The Leader of the Artists

Creativity is not necessarily art. Art requires creativity, but not all creative processes produce art. I like to consider myself creative (but not an artist). As a researcher, my creativity is different than an artist’s creativity. My spreadsheets are no works of art. I doubt they will ever be displayed in a museum, or in my church’s heritage room for that matter. But I do take pride in creatively communicating statistics in ways people can grasp.

So an artist I am not, even in my most inspired spreadsheet moment.

But we do have several artists in our church, and leading them requires a different approach. Managing creative people is different than managing artists. Artists think differently, not just about what to create but also how to create.

My worship pastor is an artist. It’s part of what enables him to lead a group of diverse people to worship together. He also understands artists; he gets their vibe. (Vibe is his favorite word—if a space is “vibey,” then that’s a good thing. I’m still learning, I guess.). Watching my worship pastor lead a group of artists is a work of art in itself.

Placing this leadership style within a taxonomy would almost butcher what it is. So rather than attempt to define it, I’ll describe what I see in my worship pastor’s leadership style.

The best analogy I can use is art itself. Leading a group of artists is like having everyone paint the same work on one canvas, all together and at the same time. Each artist has a unique perspective, style, tone, and pace (and inevitably, they will all want their own type of brush). The one leading the artists, however, is responsible for making sure everyone is painting the same work on one canvas, rather than a bunch of individual works on that canvas.

When the work is finished (is art ever finished?), it’s never what the leader would have done as a lone artist. It always looks different, but the leader’s responsibility is to make sure what was painted is cohesive.

The leader of the artists does not mesh all the individual works into one bland blob. The leader of the artist ensures that each artist’s unique contribution is seen within the whole. The leader of the artists figures out ways to manage those who paint a lot with big, bold brushes with those who paint small with tiny brushes. The leader of the artists knows how to gently massage the person painting out of color scheme back into the group. The leader of the artists knows how to incorporate new artists with those who have been painting a long time. The leader of the artists knows how to calm tempers when one artist paints over another artist’s work.

Here’s the catch: the leader of the artist has to be willing to set aside and sacrifice his or her own work to lead the work of others. It’s how an artist becomes a servant-leader.

I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to lead like my worship pastor, but it is sure fun to watch the art of leadership unfold.

Five Leadership Resolutions for Your Followers

New Year’s resolutions are often self-centered; it’s understandable. Successful people often reflect on who they are. They try to be more self-aware. They desire to develop themselves. So, good leaders often make resolutions involving individual goals, desires and objectives. Many leaders have resolve — the determination to see a goal and achieve it.

Too often these goals involve what individual leaders can do on their own. By the nature of their roles, however, leaders have people around them – teams, subordinates and followers – who are necessary components of success.

Allow me to challenge you to make resolutions this year with followers in mind. Here are five areas to consider in making specific leadership resolutions this year that benefit your followers.

Serve first. Everyone in an organization, from the top to the bottom serves the mission. As a leader you cannot serve the mission without also serving others. The best leaders are passionate about a mission, and they are willing to serve others who join them on that mission.

These leaders realize organizational goals and individual goals cannot be attained with an attitude of “Me first.” Leaders who show the way by serving others (as opposed to self-serving) help create a culture of sacrifice to a mission. Resolve this year to serve the mission by serving others.

Simplify work. Many people look for ways to simplify their lives this time of year. But the mantra to simplify lasts about a month before the complexities of life sneak in by Groundhog Day. Then an endless string of complex days continue until the following year’s resolution. One of the best gifts a leader can give followers is simplicity. Complexity may dominate your followers’ lives in every way, but you can grant them simplicity in the one area in which you have control. Managers who simplify work for their subordinates often create more work for themselves. Resolve this year to simplify for your followers, even if it means more complexity for you.

Release problems. Some problems are unsolvable. This creates a dilemma for leaders who have an innate desire to fix everything. Idealistic leaders will often present good solutions to the wrong problems.

Sometimes the “best” solution will not work. In certain cases, followers may never grasp the best solution. Let it go. Leaders serve people, not ideals. Resolve this year to release your followers from the burden of idealistic solutions to unsolvable problems.

Yield preferences. Most followers have a keen radar for the personal preferences of a leader, especially when these preferences are spun as vision. Leaders have positional authority over followers, and those in charge have more opportunities to voice opinions and vocalize what they like.

The best leaders find ways to create a collective vision with input from a variety of followers. They do not champion their preferences as the vision for all. Resolve this year to yield your personal preferences and build a collective vision from a variety of followers.

