Leadership Pt.3

According to Clawson, a good leader "supports others so they can contribute." The "information age" is forcing heiarchical structures to put the power in the hands of those who do the work. "The need for vertical hierarchies to make good decisions is rapidly evaporating. In fact, in many cases, better decisions are being made by people who are closer to the data and the customer than those several layers up. And the layers are disappearing." Later he says, "Many of these [new structures] are built around circles or networks rather than pyramidic bureaucracies. Who has authority is becoming less and less the organizing principle; who has the right information and insight is becoming more and more important.

Now, I realize that analogy of church as a "business" is not a good one, and breaks down eventually. On the other hand, I believe that all truth is God's truth. So, is Clawson's view biblical? Do we see this in the Bible? Again, I think so...

What I see in the New Testament are a loose network of churches scattered across large distances. The pyramidic structure of the current institutional church didn't appear until Constantine. What I see are local bodies doing the best they can to deal with circumstances as they arise. Even when difficult circumstances arise, they did not turn their solution into a set of rules that every other church had to follow.

Act 6:1-5 During this time, as the disciples were increasing in numbers by leaps and bounds, hard feelings developed among the Greek-speaking believers--"Hellenists"--toward the Hebrew-speaking believers because their widows were being discriminated against in the daily food lines. So the Twelve called a meeting of the disciples. They said, "It wouldn't be right for us to abandon our responsibilities for preaching and teaching the Word of God to help with the care of the poor. So, friends, choose seven men from among you whom everyone trusts, men full of the Holy Spirit and good sense, and we'll assign them this task. Meanwhile, we'll stick to our assigned tasks of prayer and speaking God's Word." The congregation thought this was a great idea. They went ahead and chose-- Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, Nicolas, a convert from Antioch.

In a bureacracy the question winds up being: How do we serve the organization and ourselves? What do we see here? Once again the principle is servanthood! How do we serve those who need to be served?

With Jesus as our source, each individual Christian has the information they need. The church ushered in the "information age" 2000 years ago when Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to lead us into truth!

John 16:13 However when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak from himself; but whatever he hears, he will speak. He will declare to you things that are coming.

Who has authority is actually more of an issue for the church today than it is for businesses. Primarily becuase the church has adopted worldly business principles and made the pastor CEO of the organization. The problem is that the CEO is removed from the day-to-day operation of the company. People are not as honest with the CEO as they are their coworkers.

For the church this means that the pastor is not in touch with what the Holy Spirit is doing through individuals. The pastor/CEO is primarily concerned with the needs of the organization. Erwin says, "Institutional authority can never be a satisfactory replacement for God-given abilities and the authority which accompanies such gifts..."

The church is the original "network" becuase everyone was meant to be connected directly to the source of all power: JESUS!