Leadership books rarely include motivational considerations among the suggested criteria for choosing a leadership team for a change initiative. Bill Hybels, for instance, proposes his “three Cs”: character, proven competence, and chemistry.1 John Kotter proposes four key characteristics for good team…
Read MoreTen Assumptions of Appreciative Inquiry
by Mark Lau Branson Many forms of organizational development assume that the job of leaders is to find the problems and fix them. Perhaps members observe that their church has a declining membership, a changing neighborhood, and a dearth of…
Read MoreLeaders are Lovers
by Herbert Anderson This article re-examines the attention to boundaries in ministry that has emerged in recent decades partly as a necessary response to the violation of trust in the pastoral bond and partly because differentiated leadership has been promoted as…
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CenterView: How Your Congregation Learns
by Tim Shapiro Congregations, or perhaps more precisely, congregational leaders, need to learn new skills all the time. Such are the demands on congregational life. What do you do when your congregation either needs or chooses to do something new?…
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Leadership in Scarcity
by Mark Miller-McLemore | My church was located across from an abandoned strip mall and the local “No-Tell Motel,” where drugs and sex were peddled. We worked closely with homeless people through a shelter program in our building. It was a place…
Read MoreCongregational Leadership: Ten Observations from a Practitioner and Teacher
I am both a practitioner and teacher of congregational leadership. In my most recent pastorate I was Senior Minister of Plymouth Congregational Church (UCC) in downtown Seattle. In 2008–2009 I taught congregational leadership at Emmanuel College in the Toronto School…
Read MoreHard-Times Leadership: Discerning the Spiritual Challenges
Are the financial “hard times” we face a test of our institutional resilience and savvy, or a test of faith? Most of us would acknowledge that they are both. But are we aware of the spiritual challenges that lie at…
Read MoreCongregational Readiness for Visioning and Planning
Before I agree to work with a planning team, I determine if the leadership is ready for the test. Congregations are different. Some are doing great and don’t need to do developmental planning now. Others lack a readiness to plan….
Read MoreReclaiming the Story: Narrative Leadership in Ministry
Jewish and Christian ministries have used stories of faith to form communal identity and mission since their beginning. Jews continue to celebrate the founding story of the Exodus in their homes each Passover, and the rabbis tell us that God…
Read MoreCongregations and Foundations: Meeting in the Spaces Between
“Everything is connected…no one thing can change by itself.” —Paul Hawken, entrepreneur The nation’s clergy and congregations might be dismayed or exhilarated by what foundation leaders had to say at a recent meeting convened by the Alban Institute. The meeting…
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