KINDLE Servant Leaders

I learned a lot from Marsha Phillips, yesterday. Marsha is a member of my congregation, has been for a long time. She has had a really rough year caring for her elderly mother—lots of tough decisions to make. She is a major prayer warrior. She’s really good at scrapbooking. Yesterday, Marsha ran into a young man who was a guest at worship. He just graduated with an MBA from a local university. Here’s what Marsha did:

• She was warm and caring in her manner with him
• She gave him a little tour of the building
• She asked about his family and showed interest in his life
• She introduced him to me and lots of people
• She shared with me, in front of him, that his parents are Buddhist and he likes things to “make sense”, giving me the opportunity to encourage him to keep asking questions about God.
• She sat with him in worship

I hope this guy comes back. I was praying through the whole service that the Holy Spirit would blow into his heart in a mighty way. Or even a small way that would lead to a mighty way.

Marsha was a proactive servant leader yesterday. She didn’t just say hi, she engaged. She wasn’t “on duty”, except in her own heart, she’s always “on duty” to help someone else on their next step toward Jesus. Thank you, Marsha.

I have it from a reliable source that Dean Cheri Selander has chosen the reading list for Classic KINDLE 2011. Here it is:

• “The Servant”, by James Hunter
• “Coaching 101”, by Bob Logan, Sherilyn Carlton, and Tara Miller
• “Mad Church Disease: Overcoming the Burnout Epidemic”, by Anne Jackson

At Classic KINDLE, participants will have a chance to read these books and discuss them with a trusted group of people called a Learning Cluster. You could do that where you are, too!

Do you have a favorite book when it comes to Servant Leadership?

KINDLE Strand: Stewardship of Self

Practice 8: Grow in Wisdom-For intellectual health intentionally and regularly engage in learning opportunities.

Wow, do I love to read. Always have. I suspect I always will. The interesting thing is that I remember very few details of anything I read. I have strong impressions—”I loved that book.” “I felt empowered after reading that book.” “I made a change after I read that book.” “The characters in that story were wonderful.” I have impressions but can’t remember any details. This post from John Piper(in 1981), which was quoted by Tim Challies really struck me:

What I have learned from about twenty-years of serious reading is this. It is sentences that change my life, not books. What changes my life is some new glimpse of truth, some powerful challenge, some resolution to a long-standing dilemma, and these usually come concentrated in a sentence or two. I do not remember 99% of what I read, but if the 1% of each book or article I do remember is a life-changing insight, then I don’t begrudge the 99%. And that life-changing insight usually comes in a moment, a moment whose value is all out of proportion to its little size. That’s why I call it an "immeasurable moment."

I think this is true for me. I will keep reading. God’s Spirit will help me keep growing in wisdom.  Amen? Amen!

KINDLE Strand: Stewardship of Self

Practice 10: Stay Connected- For social health, see the mutual conversation and consolation of other Christians.

I love basketball—and it’s hard not to love John Wooden when you love basketball. He died last week at the age of 99. Great coach, but as I heard one person say, “great man”.

This wonderful little piece by Rick Reilly about the love letters Wooden wrote to his wife on the 21st day of each month is powerful (although I do wish he would have mentioned Jesus somewhere in the part about not being afraid to die). Servant leaders stay connected to others. There’s a great nod to Stewardship of Self here, too, when Wooden mentions “balance” as being the second most important word after “love” in the English language.

KINDLE Strand: Stewardship of Faith

Practice 20: Serve Others –Present your life as a living sacrifice, responding in graciousness and hospitality

This is a great quote from a new book called “The Humanitarian Jesus: Social Justice and the Cross” by Christian Buckley and Ryan Dobson. I didn’t read the book, although I did read an extensive review by Tim Challies. The quote really speaks to me—and reminds me of some of NT Wright’s stuff in “Simply Christian”:

“Jesus was a humanitarian, but of a unique kind. He healed to reveal true healing. He fed to reveal true food. He quenched thirst to reveal everlasting water. Christ’s actions were temporal, but His intended impact was for His every word and deed to be eternally transforming.”

The idea that all the really good stuff, including serving others, is an echo of the Divine. Feeding the hungry is a fantastic, humbling, wonderful thing to do PRECISELY because it is an echo of the Bread of Life which feeds us in even more profound ways than food. The servant leader serves others, at least in part, because it helps her get in touch with the greater service done by God, through Jesus, and share it.

