Images of Leadership: Steward - Ministry Exchange (MX)

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Images of Leadership Leadership Skills for Effective Ministry Leader’s Notes Draft 11/25/2001

Overview
I recently went to a John Maxwell seminar entitled “The 21 Irrefutable Laws
of Leadership.” While some of the material and ideas were helpful, it left
me feeling flat. The nature of laws is they seem so black and white—they
are, after all, irrefutable laws. Yet leadership—certainly exhibiting it,
even teaching it—doesn’t seem so black and white. The advantage of
thinking about images, biblical, three-dimensional, look-at-them-from-
different-angles images is that they are not black and white. They have
texture and shape, they can be examined at a distance or in detail. And, in
fact, they are biblical. Most often, images are the ways the scripture
teaches about leadership. In one form, parables, they comprise the bulk of
Jesus’ teaching in the gospels.

Hence Images of Leadership. The nine images are meant to form a
package, a composite image, of leadership from scripture. One of the
strengths of the multiple images is that for various teachers, different
images will stand out as helpful and central, while other images may be
more unfamiliar. But the composite of images helps to avoid the danger of
over-generalizing. In other words, it is easy for a shepherding leader to
teach on leadership as if it is all about shepherding, while a visionary
leader may tend to teach on leadership as if vision is the only key
quality. So taking a broader survey of some of the biblical images and
depictions of leadership can broaden what might otherwise be a narrow diet
of teaching. Each image, each chapter of the material, can easily stand alone and
doesn’t need the other material to make it understandable or useable for a
group. So a staff person working with a group may decide that the first
thing the leaders need is a teaching on the leader as sage, for example.
However, there is some logic or structure in the ordering of the chapters,
as I will outline below. I have taught the material over two days with
staff, and I have taught 3 or 4 sessions in a one-day seminar with leaders
in a church setting. My ideal schedule would be Friday night, all day
Saturday, two sessions, about 6 months apart. I would try to cover sessions
1-5 during the first weekend, and sessions 6-9 during the second. But of
course the advantage of the sessions being modular is that they can be
rearranged to serve the needs of the group or team.

Chapter Content and Flow
. Chapters 1, 2, and 3 form the introductory core material. When I have

taught this material on campus, I am eager to teach this early in the year. . In fact, I have tended to use the servant material (chapter 2) during the spring of the year as an intro seminar for all students interested in leadership for the following fall. I take 2 to 2.5 hours to go through the whole seminar: an hour on the scripture studies, followed by shorter presentation of the material in the notes, followed by small group discussion of a campus-oriented case study (see the leader’s notes for an example—the one in the printed material is more oriented toward a church). . The Shepherding material (chapter 1) can be taught over the course of three weeks for on-campus leadership training of small group leaders and other influence leaders in a chapter. Don’t rush the scripture study. . The Patient material (chapter 3) can also be taught in the Spring, as people are deciding to be leaders, or else during the fall, as the initial excitement about being in leadership is giving way to a job- description approach. In this way, people need to be reminded of how God is healing/developing them and their character through the experience of leadership.
. Chapters 4 and 5 address influence dynamics. The sage image (chapter 4) addresses the situation you have when people trust you and are asking (in one way or another) for your advice. The sentinel image (chapter 5) addresses the situation when the people you are seeking to influence or lead aren’t coming to you looking for advice. They may need challenge or exhortation, but for whatever reason they aren’t initially seeking such influence. It is helpful to make a distinction between these two postures, and to recognize that a full leadership role includes the ability to lead through gentle questions and good listening at times, but also the ability to challenge and “exhort one another every day” as is sometimes necessary.
. Chapters 6-9 form a body of material I tend not to use with new leaders, but rather with leaders of leaders. Or another way to put it: chapters 1-5 addresses the leadership of groups, while chapters 6-9 speaks towards the leadership of teams. On campus, this means I would use this material with a new exec team, or other student leaders of teams of leaders (outreach team, worship team, drama team, publicity team, mission team, etc). New small group leaders may not really need the vision stuff, but the people leading small group leaders do. If you are doing staff training with this material, I would expect most staff are in the place where this material will be extremely helpful. But younger students don’t need this latter material—focus your training of them on the dynamics of shepherding, servanthood, and influence. . Chapter 6 speaks of vision. A crucial concept for anyone who would lead any team trying to accomplish anything but the most rudimentary of tasks. . Chapters 7 (Steward) and 8 (Sponsor) could also be renamed The Leader as Manager and The Leader as Coach, respectively, though steward and sponsor are more directly biblical concepts. But these chapters deal with crucial questions of management, planning, and delegation (chapter 7) and training and empowerment (chapter 8). . Chapter 9 (Sower) speaks to the topic of multiplication. The scripture study on multiplicative ministry followed by the session on Leadership Development is built on much of the previous material, especially the Leader as Patient. It presents a powerful argument for the basis of on- the-job leadership training (campus based during the school year versus relying solely on summer leadership training at chapter camp). I almost never use this stuff with student leaders, but it would be crucial for staff, and would be very helpful for many churches.

