encourage the exploration of scripture
![]() A few days ago I finished Patrick Lencioni’s latest book, The Motive (2020, Jossey-Bass). As an unabashed Patrick Lencioni junkie, I read and recommend all his books. Patrick's concepts and tools form the basis for many of my organizational consulting services as I find they typically apply - on a one-for-one basis - to most churches. Patrick is also a dedicated Christian, so I like that too. Let me summarize The Motive for you (spoiler alert). In comparing “Reward-centered leadership” to “Responsibility-centered leadership”, Patrick argues that the most important and relevant activities any company’s CEO can engage in relate to the leadership and management of his or her staff team. But these difficult responsibilities are exactly what many CEOs are pre-wired to “delegate, abdicate, or ignore” (p. 139). An “Ah-ha!” moment occurred to me when I mentally translated this advice to churches - same problem, but exponentially worse! You see, the Rector (Senior Pastor, Lead Pastor, etc.) is charged with functioning as the church’s CEO. But on most weeks, his or her most important weekly responsibility is to preach at weekend services. This can take anywhere from 10-30 hours of preparation and execution, leaving little room for effective leadership and management.
Here’s my ecclesiastical point: Churches most often select their leader with the highest attention not on the spiritual gift of leadership, but on the spiritual gift of teaching. This naturally creates many well-preached and poorly-led churches. Next week, in Part 2 of this brainstorm, I’ll muse on a possible solution to this problem. In Part 3, I'll examine scripture to see if my solution has any Biblical analog. - Dan Dzikowicz
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Dan DzikowiczChurch consultant, pastor, author, and Lectionary Press' founder. Archives
February 2021
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