Seth Godin recently had a short blog post that said these (frightening) things:

Every 18 months for the last decade, the world has doubled the data it pushes to you.

Twice as much email, twice as many friend requests, twice as many sites to check, twice as many devices.

He also asks a couple questions:

When does your mind lose the ability to keep up? Then what happens? Is it already happening?

Like I said, frightening.

One of the jobs of servant leaders is to manage the information that is coming our way. It’s important to be proactive about it, I think—to have some systems for addressing all that information as well as some criteria for choosing which pieces I let in. Here are some of my own guidelines:

• I have a goal of having an empty inbox before I go to bed each night. This means every email has been dealt with directly or moved to the Action, Waiting on or Someday box ( love the multiple inboxes in Gmail!)
• I do NOT open email that is advertising.
• Once a week, I unsubscribe from any email lists I’ve gotten on that I don’t want to be on.
• I practice a fast from technology for a couple hours (at least) on my day off. No phone, no internet, no Twitter, no Facebook.
• I use Google reader to read blogs that I am interested in, which saves time because the blogs come to me, I don’t have to go hunting for the blogs. I give myself full permission to hit the “mark all as read” button if I haven’t gotten to it in a couple days. New start!
• I play not one game on Facebook. No Farkle or Farmville or Mafia Whatever…not saying this should be anyone else’s rule, but it is mine. If you want me to play a game, I’m not doing it—not because I don’t like you, it’s because I don’t play games on Facebook.
• I never join “likes” on Facebook. If you asked me to join one and I didn’t it’s not necessarily because I don’t believe in your cause, it’s because I don’t join “likes” on Facebook.
• I write three handwritten notes a week. Good to slow down and write and take my time with the information about people that really matters: what I appreciate about them, or how I’m praying for them.

So how about you….how do you manage information in these crazy information-onslaught days?

KINDLE Strand: Leadership of Leaders
KINDLE servant leaders are maturing as they implement effective leadership development approaches in their ministry and equip other servant leaders to the same.

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I read this blog post by Tim Stevens called “Managing Subordinates”. I had to get past the title because there’s something about the word “subordinates” that I don’t like. I DO think there are people that I am called to lead. My idea is that leading people is better than managing them.

Anyway,the article takes a surprising turn by pointing out that once I manage myself well, manage my peers, and contribute to the success of the leaders above me, I will not need to spend much time managing “subordinates.”  It’s an interesting, and I think hopeful, premise.

What would happen if I took my focus off of my most difficult team member and gave more effort towards managing myself, my peers and my supervisor well? That difficult team member might have no choice but to change—or if he/she didn’t I would be so much better able to peaceful in the face of it. I think we’re on to something here…what do you think?

Zanmi (sounds like “zombie” without the “b”) is my six month old Havanese puppy. “Zanmi” means “friend” in Creole–and it is the perfect name for him. I am learning a lot about leadership from trying to be a good master to Zanmi. Today’s leadership lesson from Zanmi is “All Leaders Are Not Alike”

When I imagined getting a puppy, I was sure I would have a crazy aggressive little pooch, until I trained him to be calm. I pictured walking him with my arm yanking out of the socket as he raced ahead of me. I thought I would need to be careful about him being aggressive with the many other other dogs around my condo complex.

How wrong I was! Turns out:

• Zanmi almost never runs ahead of me when we walk. He most often falls in step directly behind me, as though I am the Lead Dog and he’s just the first member of the pack.
• Zanmi is very cautious the first time we do anything. He needs encouragement and patience when we do anything the new. He doesn’t need to be held back or down…he needs to be praised and affirmed.
• When Zanmi meets another dog on our walks, he isn’t aggressive at all. He immediately wags his tail, walks quietly toward the other dog and filps on his back as if to say, “I am no threat to you.” Consequently, Zanmi is soon to be voted most popular pooch at Charter Oaks.

Here’s the leadership connection for me: every person we are called on to lead is not the same. Some need to be held back and some need to be shown the way. One might need a step-by-step encouragement, while another needs to be set free.  Part of our job as leader of leaders is to discern what each leader needs most in order to take his or her next step in servant leadership. Learning to be calm and reflective before we take action in equipping and empowering other leaders is a necessary skill in taking the most appropriate actions.