Recognize pride. Humility is the most difficult leadership trait to see in ourselves. The opposite of humility, pride is the most destructive leadership predisposition. Great leaders never stop fighting the battle to recognize pride and remain humble. It’s the quintessential leadership struggle. We stand on a sliding scale somewhere between healthy humility and unhealthy pride.

Even at our best, determining where we are on this scale is tough. We rarely recognize our pride until it’s too late. Followers often see it long before leaders become self-aware of arrogance. Great leaders appoint accountability partners at all levels of the organization to call attention to potential problems originated in pride. Resolve this year to put measures in place to recognize prideful tendencies and give key followers permission to call out problems associated with your pride.

Leadership is a gift from followers. Graciously accept this gift by resolving to serve followers by putting them first. Make 2012 the year of your followers.

[This post was originally published at Church Executive.]

The New Geography of Megapolitan Communities

USA Today recently published a graphic that grabbed my attention. As shown below, this graphic reveals what some demographers predict will become “megapolitan” communities. While I might draw the lines differently on some of the physical boundaries of these communities, the concept of megapolitan areas is fascinating to me.

The article (which reports on this book) defines these megapolitan areas as “having at least one metropolitan area of 2 million people by 2040 that’s connected — via commuting patterns — to at least one other metro area of more than 250,000 people. A megapolitan cluster has several megapolitan areas that are connected by commuting, trucking or commuter airline and share terrain, climate, culture, economic base and political culture.”

Here are a few of the presuppositions of these future mammoth communities:

• They will encompass major cities and counties, sharing a common culture, geographical features, transportation networks, and water supplies.
• Economic and population growth will continue to occur unevenly (in favor of urban areas), which means more collaborative and regional planning across communities in the future.
• Globalization will force U.S. regions to merge in order to stay competitive.
• Urbanization will continue to accelerate.
• Larger communities will create more jobs simply because of scale.

How this geographic and sociological change will affect the church is pure speculation. But it’s fun to speculate. I could see regional mega-churches benefiting from this shift, as well as regional multi-site churches. However, the inevitable regionalism of this shift may also create a localized neighborhood effect, in which people within a larger region desire to be identified with a specific and unique part of their community. As such, smaller neighborhood churches may also be positioned well. I’m curious about your thoughts. How else might this change—if it comes as predicted—affect the church? How can the church begin to respond?

Why We Romance Poor Leadership

There is a romance of leadership. Most studies in leadership focus on the top roles. Many leader-centric approaches assume followers are mere recipients of leader-driven change. To romance leadership is to exaggerate its importance relative to followers. Leadership is extremely important, but it exists only because followers collectively interpret someone (or a group) in such a role. Romancing leadership leaves out half the relationship. Followers are just as important. Obsessing over leaders at the expense of followers leaves a gaping hole in understanding how leadership really works.

If followers have power and influence, then why might they fall prey to bad leaders? How can the leader-follower relationship break down? What makes followers susceptible to toxic leadership? It is followers who are more to blame than leaders. Allow me to share three ways this breakdown occurs.

Safety. In most situations, unfollowing a leader is almost as simple as the aptly named Twitter button. Most people are not locked into a leader. You can leave a church. You can transition out of a job. You can transfer schools. People can vote out politicians and strike against companies.  Most followers in our culture have the freedom to walk away. But with every increase in freedom comes a corresponding decrease in safety. If you walk away from your job, then the paycheck is no longer guaranteed. If you vote out a politician, then you risk voting in one who is worse. In short, followers stick with bad leaders because they are not willing to risk safety in order to be free.

Belonging. Ditching a bad leader may mean leaving an important community. For instance, many followers remain loyal to a professional sports team despite an unscrupulous owner or ineffective coach. Loyalty is a powerful force within a community. Belonging in a human community will often supersede leaving a group leader. It’s why some churchgoers tolerate a fruitless pastor.  It’s why cult followers do not denounce the cult after the leader falters catastrophically. Unfollowing a toxic leader is often more painful (and less important) than the sense of belonging that comes from the community over which the leader presides.

Comfort. Challenging bad leaders is uncomfortable (at best) and deadly (at worst), but many followers forget they have the power to challenge leaders. In fact, dual accountability is one of the keys to a successful leader-follower relationship. In order to challenge leaders, however, followers must let go of comfortable silence. If you are the only one to speak out, and no one joins you, then you’re left alone in a vulnerable and uncomfortable position. Many followers are not willing to risk comfort to challenge bad leaders.

