Comments on: How (Not) to Pick a Leader (Leadership Selection Part 2)

By: Jeremy Myers

Jeremy Myers — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 03:59:13 +0000

Antonio,

Are you saying it is okay to run an organization this way?

By: Antonio da Rosa

Antonio da Rosa — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:55:54 +0000

Jeremy,

I think it is innappropriate to air out dirty laundry. I mean, do you think one wouldn’t know who or what you are talking about with your first comment?

A rebuke is not out of order.

Take it for whatever that you feel it is worth. I don’t believe you will feel you have done anything wrong in your comment; and I believe that will indeed be a shame.

Antonio da Rosa

By: Jeremy Myers

Jeremy Myers — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 23:32:23 +0000

Mark,

Thanks for the comment. I have really enjoyed reading your posts over there. I hope to meet you someday.

It is definitely tricky trying to find good leaders. Of course, one other thing I am learning is that lots of grace is needed. We are all flawed leaders.

By: Mark Doebler

Mark Doebler — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:50:06 +0000

Jeremy,
As your fellow “competitor” in the Final Four, I want to commend you both on your entry and on this follow-up post. Leadership has been a real challenge for me and for our church. I have discovered that leadership isn’t nearly as easy to identify as I thought. What passes for leadership in many people is simply the desire to be in charge or have a title. Take those things away and “poof” goes your “leader”. I guess it’s true what the scripture says that man looks on the outside, but God looks at the heart. Wish we had that X-Ray vision too.

Blessings on your planting efforts (and your blogging adventure)

By: Jeremy Myers

Jeremy Myers — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:41:42 +0000

By the way….

If you want to rule your church or organization like a dictator while having the illusion of a plurality of leaders, you can do no better than picking leaders who give lots of money and are very supportive of everything you say and do.

I once worked very closely with an organization that was run this way. Most of the decisions were made by the Executive Director and his mentor (who wasn’t on the board) and then simply rubber stamped by the board members, who were chosen by the leader because they gave lots of money and never opposed the Executive Director (or his mentor) in anything.

To the outside observer, it looks like a very united board. But from the inside (which I observed), it is a very dangerous and harmful way to run an organization. At one point, two board members considered opposing a decision of the Executive Director, and he threatened to resign if they did. They knew that the organization would die if he resigned (that’s a huge red flag!), and so they went along with him. However, they were not asked to be part of the board the next year.

I’ve seen churches run the same way, where if you want to be a leader, you cannot and must not question or challenge the pastor, becuase he is “the Lord’s annointed.” You must follow his lead, or get out of the way.

To read more about this sort of thing, I recommend two books. One is called “The Dark Side of Leadership” and the other is “The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse.”

…I guess I should have made this comment its own blog post! Ha ha.