as Christians can we lead in the manner that Jesus taught and demonstrated? Rick’s 2003 paper outlined a framework for just that:

Applying the Towel

• Jesus’ instruction to his disciples to “do as I have done for you” is a principle of servant leadership. It can be applied to mean that those I lead are now the appointed agent to receive what the master leader has given me.

• Washing the feet of those I lead means believing in them enough to empower them with the authority and the resources and the information as well the accountability they need to be the best they can be.

• Washing the feet of those I lead means creating an environment safe enough for them to risk giving all. . . and sometimes fail in their giving . . and encouraging them to risk again.

• Washing the feet of those I lead means that I don’t have to be the source of every good idea, but we discover the vision together.

• Washing the feet of the people I lead means creating an atmosphere where they are free to tell me the truth, especially about myself.

• Washing the feet of people I lead means allowing people to express their passion.

• Washing the feet of people I lead means defending those privately and publicly who don’t compromise principle for profit.

• Washing the feet of those I lead means treating each person with the sacred understanding that they are uniquely crafted in the image of their Creator, not in mine.

• Washing the feet of those I lead means enabling them to make decisions and pursue their dreams.

• Washing the feet of those I lead means celebrating their accomplishments.

• Washing their feet means serving them not so that they will serve me, but so that they will serve others.

As a leader, this way of relating to people isn’t typical. Such a way of relating to people reverses the order. It is subversive. It destabilizes. It upsets. Like Mahatma Gandhi many centuries later, Jesus’ model challenges our whole concept of power, of authority, of status. When his disciples were arguing about who would be greatest in the kingdom of God, Jesus said, “Whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be number one shall be slave to all..”

Jesus’ leadership with a towel inaugurates a community of foot washers. It deletes the image of clamoring for power, people climbing over each other to get to the top. Jesus’ example even puts to rest the notion that I wash your feet so that you wash mine. Rather, I wash your feet so that you can in turn wash another’s feet. It is a leadership that fulfills the highest priority needs of those we lead. The best test of a servant leader is to ask: Are those we lead growing as persons? Are they becoming healthier? Are they becoming wiser? Are they becoming freer? Are they becoming more autonomous? Are they becoming more likely themselves to become servants? And what is the effect of my leadership on the least privileged in society; will they benefit from my service?

A 20^th Century Example

The 20^th century was blessed by a woman who epitomized servant leadership. Theresa Bojaxhiu was born and raised in Albania. For years, she washed the feet, and the hands, and the heads, and the bodies of the poorest of the poor in Calcutta and Manila and other cities. But she also touched those who are not poor. One such man was Malcolm Muggeridge, formerly a prominent broadcaster with the BBC. So touched was Muggeridge by her that he wrote a book in her honor, entitled “Something Beautiful for God.”

In that book, he wrote these words: “To choose as Mother Teresa did to live in the slums of Calcutta amidst all the dirt and disease and misery signified a spirit so indomitable, a faith so intractable, a love so abounding that I felt abashed.” Muggeridge went on to tell of an experience he had in Calcutta to which he responded by retreating to his comfortable hotel room and complaining about the wretched condition of the city. Then he wrote these words: “I ran away and stayed away. But Mother Teresa moved in and stayed. That was the difference. She, a slightly built nun, few rubles in her pocket, not particularly clever or gifted in the art of persuasion, came with Christian love shining about her.”

The life of Mother Theresa reflected to the modern world a similar model that Jesus taught his disciples with the towel. The towel dramatized Jesus’ whole life. The towel revealed the nature of his leadership. And His use of the towel is an example for leaders everywhere. Families, organizations and societies in all cultures around the world will be healthier when leaders follow Jesus’ example daily.

Reflection

Are those we lead growing as persons? Are they becoming healthier? Are they becoming wiser? Are they becoming freer? Are they becoming more autonomous? Are they becoming more likely themselves to become servants? And what is the effect of my leadership on the least privileged in society; will they benefit from my service?

Image: K H Rawlings Flickr