P.S. Hersey/Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Theory really speaks to this idea.

KINDLE Strand: Leadership of Leaders

KINDLE Practice: 5. Encourage One Another
Celebrate and recognize accomplishments that help achieve the vision and mission.

I totally get that part of leading leaders is encouraging them: watching for the things they do that demonstrate excellence or clearly contribute to mission and telling them how great they are. This quote from John Piper makes me think that sometimes, though, encouragement looks like patience: pointing out to leaders that the failure or frustration they are experiencing will be used by God for good.

The strength of patience hangs on our capacity to believe that God is up to something good for us in all our delays and detours.

Is there a leader you can encourage today? I have two in mind…

The blog will often have posts that are related to the KINDLE Strands and Practices. These are four strands and 20 practices (five practices in each strand) that help develop Servant Leader Skills. To see a current copy, click here: SPO-Version02. But don’t get too attached—they’re under revision! We’ll share the new set as soon as they’re available.

KINDLE Strand: Leadership of Leaders

KINDLE Practice: 4. Spur One Another
Challenge others to develop as servant leaders

I’ll never forget Maundy Thursday 2010. We have a tradition at our church of stripping the altar at the end of the service in preparation for Good Friday’s stark observance of Jesus’ death. For us that means a variety of volunteers who make their way to the altar up a side aisle, while Scriptures are being read and remove everything: paraments, candles, flowers, Bible, communion vessels…everything, carrying their item down the center aisle and out. There is a beautiful rhythm to it and it is very meaningful to those who participate. I “train” the volunteers right before the service—and as a leader here’s what I love about it:

• We have volunteers who regularly attend all three of our worship services (good stuff when those worlds collide)
• It’s a great thing for a new person to do because it’s easy AND meaningful
• It is cross-generational (more good stuff when THOSE worlds collide)

There is a finale to the stripping of the altar. Once everything has been removed from the altar and the Scriptures are completed, a child walks up the center aisle holding a Crown of Thorns high above his/her head and places it on the center of the altar. I don’t know why it’s so beautiful, but it is.

Did I mention that I’ll never forget Maundy Thursday 2010? Here’s why: the boy that agreed to be our Crown of Thorns carrier was Ian. Ian has autism. He and his family came to our church several years ago after being directly/indirectly asked to leave other churches because they were “distracting” in worship.  His family sits in the front row at worship—I love that– and he brings a “twirly” to help him get through the service. They are an every Sunday family. Although Ian has rarely looked me in the eye, and his voice is always very low and hard to hear,  I just love him. His mom thought he could handle the Crown of Thorns just fine, and I did too.

We practiced before the service– I walked with Ian to show him the way. I asked him if he understood and he nodded his head.

The end of the service came. The altar was empty. My hands were on Ian’s shoulders at the back. I gave him a gentle nudge and whispered, “OK, Ian—it’s time. Hold the Crown of Thorns up nice and high. Go ahead.” And he did. He walked slowly and deliberately for about four steps. Then he stopped and turned his head around to me, still holding the Crown in the air. “Maybe he’s not going to make it,” I thought. “But he’s still holding the Crown up. Should I rescue him from this? Should I go walk beside him?” My mind was racing with possibilities for handling this situation.

I smiled as big as I could at Ian. I nodded my head. I mouthed: “Yup. Good job.”

Ian turned around and started back up the aisle. “Whew,” I thought, “that’s all he needed.”

Not so fast.  He took three more steps. Turned back to me again. Head nod, smile, “Yup. Good job.” Three more steps. Same drill. Three more. More encouragement. Into the chancel. Stop one last time. Look back. Smile. Nod. “Yup. Good job, Ian.”

Most priceless of all was what happened after Ian gingerly placed the Crown of Thorns on the altar. He turned around and GRINNED for all he was worth at his accomplishment.

When he got to the back of the church I said, “Ian, can I hug you?”

“Yesssssss,” he said as loudly and clearly as I’ve ever heard him say anything. And hug him I did.

Was Ian a servant leader that night? Indeed he was. His special march to the altar in honor of his Savior invited every worshiper to honor Jesus, too. It was a great honor to spur Ian on that night. And I learned from Ian that it is OK to stop every few steps and check to make sure I’m on the right track. I feel sure that God would love it if I would receive His love and encouragement for every step of the way.