More detailed leaders commentary.
Following these introductory remarks are leaders’ notes on each session.
These take the form of points that I have put on my manuscript or said in
discussion, without much editing or prioritizing. What immediately follows
is a summary of teaching strategies and teaching points for each of the
nine sections. This will give you a sense of how the session is organized—how 90-150 minutes is spent on each session.

Chapter 7: The Leader as Steward
The material on the leadership of Nehemiah serves to underscore and
emphasize some of the themes in the visionary leader section. But here, it
is not Nehemiah’s vision that is so captivating but his planning, his
management. This study can stand alone (and in the interests of a tight
schedule, will need to) or it can be supplemented with the three examples
of delegation in scripture. Either way, after the scripture study a brief
lecture on management, planning and delegation proves helpful, if somewhat
basic. If in fact teams are going through the training together, a follow-
up to the lecture can involve considering an actual recent planning
process. The goal here is not to evaluate the event as much as to evaluate
the planning process, including regarding how the event itself was
evaluated.

Sample Formats For a training day/weekend:

One day Schedule:	Friday evening:	One day schedule, part
9:00 Gather & intro	7:00 Gather & intro	2:
9:15 Leader as Shepherd	7:15 Leader as Shepherd	9:00 Gather & intro
9:15 Leader as Sentinel
11:15 Break	9:30 break for evening
11:30 Leader as Servant	11:00 Break
(abbreviated)	Saturday:	11:15 Leader as
12:30 Lunch	9:15 Gather	Visionary (scripture)
1:30 Leader as Patient	9:30 Leader as Servant	12:15 lunch
3:00 Break	11:00 Break	1:15 Leader as
3:15 Leader as Sage	11:15 Leader as Patient	Visionary (lecture)
5:00 End	2:00 Leader as Steward
12:30 Lunch	(abbreviated)
1:30 Leader as Sage	3:00 Break
3:30 Break	3:15 Leader as Sower
4:00 Leader as Sentinel	5:00 End
—or—
5:30 End	2:00 Leader as Steward
3:30 Break
3:45 Leader as Sponsor
5:30 Dinner
6:45 Leader as Sower
8:45 End

All these formats have the single advantage—people are there for a bulk of
material that they will find fits well together and is usually pretty
helpful and loaded with things to think about. The downside of anything
like this is that people will be pretty filled to the brim, perhaps well
before the end of the day. The best type of content schedule would be 2
full hours/week for 5 weeks during the fall, followed by another four weeks
of the same 2 hours/week about six months later.

A three-day format for the material, which I am liking the more I
teach it (slow it down):

Day #1:	Day #2: Leaders	Day #3: Leaders of
Pre-leaders	Leaders
9:00 – 9:15	Introduction	Introduction and	Introduction and Review
Review
9:15 –	Session 1:	Session 4: Sage	Session 7: Steward
11:15	Shepherding
11:30 –	Session 2a:	Session 5a:	Session 8a: Sponsor
12:30	Servant	Sentinel
1:30 – 2:30	Session 2b:	Session 5b:	Session 8b: Sponsor
Servant lecture	Sentinel Heart of	test and discussion
and case study	Unbelief & Case
studies
3:00 – 5:00	Session 3: Patient	Session 6:	Session 9: Sower
Visionary
5:00 – 5:30	Closing Prayer	Closing Prayer	Closing Prayer

These sessions might be ideally several months apart, giving people time to
digest the material before they receive more.

