Augustine articulated that “all truth is God’s truth.” When a true leadership principle is discovered in the marketplace, the author of that principle is God Himself, whether the people who discovered the principle recognize its Author or not. Ironically, the world often recognizes leadership principles long after they have been revealed in Scripture. For example, the groundbreaking leadership book Servant Leadership by Robert Greenleaf (1977) shared the revolutionary insight that the best leaders are actually servants… nearly 2,000 years after Jesus taught that serving is the path to greatness.
At the same time, there are some marketplace leadership insights (even ones that are widely accepted as wise) that don’t translate fully and should not be applied to a local ministry context. The ministry leader is wise to look at all learnings from the marketplace through the lens of God’s Word and His heart for His Church. Here are four common marketplace leadership sayings that don’t fully apply in local church ministry:
1. Focus on your strengths
Marcus Buckingham and others have challenged leaders to focus on their strengths. Those who lead teams know that this counsel is wise, as God has gifted people differently. To embrace the gifting one has received is liberating for the person and helpful for the team. It is wise—but with some disclaimers. While we want people to find their gifts and embrace the unique ways God has designed them, there are two downsides to focusing exclusively on your strengths—especially in a ministry context. First, weaknesses need to be brought above a threshold so they do not become debilitating. If “organization isn’t your thing,” you still have to be able to answer emails. If you are “more task-focused than people-focused,’’ you still have to be able to talk to someone. Second, “focusing on your strengths” must submit to being a servant. Focusing exclusively on our strengths can take our eyes off focusing on people and joyfully stepping outside our gifting or job profile to serve others.
2. “Who before what”
Jim Collins made the “who before what” phrase commonplace in his classic (and very insightful) leadership book, Good to Great. He was challenging leaders to focus on who their team would be before focusing on what their team would accomplish. While the focus on who most assuredly applies to ministry leaders, it is often the what that helps gather the right who. The what of our beliefs and our mission serves as a filter for building the who—the team committed to the same mission of making disciples, rooted in the same faith delivered once and for all to the saints. Healthy ministries are led by healthy leaders, so the who matters greatly, but we won’t build the right who without a clear what.
3. Create dissatisfaction with the status quo
In his famous (and also very helpful) leadership book, Leading Change, John Kotter articulates that the first step to creating change is creating a sense of urgency—and that urgency is created around what must change. In other words, leaders must create dissatisfaction with “what is” so people will embrace change. In local church ministry, I don’t believe this is the healthiest or the most effective way to inspire change. I say “yes” to urgency but hesitate to use “dissatisfaction” or “disgust” as the tool to drive urgency. We are not merely introducing change into an organization. The Church is His Body, His Family, and His Bride. So, I want to be careful of how we speak about her. People have been served and shepherded within the current reality. In a local church context, I find it wiser and better to create urgency around our unchanging mission and shared values.
4. “The customer is always right.”
For decades business leaders have used the phrase “the customer is always right” to create a customer-centric culture where the organization does everything possible to serve the customer. Of the aforementioned commonplace phrases, this is the one ministry leaders must not adopt at all. While we must have a servant’s posture, the Church does not have customers. The Church is a community of people gathered together that exists for Him and to serve the world. Not only is there not a customer to be right—none of us are always right. Only He is. I need His truth to guide me, not my own opinions. The Church must continually submit to His truth, His declared Word. If “the customer is always right,” the Church would keep shifting and would always be drifting.
I am thankful when leadership authors take the time to articulate leadership principles they have observed, and one common principle is the importance of leaders knowing their context and adjusting their approach to serve the people in their context. The context of the local church must always be remembered by us (ministry leaders) when we consider applying insights from other contexts.
