Tag: leadership

Cause-Effect

Cause-Effect thinking is a useful tool, or at least it can be. However it is usually automatic re-active thinking rather than pro-active. The world is unfortunately more complicated than cause-effect.

Being a reactive thinking it tends to call for bigger hammer, nicer packaging, or a new program instead of getting us to think about the whole.

Vision and Mission for Þjóðkirkjan

The Icelandic Church went through an interesting process, creating a vision and mission document for the years 2004-2010. It was both interesting to see who participated in the creation of this overall document and who did not.

I have not spent a lot of time in Iceland since this document was formed and I wonder about its impact, but in 2010 it will be re-assessed and hopefully in an honest way.

Website in Icelandic about the Document.

The official document.

Reactive or Proactive

When addressing leadership model, I have to come to the issue of reactive vs. proactive again and again. It is especially important when it comes to the question of the Icelandic Church and how it is going to respond to the question of separation of church and state.

Does that call for a reaction, trying to slow the pace of the discussion, or are we going to be proactive and take over the discussion.

Alternative Community

It is interesting to think about alternative communities. One could claim that an interesting social experiment took place in Iceland from 930-1262, a community without a king. In 1Sam 8.9 and 8.17-18, we see another vision of community without a king.
Are the thoughts in 1Sam 8 relevant when we think about the situation in Israel today, “the slavery” and walls.

David and the evil nature of Power

For a very long time I have had a memo on various notebooks that it would be interesting to look to the story of David in light of and Icelandic saying: “Vald spillir, algjört vald gjörspillir”, or absolute power leads to absolute corruption. It is something about a young and beautiful boy playing a harp, turning into a monster that is interestingly exciting.

However, I have been attending Bible Study at Redeemer Lutheran, were the teacher, a former professor in OT, seems to think that perhaps David always was a spoiled brat. He uses the phrase “a teflon politician”. You can throw anything at him, nothing sticks.

I wonder whether that is more helpful, than my thoughts of the good and innocent turning bad, probably.

LPLI – Assessment tool for Pastors

The Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary has developed a new online leadership assessment instrument called the Lewis Pastoral Leadership Inventory™ (LPLI). Specifically designed for clergy, the LPLI helps pastoral leaders identify individual strengths and weaknesses to improve their ministry effectiveness. The LPLI uses a three-fold understanding of fruitful leadership encompassing Character,Competence, and Contribution. LPLI users receive a personalized leadership profile report that can be used for self-discovery, gathering feedback from others, setting goals for improvement, identifying continuing education needs, and tracking progress over time.

About LPLI — Lewis Center for Church Leadership™.

Leading Pastors: Men vs. Women

Although there may be differences between how male and female lead pastors see themselves and function, it appears that the nature and challenges of large church leadership shape the experience of male and female lead pastors in ways that make their leadership more similar than different.

To see the survey results, go to: http://www.gbhem.org/atf/cf/%7B0BCEF929-BDBA-4AA0-968F-D1986A8EEF80%7D/CW_LWPP2009results.pdf

To see an analysis by HiRho Park and Susan Willhauck, go to: http://www.gbhem.org/atf/cf/%7B0BCEF929-BDBA-4AA0-968F-D1986A8EEF80%7D/CW_LWPP2009.pdf

via Lewis Center Update July 2009.

Leadership in Small Churches

The preacher is the chief storyteller of the congregation’s story and knows the value of telling and retelling it on the occasion when most people are gathered and receptive to the storyteller’s spell, that is, the sermon. This is especially valuable to small membership churches, where neglect of history to the point of institutional amnesia is a telling symptom of a lack of corporate self-esteem. A small membership church that cannot tell its own story is prey to a fabricated story told about it from outside by an unfriendly critic. For the sake of building up the body of Christ, the preacher must become a determined student of congregational history. Then in an act of strategic leadership, the preacher must tell that recovered story from the pulpit.

via Leading Ideas: A Resource for Church Leaders.