Much of church leadership today is more secular than Christian.
We learn from the best practices and strategies from the most successful global leaders and then do our best to implement them. We “manage” to lead without God. We “do so much so well by ourselves that there is no need for God,” even if we do engage prayer and worship. We believe that ultimate responsibility for everything rests with our efforts. As one Japanese CEO remarked, “Whenever I meet a Buddhist leader, I meet a holy man in touch with another world. Whenever I meet a Christian leader, I meet a manager at home only in this world like I am.“ (Os Guiness, The Call).
All truth is ultimately God’s truth so there is a great deal we can learn from best secular leadership practices. It is very helpful to learn from excellent models, insight, and research in books such as The 12 Bad Habits that Hold Good People Back and Why CEO’s Fail. A friend of mine from Singapore, who teaches intensive leadership courses at Harvard and Stanford, has been feeding me some of the best literature out there on leadership for the last couple of years. I have learned a great deal.
But Christian leadership is distinctly different.
What might you suggest as distinct differences before I offer part 2?
