Jude 2

A few quotes from a book I am reading for school: LeadershipNext: Changing Leaders in a Changing Culture, by Eddie Gibbs, Senior Professor of Church Growth at the School of World Mission, Fuller Theological Seminary.

In writing about Leadership in transition, there are "two broad categories that describe the absence of leadership in any organization or community --- zombification and atrophication. These terms describe the protective response encountered in organizations where leadership has become either laissez faire or controlling. ...a range of telltale symptoms:

• People are punished for being aware and authentic. In other words, telling it like it is.
• (Leaders) stop telling the truth and lie or keep silent about things that matter.
• Feedback is no longer oriented to how (people) can succeed but to how they have failed -- not just in their work but as human beings.
• Performance assessment becomes judgmental and hierarchical rather than supportive and participatory.
• Honesty is separated from kindness, integrity from advancement, and respect from communication."

wow, uhm, hmmm... nevermind

We were discussing the same thing in my Management class yesterday. It was tied to a discussion over Centralization or Decentralization style management. It was interesting that they were coming from a secular viewpoint for the business world. In my mind, I was thinking about how so many denominations and church organizations could learn from them.

Pastor Gary wrote:A few quotes from a book I am reading for school: LeadershipNext: Changing Leaders in a Changing Culture, by Eddie Gibbs, Senior Professor of Church Growth at the School of World Mission, Fuller Theological Seminary.

In writing about Leadership in transition, there are "two broad categories that describe the absence of leadership in any organization or community --- zombification and atrophication. These terms describe the protective response encountered in organizations where leadership has become either laissez faire or controlling. ...a range of telltale symptoms:

• People are punished for being aware and authentic. In other words, telling it like it is.
• (Leaders) stop telling the truth and lie or keep silent about things that matter.
• Feedback is no longer oriented to how (people) can succeed but to how they have failed -- not just in their work but as human beings.
• Performance assessment becomes judgmental and hierarchical rather than supportive and participatory.
• Honesty is separated from kindness, integrity from advancement, and respect from communication."

IMHO: What I notice more and more with leadership is the amount of insecurity prevelent today. Looking at these quotes I can see where it applies. I believe strongly that this is one of the weakness of the church. The failure to empower people to fulfill the call of God in their life, because the leader in insecure.

Trying to be the One Man Show. They don't want people to "tell it like it is" because the leader may preceive it as criticism.

Being judgemental. The worse you look the better I look. I could go on.