The Leader as Steward Nehemiah 1:1 to 2:18

Identify the steps Nehemiah took from complacent in Susa to rallying the
Jews in Jerusalem:

1. He asked re: Jerusalem. 2. He heard and it sank in: he wept. 3. He prayed for four months ==> vision sharpening. 4. He asked God to help him resource his growing plan. 5. The king granted. 6. He carried out his plan. 7. He surveyed the extent of the damage before meeting the people. 8. He spoke as one of the people of Jerusalem “us” not “you”

Nehemiah’s strategy began in his heart with his tears for the people of
Jerusalem.

What did he know? Scripture, God’s promises
Feel? The shame of Jerusalem
See? What others’ missed, the spiritual significance of the ongoing shame
of Jerusalem
Say? Risky request to the king; vision and plan for the Jews (which was
also risky—they could have rejected it)

Where was faith necessary?
. To pray and wait; to plan. His planning and administration itself was an

act of faith.
. To speak to the king with a plan.
. To travel to Jerusalem, to scout it out first.
. To speak as if it were going to happen to the nobles of Jerusalem.

Where do we see broken down walls today?
. Broken relationships and partnerships in ministry
. Survival mentality in ministry teams: “wait until summer” “my last year

of doing this”
. Individualism: long-term commitments to people, ministries, tasks not thinkable; consumer-mentality
. Needs in the community that go unmet

Further notes on the passage:
v.1
. 445 B.C., 80 years after the rebuilding of the temple
. Month of Chislev / Nov-Dec
. Susa the capital= 700 miles from Jerusalem.

V.2: Nehemiah vitally conceived re: the city in which he’s never lived, re:
people he’s never met.

v.3
. This happened 150 years ago.
. Without a wall, long term planning and investment is virtually

impossible.
. The wall creates confidence, boasts morale, risk taking, productive activity, without it- insecure and frail, no one can plan.
. A broken down wall is to a city what being on 50% salary is to staff.

v.4
. Nehemiah’s first response is to pray not to get busy and fix it.
. A small (like when I began to weep as someone prayed for Sherry who was

working and couldn’t be at our area team retreat- not news but hit in a new way: the implications of her FR struggle.
. Nehemiah is a strategist , but his strategy begins by weeping. His heart was the author, his head the partner of his strategy. (or God who moved his heart).
. Nehemiah’s need is the need of the people- he sits in comfort but mourns their shame and trouble.

V.5: A powerful God willing to use his power to bless or to punish.

V.6: NOT: God is being unfaithful.
. NOT: poor management of resources
. BUT: the sin of the people
. Identities with Israel and the sins that caused the exile.

V.7: Nehemiah doesn’t blame God for the state of the people of Israel or
the city- he understands why the exile happened.

v.8
. Lev. 26:33
. Deut. 30:1-5
. Nehemiah knows scripture.
. Nehemiah’s plan: a rebuilt wall- rebuilt people, gathered and restored to

God.

v.11
. Did Nehemiah pray “Today everyday for 4 months?
. Nehemiah has been praying about the problem- now senses he must step in

and do something about it.
. strategic partner: had access to someone who had all the resources needed for the job.

2v.1
. Nisan= Mar-April (4 months later)
. strategic partner: had access to someone who had all the resources needed

for the job.
. Artaxerxes= son of Xerxes and Esther
. In general, not a good strategy as cupbearer to the kings. don’t make the king suspicious
. His entire plan lies in his faithfulness in the next few moments.

2v.3
. perhaps this would look like disloyalty or ingratitude on Nehemiah’s

part.
. It could be risky for Nehemiah to tell this way toward a vassal state. The king could have been enraged!

Nehemiah as a leader
. wants to know about his people
. sees more deeply into situation- others say “tsk tsk” but Nehemiah weeps
. identifies with the sin of the people- humbles himself & confesses
. reminds God of his promises
. took a risk to go before the King
. planned out his strategy- knew what he needed

Staff Applications
. Broken down walls for staff?
. broken relationships and partnerships
. survival mentality- until summer
. individualism “no time to work on partnerships with staff”
. FR deficit or low slaray – makes long term thinking impossible

Nehemiah’s prayer
. 1. mourning and fasting, day & night
. 2. praise, acknowledgement of God’s love
. 3. confession of sins, personally and corporately, identification with

God’s people
. 4. reminding God of his promise to regather his people
. 5. asked God for success as he went before the king
. 6. prayed for 4 months!

