Transformational leaders and servant leaders are natural companions in staff/leadership development by the Senior Pastor and second chair leaders. These two individuals display these traits because they are already transformational leaders due to the shift in the church towards a missional focus (Stetzer, and Rainer 77).

Transformational leadership is ultimately about influence and leaders that understand the vision and purpose of the church (Stetzer, and Rainer 74, 95). At the core, a transformational leader is a vision caster (Stetzer, and Rainer 74). Bill Hybels, Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago, Illinois writes that a vision should capture and energize people when they heart it. “Whenever I hear a leader communicating passionate, heartfelt, God-honoring vision I am energized whether I want to be or not” (Hybels 35). Northouse writes that, “ transforming leaders had a clear vision of the future state of their organization” (Northouse 187).

Peter Northouse writes that a transformational leader “is the process whereby a person engages with others and creates a connection that raises the level of motivation and morality in both the leader and the followers” (Northouse 177). Northouse continues, “transformational leadership involves an exceptional form of influence that moves followers to accomplish more than what is usually expected of them. It is a process that often incorporates charismatic and visionary leadership” (Northouse 176). The development of transformational leaders spreads to the entire church because the culture has changed (Stetzer, and Rainer 79). “Transformational leaders know that every person can be used to fulfill God’s mission. Leadership is the steward to help others exercise their gifts…” (Stetzer, and Rainer 79). Jesus modeled transformational leadership in how he developed the leadership potentials found in the disciples. Michael Anthony traces in Management for Christian Ministers, the transformation of the disciples through Jesus’ leadership:

The disciples begin to aid Jesus in his work, beginning to take an active part in his ministry (Mark 3:13-66). Eventually, the disciples are able to do ministry themselves but are still in need of Jesus’ direct supervision and guidance (Mark 6:7-13, 30). Ultimately, the disciples are commissioned to carry out the ministry themselves, with Jesus still present among them, but no longer physically present (Mark 16;15-16, 20). (333)

The shift that happens in staff teams when leadership is multiplied: servant leaders and transformational leaders are developed, is a shift from one to many leaders (Stetzer, and Rainer 78). “The transformational leader thinks team. Everybody has a purpose. No one person’s personal purpose is more important than the biblical purpose of the team” (Stetzer, and Rainer 80). The environment that is created in a transformational leadership community is one that values a team-based approach to ministry (Stetzer, and Rainer 93).

Sources:

Northouse, P. G. Leadership Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA:

Sage Publications, Inc, 2007. Print.

Hybels, Bill. Courageous Leadership. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan

Publishing Company, 2002. Print.

Stetzer, Ed, and Thom Rainer. Transformational Church: Creating a New Scorecard

for Congregations. Nashville, TN: B&H Books, 2010. Print.

All my life I have been a really big sports fan, and I’ve always been interested in the work of teams. I’ve read business books on teams, tried to figure out what makes teams successful and why they fail. You find teams throughout all realms of life, from sports, to the work place and yes even in church work. Teams are made up with unique individuals, and each person has to play a key role in the team to make the project or ministry event successful. Often times the person, who some say has a “thankless jobs” or the role that is behind the scenes, is often the person with the most important role.

Like most churches, we have a weekly staff meeting where everyone shares what the Lord did through our church in the previous week. I’ll never forget this one meeting a few years ago, where it became a thank you to everyone in the room for the success of a huge ministry event, expect for those who have the “thankless jobs” (production team, finance office, setup team– those types of roles). Ministers and other staff members kept saying how so and so did a great job with the project, but they never got around to thanking the key individuals who made the project really happen. I visited with one of the staff members who failed to get thanked publicly following the meeting, and thanked them for the hard work and the multiple hours put in for the job. After I finished encouraging them and thanking them, their only response to me was, “I was just doing my job.” That is a simple response, but it is one that Christ expects out of everyone on a church staff team, just show up, be prepared and do your job.

We’ve seen before in scripture when normal everyday people just showed up, were prepared, did their job and the Lord used them for His glory. These stories are very familiar especially to someone serving on a church staff, but I think the roles of a few, we overlook, they have the “thankless roles”.

We pick the story up right before Christ enters Jerusalem in Luke 19:30-34, “Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.’ “Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt? “They replied, “The Lord needs it.”

Do you ever wonder what was going through the mind of the owner of that colt? Do you think maybe the Lord spoke to him more than once about the colt? Maybe He said, “This is a special colt, I’ll need it one day so keep it healthy and make sure no one rides it”. I am sure day after day the owner of the colt fed the colt wondering when the Lord would use it, and he kept the colt healthy. He did what he was asked to do by the Lord; he showed up and was prepared to be used.

We find a similar occurrence-taking place later in Luke, when the disciples are looking for a room to have the Passover meal. Christ tells the disciples to find the man carrying the jar of water who has an upper room. Do you think that maybe when the man was building his house, the Lord told Him to build an upper room that someday he would use it? Maybe his neighbors made fun of him for building an upper room or the city zoning committee gave him a hard time for wanting to build an upper room. The man who carried the jar of water, showed up,  was prepared and was ready to do his job for the Lord.

