Category: LDRS500

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Following the Leader

The leader I’ve chosen to evaluate is James MacDonald, founder of Harvest Bible Chapel, a Chicago-based church. The church was started in 1998 and now has over 13,000 people attending local sites. I have followed MacDonald’s work for the past five years and have read two of his books.

The essence of MacDonald’s success and leadership is his clear, simple and aggressive preaching of the gospel. I have heard him speak in person and regularly read his posts on social media and my reading of his books shows his strong allegiance to the Scriptures.

What makes MacDonald’s leadership style distinctive is his emphasis on team leadership and developing leaders rather than recruiting them. A Harvest churches, the elders (who are appointed by other elders, rather than elected by the congregants) have the position for life. I believe that this creates a team mentality, where the elders have to learn to work together. It seems that churches that follow this pattern established by MacDonald have much more influence in the life of the church than other types of evangelical churches. Harvest churches develop their leaders from within instead of recruiting or hiring from outside.

I believe MacDonald excels in leadership development, demonstrated by the fact that he pioneered a months-long training program for church members who have been identified as potential church planters. Unlike many other preachers and teachers, MacDonald  has the drive to develop leaders. He values the potential in people like I do. To me, he is the epitome of candour, directness and pragmatism and his principles are rigidly aligned with Scripture. I believe very strongly that leadership principles that do not align with biblical principles of leadership will ultimately fail or at least be less effective than they could be. My decision to start this leadership program was because of my desire to continue my work in developing leaders within my local church. MacDonald’s focus on developing leaders provides a great model for how to achieve this.

As for James MacDonald’s social media presence, it is simply overwhelming. His Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts generally share the same content. There are many pictures, ventures, thoughts, quotes from the Scriptures, etc. – it seems to lack focus and continuity. I’m left asking, “What is the goal of his extensive social media presence?” Is it to provide information about his activities, motivate his followers, educate them? Secondly, I believe his use of social media to motivate and develop leader would be to include more personal information, rather that his “corporate” presence. Because of his “success” as a pastor, author and church planter, many people have a difficult time relating to him. Something I think is valuable for a leader to do is to share failures, dreams, frustrations, etc. I am not suggesting that he share intimate details but rather show more depth and context for his opinions. I believe that this would help his followers relate to him and would show more insight into how he has developed as a leader.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Learning Activity 5: Blog Post 3

Of the ten principles of servant leadership from the Personal Inventory of Servant Leadership, the three that are the most challenging for me are: listening, empathy and building community.

An example of listing occurred several years ago when a married couple I knew was having difficulties in their relationship. The wife’s overriding concern was that her husband was unwilling to listen to her. She felt he interrupted too often, demonstrating his lack of listening. After a series of events, the husband made a strong commitment to listen to his wife. Soon after, both spouses were amazed at the improvement in their marriage. Simply listening, whether in the context of marriage or any relationship, demonstrates investment in that relationship. One of my challenges is to listen more consistently and mindfully and to not automatically suggest solutions.

I have become increasingly aware of how important empathy is to developing relationships. Recently, in my a church small group, another member was showing signs of depression and was feeling overwhelmed. I spent an evening outside of small group talking with this person and sharing my journey with these emotions. This person told me that it brought them measurable healing.

The third principle that I need to focus more on is building community. The New Testament, particularly the epistles, shows how often Paul and other writers refer to friends, companions, mentors and subordinates. The scriptures frequently talk about Christians eating together, travelling together, celebrating together. In short, a large part of building Christian community is togetherness and fellowship.

Is there a correlation between spiritual gifts like mercy, exhortation, giving, teaching, etc. and the ten principles of servant leadership?

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Learning Activity 4: Blog Post 2

Northouse’s definition of assigned and emergent leaders is that assigned leaders are people who hold a formal position in an organization. In contrast, emergent leaders become leaders because of the way other group members respond to them (Northouse, 2019, p. 8).

Northouse lists two similarities between leader and managers: working with people and concern with effective goal accomplishments. The main differences are that management seeks order and stability, whereas leadership seeks adaptive and constructive change.

Most importantly, the key to the future of any organization’s success lies in the leader. In his book, The Art of Management, Max De Pree introduced a new concept about leaders (1989). While most leadership gurus listed several components of an effective leader, De Pree noted that the most important characteristic of an effective leader is that they have a good understanding of reality.

Some years ago, I was involved in a lay capacity in a large church. Two other lay people and I established an adult Sunday school, which ultimately had 400 adults each Sunday morning. The church assigned our group a leader and, while this person was highly competent, he did not do very well seeing the ‘big picture,’ the long term or reality. We were friends and worked well together but, over a three-year period, I became the emergent leader of the Sunday school.

My question is whether anyone has seen or worked with a leader who is not as effective as he or she could be because they do not have a solid grip on reality?

References

Northouse, P. G. (2019). Leadership: Theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

De Pree, M. (1989). Leadership Is an Art. New York City, NY: Doubleday Business.

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Learning Activity 3: Blog Post 1

Northouse defines leadership as “a process whereby an individual influence as a group of individuals to achieve a common goal” (Northouse, 2019, pg. 6). Northouse refers to the process viewpoint (Northouse, 2019, pg. 8). He suggests that leadership is a phenomenon that resides in the context of the interaction between leaders and followers (Northouse, 2019, g. 8). He contends that leadership is, therefore, available to everyone. As a process, leadership can be observed in the leader’s behaviours and can be learned. I am, from personal experience, not convinced that leadership can be accomplished my anyone.

Northouse defines power as the “capacity or potential to influence” (Northouse, 2019, pg. 19. Of the six different types of power the author outlines, I feel the most useful form of power is  “referent” power (Northouse, 2019, pg. 11). I believe that, to a large extent, a leader needs to be liked by his followers. In the same group, I would place “expert” power (Northouse, 2019, pg. 10). The leader with expert power is often perceived as a guide or helper. “Reward” power, when used judiciously as a leader, is almost always very effective (Northouse, 2019, pg. 10). Lastly, of the remaining two types of power, “legitimate” and “coercive” power, I put at the bottom of the list because I feel that over the long run, they do not stretch of build or enhance a person to the extent that the other four components of power frequently do (Northouse, 2019, pg. 10). In my opinion, referent and expert power are more effective than the other types because people with those two types of power are usually sought out, appreciated and respected by their followers.

Northouse seems to claim that everyone has a potential to be a leader (Northouse, 2019, pg. 80). My question is, does a person who is, for example, extremely introverted, nervous, insecure and fearful have the ability to be a leader?

Northouse, P. G. (2019). Leadership: Theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.