Leadership Beyond

Came across an excellent article by Gordon MacDonald here,  entitled, DNF, Many in ministry Did Not Finish. What can we do about that?  I'm giving the "Finishing Well" talk at the ILI Regional Conference in Santa Clarita, Feb. 19-21, 2010, so it caught my attention.

What money is to the financial folks, and power is to political people, and knowledge is to intellectuals, intimacy—deep connections with people—is to those of us who are in the people-care business....

When we gets this "up-close-and-personal" with people, we come within sight of behaviors that cross the boundary into the inappropriate. The so-called temptations of the flesh become prominent under such circumstances and among people who operate in a world of intimacies.

A preponderant percentage of those of us drawn to [Chrisitan] leadership have a higher-than-normal urge to engage with other people. We love to get below the surface of people's exterior lives: to understand their dreams and their burdens, to urge them on to higher possibilities, to sympathize with their feelings and fears, to show them grace and mercy when they fail. The word close is operational here.

No kidding.  Wouldn't it be great if we had the Robinson family robot from Lost in Space blinking his lights and making noise, "Danger Will Robinson!" following us around and watching our backs. Later in the article, he writes,

I find it hard to put into clinical words what I intuit. Simply put, I am not confident that many young men and women entering public ministry with all of its privilege and demands are emotionally (and spiritually?) ready to face the subtleties of human relationships on their darker side.

I am not sure that many midlife men and women appreciate all the pressures bearing down on them that make it easy to seek illicit ways to anesthetize the growing discomfort within. Saying good-bye to children, adjusting to a now childless marriage, caring for aging parents, facing the inexorable aging process with its health issues: pressure, pressure, pressure! For the less vigilant, escape into something simpler, more exciting, seemingly more fun can be exceedingly attractive.

In ending, MacDonald gives the obvious "how to's," accountability groups, inquisitive mentors, et. al.  Read the article, it's good.  I really love his finish:

In our contemporary Christian culture, let's frankly admit the fact that we are—most of us—starved for healthy intimacy at every level and, when we do not experience it, are likely to turn toward the sexual to find it. We need to surface this, find ways to identify the drives and desire and then talk about how to prevent it.

DNF: did not finish. Among the saddest of all epitaphs for a leader. Moral failure: among the most serious and tragic of the reasons. You'd think we'd talk more about this and what can be done to prevent it.

Our radically individualisitc culture tied to a "superman" picture of leadership is a set-up for failure.  What are some good practices to keep us from "being stupid?"

Kyle Phillips

Read a good book recently by Senator John McCain and Mark Salter: Hard Call: great decisions and the extraordinary people who made them.   In it McCain and Salter explore the lives and decisions of twenty people divided into six areas that the authors see as critical in making the “hard call.”  The six areas are awareness, foresight, timing, confidence, humility, and inspiration.  The lives and stories shared capture well each of the qualities identified. 

A valuable surprise, however, comes in the Afterword.  Senator McCain shares a mea culpa during his 2000 run for president.  In his own words,

I took a position I knew to be wrong on a controversial public issue that had a moral component because I thought it might help me win the primary in the state the issue concerned.  That…I regretted.  For in addition to the fact that it did me little political good, it caused me to be ashamed of myself, and it’s a little late in life to bear that kind of burden.

…I lacked humility and an inspiration to some purpose higher than self interest, which proved the cause of my error….I have learned by painful experience…that those two are the most important qualities of a good decision, and all the more so when it is a hard decision.

“Humility and an inspiration to some purpose higher than self interest” are key notes in the life of integrity. 

McCain and Salter define humility as “the quality of a decision that has as its primary objective the well being of others” (p. 285.)   Humility aims primarily not to benefit self but others.  It is not a quality of self-abasement, but, in the words of Paul, “in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Phil. 2:3).

I really like how they define inspiration:

The quality of inspiration we refer to is found in those decisions whose authors have felt beckoned by a sense of duty or the demands of justice simply to do what is right, who use just means to secure just ends; and who are prepared to suffer whatever price they incur for their faithfulness.  They are decisions made by those who feel and act upon a perceived moral obligation to a cause, to their conscience, or to God.  They are rare in history and sublime in the eyes of humanity.  They summon their witnesses to greatness as they reaffirm the potential within us all to rise above our nature and serve a cause greater than our self-interest.

Very cool.  Put these notions of humility and inspiration together and you have the power of integrity.  We are not the center of all that is, and, truth be told, not even the center of what we are doing, of what we are about.  Christ alone has that place.  If we can be mindful of the simple truth that others are at least as significant as ourselves, and that our Christ-centered actions always hold the potential to "lift others to greatness" we have a chance to be a part of something far bigger than ourselves, a chance to participate in a glory not our own but a glory in which we share.  

Integrity takes root in this paradox of God's divine partnership with humanity.  On the one hand, we really are not all that important in the great scheme of things.  We really can relax and simply be who we are with all our burdens, confusions, foibles and foolishness.  On the other hand, the miracles God works through  surrendered hearts reveals Him and inspires awe and wonder, not least in ourselves.

Integrity is not a work or our own doing.  It is the simple fruit of living from what God can do with one more forgiven sinner.

Kyle Phillips

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour”. 1 Peter 5:8

It sometimes comes as an unpleasant surprise to many in the faith that Satan actually does have them on his radar screen. Your vision is in place, your plans for ministry to the lost and captive are moving forward and all is right with the world…until Satan makes his move, that is. As those who are experienced in ministry and missions will tell you, it’s not a matter of if Satan will strike; it’s a matter of when Satan will strike. 

Now, I have an acquaintance who is convinced that Satan is personally responsible for every untoward event in her life. Flat tire on the way to work? Satan trying to get her fired. Child only gets a C+ on his chemistry final; Satan ruining another young life. Hair out of sorts – you guessed it, Satan keeping her from finding husband number three!

That’s not what I’m talking about.

Scripture assures us that Satan is on the prowl and anyone with a little time in grade can tell you that Satan stalks those who dare to step out of their personal comfort zone and get busy with the spread of the Gospel. Now the good news is that Satan only has a few signature moves; he isn’t God, after all. The bad news is that, given our sin nature, he only needs a few moves. And if we are caught off guard, he’ll do his best. It’s important for leaders (by my reckoning, all Christians, in fact) to be acutely aware of how Satan works, as a preventative measure.

The Apostle John understood this all too well and his words should be a caution to us all:

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world--the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions--is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” 1 John 2: 15-17

It is worth noting that Satan even attempted to trip up the Master in each of these areas (see Luke 4) and he’s still at to today in the lives of those who belong to Jesus. I’d encourage everyone to take a closer look at each of these three signature flaws that Satan would love to exploit:

1.     Desires of the flesh – What do we really live for? Are we living for merely material things?

2.     Desires of the eyes – What heart idols have us in captivity, right now?

3.     Pride in possessions – Is our identity mostly wrapped up in who we think we are or is it truly in Christ?

This type of introspection is very difficult, if we are honest in the endeavor. The benefits, however, are enormous if we consciously, deliberately probe our hearts to uncover, as Tim Keller would put it, “our sins beneath our sins”. We all have issues in each of these areas, to be sure, but it is much better to work out our salvation off line with the help of the Holy Spirit, than to be caught unawares as we move forward on mission.

For those who have attended the ILI Regional Leadership training, take some time to review the excellent study resource provided in the Obstacles to Leadership module. For those who haven’t, consider attending our next Regional Conference to be held in the Santa Clarita Valley in February, 2010.

Mike Brown