2 v.4
. He stands before the king at Persia yet he prays to the God of Heaven
. Perhaps a quick “O God” prayer, but Nehemiah recounts it as he tells the

story- it was important to Nehemiah.

2 v.5
. He is not so administrative that he doesn’t pray nor is he so spiritual

that he has no plan.
. Nehemiah had in mind . a task . a plan- duties . need for resources: protection, lumber

2 v.7: He is proactive, not reactive. He sees what is needed and he asks
for it.

2 v.8
. Though he is making regrets to the king, Nehemiah knows that it is God

who is making it work out..
. Some people always have something to gain in keeping the status quo.

2 v.9: more than he asked for

2 v.10: governors under King Artaxerxes.

2 v.12
. “my God”- before it was “the God of heaven” but after answered prayer

Nehemiah gets very personal with God. Like ” My God will supply all your needs” in Phillipians
. Nehemiah is aware that God has authored his plan.

2 v.13: God becomes our God when we see him provide for us.

2 v.13-16
. Get a first hand look at what work needs to be done. Feasability study.

VISION: Clarity about reality.
. scouting must happen before he tries to win people to the task.

2 v.17: Inclusive language on his first visit to Jerusalem ever- he is one
of them.

2 v.18
. it is possible ‘have hope’ God has already worked!
. What is the state of our staff teams?
. What are the needs of our fellowships? campuses?
. The strategic concerns behind the obvious needs?
. Who are the Kings of Persia to whom we are to be making requests?
. What is our wall?

. Nehemiah’s planning and administration itself was an act of faith.

. Strategy begins in the heart and must be connected to love.

. Would you have liked to work for Nehemiah? Why?
. Had a plan, vision, hope
. Faith in God, prayerful
. Decisive
. Got everyone involved

The Leader as Steward Studies in Delegation

Exodus 18:13-27	Mark 3:7-19	Acts 6:1-7
What was the	Moses was	Crowds were out	uneven
problem?	spending all day	of control	distribution of
deciding cases-	food-Hellenistic
trivial to	widows ignored
important
Who recognized	Jethro, Moses’	Jesus- even Jesus	Greek speaking
it?	father-in-law	needed to	Jews
delegate
What did they do	went to Moses:	Jesus organized	The went to the
about it?	”What you are	his followers.	apostles with
doing is not	Jesus delegates	their complaint.
good.” Persuaded	the job of
him of the need	getting a boat.
to delegate.
Presented a plan.
Who was involved	Moses appointed	Jesus calls those	Apostles accept
in the problem	leaders at	whom he desired,	the nomination of
and in solving	several levels	appointed 12	7 Greek speaking
it?	1000, 100, 50,	deacons. They are
10.	given
responsibility.
What would (or	Moses would have	inability to	growing division,
could) have	worn himself out.	focus on a few	disunity,
happened if	Not all cases	disciples. Crowd	jealousy
things continued	would get solved.	size
as they were?	No one would	increases?impossi
learn any wisdom.	ble to have close
relationships.
What was the	A chain of	A group of 12 set	A group of men
resulting	responsibility	aside to spend	set aside to see
structure?	going down from	time with Jesus.	that the finances
Moses.	of the body were
fair and right.
What	Capable men: God	The responded to	Known to be full
qualifications	fearing folk who	his call to come	of HS and wisdom
did those chosen	can be trusted	to him. Those	(in order to wait
have?	and who cannot be	whom he desired	on tables!).
bribed (v21).	and chose.
What was given to	authority and	1) time with	The apostles laid
those chosen to	teaching	Jesus,	on hands and
accomplish the	2) authority to	prayed-they were
task?	preach	empowered with
3) authority to	God’s Spirit.
heal
What response was	They had to	The had to	They did what
necessary on	respond to God’s	respond to Jesus’	they were called
their part?	call through	call to be with	to do-so the word
Moses.	them.	continued to
spread.
What was made	Moses is	More people are	More people are
possible because	available to go	able to hear the	served more
of each of these	up the mountain	good news-while	effectively.
changes?	for 40 days to	Jesus is able to	Broadened
receive the law.	keep his	ownership,
priorities on the	increased
12.	inclusivity.
What role did God	No active or intervening role, but guiding the
decisions of the Moses, Jesus, or the 12. In other
play?	words, delegation doesn’t always seem like a very
spiritual enterprise, but in fact the kingdom of God
advances with effective delegation. God blesses
delegation.