As a church staff member no matter what our role is from Senior Pastor, to Business Administrator, to Youth Intern, to Housekeeping- we can model the roles of these we read about. We can show up, do our jobs and be prepared. As a staff team we need to always encourage those around us, making sure they are doing their job well. The Lord may need them to play a key position in a huge ministry event in the future. We do not know what the Lord is orchestrating and what role we might play in kingdom building later down the road. So be encouraged today, what you may think is a meaningless task, or thankless job is actually something ordained by Christ. He needs you to complete your task well and to do your job well. You may be preparing the next upper room.

As a young pastor I know at times it is hard to be patient as the Lord grows and matures me in my career and calling to serve as an executive pastor. I know it is hard to be determined along the journey. Often times I have faced my own internal thoughts of “I can do this now” or “I’ve learned all that I need to and I can be an executive pastor today”.

Recently on a flight back from Guatemala, the Lord spoke to me. I was reading the book, Leading from the Second Chair, a book written for those serving in the second chair (executive pastor) role in churches. Two chapters were written entirely on being patient and content. I learned that it is through the times of learning and the situations I find myself in that the Lord is growing and developing me for future days.

I keep a journal on my laptop of situations I have found myself in, what my response was, and if it was the right choice or not. I know this journal will prove to be handy in the future. I have had the unique opportunity to have a vast number of experiences and roles in my six years at Park Cities.

God expects my best efforts now.  God expects my best days now because these are the days that my skills are being sharpened.  God expects my best effort now so that I’ll be prepared for all that he plans to do in and through me later.

So therefore I am taking up the challenge offered in chapters eight and nine.

Here is the quote that moves me forward:

“ If you strive to find contentment today, God can begin to teach you to become all that you dream of being tomorrow” (page 140).

God, you’ll have my best efforts now.

“Churches grow out of a movement”. I first heard those words last fall from Reggie McNeal at the Missional Renaissance Learning Community hosted by LeadershipNetwork.

It’s an interesting concept if you think about it. A movement is defined as, “a group of people working together to advance their shared political, social, or artistic ideas”.

The church is a group of people not a building. It’s a group of people working to proclaim the fame of Christ in their community and working with God on his redemptive work in the world.

Therefore,

Church is a who not a what.

Church as a who changes the context.

Church is a verb, not a noun.

Church is a way of being.

Church is a way of life.

You can church at home, work, school, coffee shop, restaurant, and well, the physical church building.

Our Pastor, Jeff Warren, said in a video to Park Cities prior to his view of a call in August 2010, that he wants to be a part of a church on the move. Seems to fit right in line with being apart of a movement. Being a part of a movement, the Jesus movement means that the church, the people group is already deployed in the community; we just need to release it. The language we use as leaders in the church matters.

As the church becomes externally focused, you will run into Jesus where people are desperate for hope. I’m up for that movement.

Back in October our church hosted the 1:8 Expo. It was an event geared to help guide and create conversations for people to get involved in the mission of the church and find their role. At the end of the Expo we had a simple video that was played and challenged people to do something.

Here it is:

It has been close to 219,000 minutes since I last updated my blog. The semester was pretty tough on me. More than it being tough on me, I think it was more tough on Kelsey. I promised her I would not put her through a time like that again. I know there will be hard seasons in life, and I’ll know how to handle them better next time. Kelsey was patient and very encouraging as I battled through accounting this fall and the other six hours of grad school I took. With that said, I’ve got some writing to catch up.

This week I’ll post reflections on the Missional Renaissance Leadership community I was apart of as well as some thoughts related to organizational structures and creating an atmosphere of grace in an office. I’ll try and also write about the movements of God our church has been apart of, we had a great fall in the missions office and I love the team I work with and for. They are some of the most passionate people I know.  I’ve learned so much from them as I joined with them back in June.

Looking forward to seeing what 2011 has in store.

For His Joy & Fame.

Here are memorable quotes from day two of the Global Leadership Summit from Willow Creek Community Church. I really felt honored to attend the Summit this year. Hearing the variety of speakers will pay huge dividends in the years to come in my leadership development.

Jeff Manion, Senior Pastor- Ada Bible Church, Ada, Michigan

• The Land Between is fertile ground for transformational growth.
• What if, instead of holding on, we release and leave our hands open to receive whatever God would provide for us?
• In Spiritual Leadership you will have moments where you come to the end of yourself.
• The Land Between is fertile ground.

Terri Kelly, President and CEO of W.L. Gore & Associates (Gore-Tex)

• As Leaders, we must figure out how we can divide so we can multiply.
• To be innovative you have to create an environment of collaboration.

Daniel H. Pink, Business thinker and author

• Performance reviews are not authentic conversations.
• People have to be animated by something larger than themselves.
• Our nature is not to be passive and inert; our nature is to be active and engaged.

Blake Mycoskie, Founder and Chief Shoe Giver, TOMS Shoes

• You can’t be bashful if you want to make change.
• Young people want to have a voice and want to do something that matters.

Jack Welch, Former Chairman and CEO of General Electric

• If a leader isn’t doing regular celebrations they are missing a significant opportunity.
• You have to do everything to stop the meeting after the meeting.