A healthy leader-follower relationship is less about an exaggerated leader romance and more about dual accountability. Accountability is what prevents leaders from becoming dictators and tyrants. Followers need leaders to help guide them to better places. Leaders need followers in order to fulfill their purpose. The proper glue sticking followers with leaders is accountability, not safety, belonging, and comfort.

[This post was originally published at Church Executive.]

Why Your Community is More Diverse… or Soon Will Be

When you get to know a person more, you learn how to love them better. The same principle applies to communities. Communities are made of individuals, and knowing your local context helps you love the people in them more. One critical element of understanding your community is tracking demographic changes. Perhaps one of the most important changes occurring in North America is the growing diversity of many local communities.

Brookings recently released a fascinating study on the changing landscape of immigration over the past ten years. Compared to previous decades, several changes are occurring in the immigrant population.

• They are spreading out into smaller metro areas.
• They are moving to suburbs over cities.
• They are more likely to be U.S. citizens.
• They are more educated.

Just look at where the immigrant population doubled in the last ten years—not in Miami or Houston, but rather in Scranton and Knoxville. These metro areas are not typically considered hubs of immigration.

Take a look at what has happened in the 100 largest metro areas over the past ten years. Some of the highest percent increases are in unlikely areas.

In my own community—a small town in Western Kentucky—over one-quarter of the population are minorities, while only ten years ago minorities accounted for less than 12 percent of the population. What was once a phenomenon in New York and Los Angeles is becoming normative in most communities across the United States.

The next generation will experience less homogeneity and more heterogeneity. Understand this shift. Learn about new groups of people moving into your community. And lead your church to love them.

Leading a Transition Involves the Painful Process of Watching Concrete Dry

Every church must transition. Every church should always be in some form of a transition. If the only constant is change, then leaders must guide churches through a transition in areas where change is occurring.

This change can be grand—a new site, a campus relocation, or a new mission endeavor. This change can be smaller—a new curriculum in the children’s department, a new budget process, or a new security procedure. All change, however, involves a transitioning phase.

Leading in this transition phase is like laying a foundation of concrete. Making the tactical/strategic/technical changes encompasses the work of putting the foundation in place. But in order for the transition to work, these changes must settle and solidify into the culture of the people. Technical changes come more easily. They are typically driven from the top. Cultural changes take time, and they come from the bottom. Like a worker laying the foundation of a house, leaders must watch and wait for the foundation of change to dry before building on it.

This process of watching concrete dry is painful, slow, and tedious, especially for leaders who are change agents. However, it is a necessary part of the process to make a transition permanent. If you try to move through the change too quickly, it’s like walking on a wet foundation. You just make a mess and ruin all the work up to that point.

Every transition involves a drying process. Every church should be transitioning. So, it means that every church leader must stop, wait, and watch for some amount of time. You may not feel like you’re working. You may feel like it’s time to build. You may want to hurry up and start something new. You will only make a mess. Take time to let your tactical changes settle into the culture of the church first. Then move and build again.

Leadership is a Gift

Too often leaders assume the positional authority of a boss. Bosses are needed. At times we need people in charge to tell us what to do. The person at the office assigned the fire marshal duty when alarms blare needs to be able to bark orders. They are trained. They know what to do. Too many in charge creates chaos, which is not helpful when fires blaze.

But there is a difference between a boss and a leader. Bosses claim authority with their position, and sometimes necessarily. But leaders are given authority by their followers. Leaders are given their positions by the people they guide.

• If leadership is a gift from followers, then followers decide who they want to lead.
• If leadership is a gift from followers, then followers help determine what style of leadership is appropriate.
• If leadership is a gift from followers, then followers have a say where they should be led.
• If leadership is a gift from followers, then followers decide when the gift should be given.
• If leadership is a gift from followers, then followers help establish why leaders lead.
• If leadership is a gift from followers, then followers influence how leaders take charge.

Leadership is a gift from followers. Treat it as such.

The Future of the Cooperative Program

Ed Stetzer recently interviewed Ronnie Floyd, Tanner Turley, and me about the Cooperative Program. This program is the funding mechanism for missions in the Southern Baptist Convention, the denomination to which I belong. I realize many of my readers may not be in my denomination, but this way of funding missions is important for God’s kingdom. Almost $15B has been raised for missions since the beginning of this program in 1925, and over $500M has been raised for missions in each of the last few years. So even though you may not be part of my denomination, take a moment to watch the below videos to learn more about the future direction and philosophy of this method of funding missions.