The Leader as Steward Studies in Delegation

Exodus 18:13-27:
V14: Jethro begins by asking questions.
V15: Moses’ answer: I don’t have time to delegate or train leaders. I have
too much to do.

Think about bad delegators. What do they (you) get out of not delegating?
. The counselor who likes to listen to and solve everyone else’s problems.

Delegation would require humility.
. The do-it-all who knows everyone else is unreliable. Delegating would require trust.
. The in-over-my-eyeballs person who doesn’t have time to delegate. That would require forethought.

V17-18: Jethro has foresight that Moses’ lacks. Jethro speaks as a sentinel
into Moses’ life.
V18: Delegation is not done simply to make life easier for the delegator.
“You’ll wear yourself out, and all the people. We need a structure that
serves everyone well.
V19: Moses, this is what you should do: 1) intercede before God for the
people, 2) teach and train people so they’ll know what is right,
principles, not case-by-case, 3) appoint partners who can decide easy
cases.
V24: Even Moses was able to take wise counsel.

Before this change happens, Moses has no chance to go up the mountain for
40 days to receive the tablets of the law. The ministry advances when we
can be absent and it will still continue.

The Leader as Steward

Two definitions:
Leadership: A leader is a person with God-given capacity and a God-given
responsibility who influences a group of people towards God’s purposes for
that group. (Robert Clinton, The Making of a Leader, NavPress.)

Management: Marshaling limited resources to carry forward the vision in
specific ways.

Leader: not just a discipler, but a person thinking about a group and the
corporate development of the group.
Management is a negative term. Who wants to be a manager? Has about as much
thrill as “administration”. Management becomes an issue when you want to
get a big job done.

Example: time management: when you have more to do than you have time easily to do it in. When we talk about management in the exec setting, we are talking about the resources and vision of the fellowship. . “Marshaling limited resources”: involves bringing together people with time, energy, motivation, skills plus needed money, equipment, tools, books, etc. . “to carry forward the vision”: these resources are brought together to advance the mission, to achieve the goals . “in specific ways”: involves a step-by-step approach. There may be a big vision, but there are intermediate steps along the path toward the ultimate accomplishment of the vision. If you don’t have limited resources and a vision and specific steps, then you don’t have management. Now, I think this kind of management is exciting: getting people to chapter camp, for example, involves management: mobilizing people, money, time to accomplish the fellowship vision in one crucial step. (It also involves a broader range of leadership activities.)

IV’s Purpose, in response to God’s love, grace and truth: “to establish and
advance at colleges and universities witnessing communities of students and
faculty who follow Jesus as Savior and Lord: growing in love for God, God’s
word, God’s people of every ethnicity and culture, and God’s purposes in
the world.” This is a big vision. Requires organization. Nothing much will
happen if time, people’s energy and gifts, etc. are not allocated well.
[pic]

Planning: based on
. Vision: goals, objectives, etc.: determines the direction of movement,

and
. Reality: what you have, where you are: determines the appropriate next steps. For example, your goal may be to have a small group Bible study in each of 10 dorms (based on a Vision to engage the entire campus with the gospel) but reality (i.e., number of leaders) dictates that an appropriate next step would be to have 5 small groups, covering half the dorms. If you had 10 leaders it might be tempting to think “one leader per dorm”. In general, stronger leadership teams leading fewer studies will result in stronger small groups which will produce more potential leaders in the future. Implication: you cannot plan wisely without knowing your fellowship well. A fundamental basis of the planning process is to discuss who is actually in the fellowship. List names, categorize people by location on campus, year in school, readiness for leadership, ownership of the fellowship, etc. This is fundamental to understanding how to move the fellowship forward in ways that are appropriate.