T. D. Jakes, Chief Pastor, The Potter’s House, Dallas, TX

• People don’t come to follow us, they come to follow Jesus.
• When people are passionate about what they do they are far more effective at what they do.

Bill Hybels, Senior Pastor, Willow Creek Community Church

• Go where leadership is taught.
• For the church to reach its redemptive potential it must be well-lead.

Here are all the memorable quotes from the first day of the Global Leadership Summit, I’ll post my notes when I get back to Dallas.

Bill Hybels

• Whispers from God help us get from here to there the right way with the right motives.
• What keeps people on the journey is some sense of hope that they are going to get there someday.
• Goal of leadership is to attract, develop & maintain team of fantastic people that will flourish in your unique culture.
• Teams are the catalyst of moving people from here to there.

Jim Collins

• Double your reach to young people by changing your practices but not changing your core values.
• Hold the core values but change the process.
• Great companies succeed because they have a reason to endure.
• The ability to put faith and facts together is what makes great teams.
• The signature of what separates good leaders from the great leaders is humility.

Christine Caine

• It’s easy to ignore suffering, not get involved & feel hopeless when something is nameless and faceless.
• The truth of the word of God is more powerful than the facts.
• On the earth there’s a divine recalibration happening…. God is waking up the Church.

Tony Dungy

• Mentoring is a process of building trust.
• Leadership is all about helping those who you lead.

Dr. Zhao Xiao

• Leadership is not just influence. Leadership is also about the right direction.

Andy Stanley

• The general notion is that problems and tension are a result of poor leadership.
• Great organization have tensions and problems that are never solved.
• Tension and pressure can lead to progress and can allow us to go farther and faster.
• As a leader, one of the most valuable things you can do for your organization is differentiate between tensions your organization will always need to manage vs. problems that need to be solved.

You can view pictures of the Summit here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/willowcreekassociation/

A few weeks ago I posted that I was shifting out of my Great Hall role to a role in the Mission’s office as the interim director of urban missions. It is interim because we are searching for a new pastor, and this gives him the freedom to choose the staff. Not worried about it being interim, but trusting God through this.

So why make a shift to a new role, that appears to be outside of my comfort zone?

Because it makes sense.

I feel the Lord is leading the process.

A few years ago I was confused about which way my ministry career was going. I was serving Park Cities as a technical/programming guy, but I had limited technical skills. Our Production Director can attest to this. Most of my skills were centered around the following: organization, leadership, vision and encouraging others. I wasn’t completely sure if there was a role for me in ministry. I had felt the call to serve in ministry since the ninth grade, after a D-Now weekend.

So I sat for a weekend confused. Took some days off from work. At the end of that time I knew I was called to be an executive pastor. I was called to help a pastor flesh out his vision for the church. To serve him and the congregation as a servant leader. I was to lead in areas that would make the church stronger, to provide organization, leadership, encourage others and serve as the chief of staff. I was to be the staff’s greatest advocate, a catalyst for them and their ministries areas.

So that brings me to the urban mission’s role. I see this as a great time and opportunity for me to develop and strengthen some of my skills. It allows me to partner with a great team for a great purpose. It allows me to serve in a ministry area that will stretch me and grow me. It lays the groundwork, the foundation for my future ministry calling. I know it will be frustrating at times, but I know in the end it’s for the renown of Jesus.

Maybe you are being shaped today for the future…

Below is a letter I sent out to the Great Hall Team this morning, I’ll blog more about this soon.

Great Hall Team,

A few months ago I let you know that our church was moving towards hiring a part time individual to join our staff as worship leader and provide some leadership to the Great Hall service.

This is part of a larger plan that stretches beyond the Great Hall team.

Here is some history.

In March, I was approached by the church to serve as the interim director of urban missions. This would allow me to give leadership to the missions staff, budget and our urban missions efforts through out the DFW metroplex.

As many of you know, I feel called to serve the local church in the future as an executive pastor. I believe that this change in responsibilities at the church, allows me to develop some skills and grow some leadership gifts on the path towards becoming an executive pastor. This would require a shift in my responsibilities away from the Great Hall service.

After much prayer and thought, I have accepted the offer to become the interim urban missions director. In the meantime you will notice few changes in the Great Hall service. I will not step out of my role in the Great Hall until we have hired the new worship leader. I’ll continue to be your contact regarding the service.

The Great Hall search team continues to review candidates for the Great Hall worship leader. I am confident that the Lord will lead us to the worship leader soon. Join with me in praying for this.

Tom Mosley, interim worship pastor, will provide some key overall leadership to the Great Hall service. Tom leads worship in the Sanctuary service and has a love for all styles of worship. You guys will love working with Tom and getting to know him and his love for you.

Pike Wisner will have a greater, expanded role in how he shepherds and leads the Great Hall team. Robbie McCormac has been promoted to Director of Production, he will coordinate the production needs for the service.

It has been a joy to serve with you for the past four years. We have grown together and I look forward to find ways to work with you. You guys are awesome and it is a joy to serve with you. If you have any questions let me know.

For His joy,

Brandon