How the Church Should Respond to the Uneven Aging of America

America does not age evenly. Brookings recently released a new report giving a state-by-state breakdown of the fastest growing “younger” and “older” areas of the country. Here’s a summary of a few of their findings:

• Between 2000 and 2010, the population over 45 grew 18 times as fast as the population under 45.
• Seniors gravitated towards the Sun Belt states in the past, but many Boomers are “aging in place” today, resulting in places like Raleigh, NC and Madison, WI having fast-growing Boomer populations.
• The younger generation is migrating geographically to the Sun Belt states.
• Suburbs are aging much faster than cities.

What are some general responses to these trends? Allow me to share a few insights.

Know your community. National trends are helpful to understand the culture of America. It’s more important to the local church, however, to understand the micro trends in your own community. For instance, if you live in an aging suburb, the same type of ministry that grew your church 20 years ago may cause it to stagnate or decline today.

Boomers are not seniors. I’ve blogged on this subject before, but it’s important to understand. Most Boomers prefer not to be lumped into a ministry with their parents. They are an entirely different generation. Boomer ministries are huge growth areas of the church that remain largely untapped. With so many Boomers retiring, perhaps a lay-led revolution could take place in the church with these ministries. Perhaps a revival could take place in this generation as they enter a new season of life.

Go to the next generation. We need more church plants everywhere, but we need them especially in the Sun Belt states and in cities that are attracting the younger generation. We also need brave pastors in these areas to lead their established churches through a difficult process of change to position their congregations to reach the next generation.

Homogeneous strategies will not work. What this report does not reveal is the ethnic breakdown of aging (although Brookings has done other reports on it). But this year marks the first time that minority babies make up the majority of births in America. In a few years, preschools will become minority white. The older generation—as much as 80% white—is vastly different than the younger generation in ethnic diversity. Churches using the same homogeneous strategies of the past will find them completely irrelevant today. This trend is already in full swing, so you must change now. How churches respond to this trend, more than any other demographic trend, will be what makes or breaks individual congregations.

If we are going to reach the younger generation, then we must do more than simply have a welcoming attitude towards diversity. We’ve got to be intentional about growing churches with a culture of heterogeneity. A great opportunity exists to make a visible—and generational—statement about unity in diversity through the body of Christ.

Don’t Show Them What You’re Made Of

Being a young(er) pastor at age 31, I’ve often heard from people who encourage me to “let no one despise your youth.” These supporters are correct, and I’m thankful for their vocal praise. As a pastor and leader, however, I often leave it there. I have thought to myself, “They’re right. I’m not going to let anyone hold me back. I’ll show them what I’m made of!”

It’s not the right reaction. It’s not leadership to prove someone wrong in order to prop up a personal agenda.

As Paul writes Timothy he follows “let no one despise your youth” with leadership action items. “Instead,” he articulates, “you should be an example to the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.”

In other words, when people use your young age to bring you down, don’t show them what you’re made of. Don’t set out to prove them wrong with success. It’s a sophomoric response that proves them correct. The mature leader (regardless of age) will go out in front and show the way, leading by example. What does the example look like? Paul gives us guidelines:

In speech. The church places a higher standard on its leaders for what they say. While some people might get away with stray, snide remarks, you will not. Nor should you. Your congregation hangs on to your words more than any other person in the church. Be careful how you are perceived. Snippy comments from leaders are magnified because of the position. When a senior pastor says something sarcastic or uncouth, it carries more weight. If you’re young, it’s magnified even more.

In conduct. You give up much privacy with a calling to lead a church, and you are always communicating through your actions. What events you attend (or don’t) will get talked about. How much time you spend with certain groups or people will be discussed, and people will notice how you treat your spouse and children. Lead by setting the example in conduct.

In love. You must love your church where it is now. Your congregation will feel the distance if you only love them where you want them to be. Lead your church forward, but don’t fall in love with the future while vilifying the present.

In faith. Do you really believe in your church? Whether people vocalize it or not, they will know if you do or don’t. And if you don’t believe in the people, then why are you there? Every church deserves a pastor who believes they can do great gospel work.

In purity. If your eyes lust through the computer screen, then you deserve the antagonism of a church that despises your youth. It’s difficult to lead a church when you’re grieving the Holy Spirit in your personal life.

Careful speech. Godly conduct. Real love. Genuine faith. And a pure heart. That’s what true leaders are made of.