Delegation: Consider
. to whom are you delegating? to a team vs. to an individual
. what are you delegating? vision-driven delegation vs. task-driven

delegation After a specific task is delegated to a team the planning cycle might be repeated within the smaller team. For example, the exec plans an Easter outreach event, schedules it for a certain day, and then delegates the specifics to a smaller team. This team begins the planning cycle again, understanding the vision for the event as determined by the exec, but then planning the specifics and delegating smaller tasks within the team. After the event, the smaller team evaluates how well the specifics worked out, while the entire exec evaluates how well the event worked to meet the original vision for it.

Pitfalls of delegation:
. Lack of follow-through: Making a decision but then forgetting to delegate

responsibility to act on the decision.
. Lack of communication: Delegating to a group of people but not communicating to that group or specifying how the group will act on the decision.
. Skill focus: Delegating based strictly on skills with no concern for growth for individuals involved. For example, the best musician could lead worship every week, but that may not develop younger leaders for the future.
. “The most proficient is the team leader”. The most skilled team members may not have the strengths needed to lead a team. For example, the most gifted musician may not be the best worship team leader.
. You need to determine how much failure you can tolerate, and delegate accordingly. Ex: first LGM of the year, you want a good skit, or no skit. Delegate as you are able, but maintain quality control. Audition, practice ahead of time, make sure the idea works and is hospitable. Temptation: to think that the stakes are high for everything, so we cannot delegate at all, especially tempting for small fellowships. One antidote to this is to be willing to offer training in relatively simple or basic things: how to be a good friend, how to have a good first small group meeting, how to plan a good community-building time, how to host a party, etc. Delegation helps us further our mission, maintain our priorities, and broaden ownership of the vision. Not simply administration.

Execution: Pitfalls include:
. “Interest does not equal commitment.” Just because people like an idea

does not necessarily ensure that they will pay the cost in time, energy, money etc. to see it come off. Ownership takes time: there is no shortcut to ownership-people who have invested time in the planning cycle will be committed to the execution of the plans.
. Lone-ranger syndrome: one person (or a very small number) takes on tasks much too large for a single person, does it all, then feels resentful to team members who didn’t pull their weight.
. Last minute approach: Often people will finish pressing academic work at the expense of team-oriented tasks like LG meeting worship preparation or practicing a drama team announcement of the upcoming retreat. What began as a good idea in the planning stage dies an inglorious death at the execution stage.

Evaluation: Keep in mind:
. Your goals: Did you reach them? If not, what are the factors that kept

you from reaching your goals? What changes can be made for next year/next time/next week that will improve execution?
. The planning process: How can the process be improved so that a better end product and a better ministry experience will result? More clearly defined goals? More accurate information about the state of the fellowship? Better communication or delegation? More faithful execution?

Pitfalls of evaluation include:
. Not doing it. It is tempting to move on from what we have finished. There

is always more work ahead-it seems too slow and balky to dwell on the past. If we fail to learn from our mistakes we are doomed to repeat them. For example, evaluation of NSO right after it is over, not a year later when your memory has sorely faded.
. Not learning from it. Not taking evaluation into account when planning in the future. This is even worse than not doing evaluation, because at least then you didn’t waste your time. Put the evaluation of this year’s NSO in the file for next year, etc. Leadership: Navigating the tension between

Depth of relationships	.......................	Breadth of outreach
.......................
........
Investigative Bible	.......................	Intimacy & prayer in
studies	.......................	SGs
........
Incarnation in the	.......................	Prophetic stance toward
culture	.......................	the culture
........
Appreciation for	.......................	Ability to think
authority & structure	.......................	”outside the box” and
........	take risks
Spontaneity	.......................	Planning
.......................
........
Leadership	.......................	Responsiveness
.......................
........
Risktaking in	.......................	Concern for maturity in
leadership selection	.......................	leaders
........
Expansive new	.......................	Building as we go
initiatives	.......................
........
Quality of product	.......................	Developing student
.......................	initiative
........
Multi-ethnic outreach	.......................	Ethnic specific
and reconciliation	.......................	outreach and
........	contextualization
Close supervision and	.......................	Empowerment and
lots of feedback	.......................	delegation
........
.......................
.......................
........
.......................
.......................
........
.......................
.......................
........

What are some of the tensions you feel in your leadership right now? Chart
where in the navigational channel you feel you are.

What are some of the risks you fear in getting too close to one side of the
channel or the other?

Which risks do you tend to view as more risky to take?