Paul Clark

An Fascinating Look at Leadership

As an avid reader of Business Week magazine, I have to recommend an article I just read last week while on the plane to Atlanta.  Though I'm a Coke man myself, I was fascinated by the article on the CEO of PepsiCo, Massimo F. d'Amore. The article details d'Amore's efforts to overhaul the Pepsi beverage business.  It's a story that touches on a host of leadership issues--almost too many to number: level 5 leadership, coercive/authoritative leadership styles, micromanaging, emotional intelligence, organizational culture, to name a few. I'm definately going to save it for use in the classroom. It's an interesting window into a huge organization and how leadership and decision-making is happening. Take a look at the article in Business Week.

Survey of '08-'09 Giving

At yesterday's CLA conference seminar, Dick Towner also shared some statistics he gathered from a survey of 1,000 churches regarding their 2008 and YTD 2009 budgeted giving.  I'm not sure about the size of these churches in terms of comparison to your own, but the stats are interesting nonetheless.

2008 Year-End

29% of the churches missed their budget
25% of the church hit their budget
46% of the churches exceeded their budget

2009 YTD

53% of churches are behind budget
36% of churches are meeting their budget
10% of churches are ahead of their budget

We missed our 2008 budget by 2%, but are currently ahead of our 2009 budget by about 7%.  We also are in the second year of a three-year capital campaign totaling $6,600,000 in pledges and are on-track with our projections.  All told, we are thrilled and overwhelmingly grateful to God that the recession has not as of yet had an impact on our giving.  But we know other churches are feeling the effects and we understand the challenges they are facing and the decisions they are wrestling with--we've been there ourselves and could be there again.

Some wise words from Dick Towner

This afternoon I attended a seminar by Dick Towner, Stewardship, Generosity and Spiritual Well Being.  Dick is a veteran stewardship teacher and leader from Willowcreek Church.  He's the brains behind the Good $ense stewardship curriculum, which I've used successfully.  He is an extremely experienced and wise person and he had some great things to share with us about creating an environment for generosity in our churches.  He also included in his packet a piece he wrote about his perspective on the recession, which I thought was worth passing on to you.  I found it online at the CSN blog, so here is the link.  It's worth the read.  Tomorrow it's back to Dayton, but with a list of about a dozen action items I've taken away from the conference.  It's been great--kudos to the CLA.

Leadership Adjustments in the Recession

It was an honor this morning to be with some new friends at the Evangelical Christian Credit Union, who invited me to address a group of Christian leaders gathering for an early morning breakfast.  It was great to meet Jac La Tour, Mark Johnson and many others.  What an awesome group of banking professionals.  Their heart for Christ and for ministry was so obvious.  It takes a Kingdom mentality to invite someone who is not currently a member of your Credit Union to address your Credit Union-sponsored event.  They have a Kingdom perspective!  If you are looking for a banking solution, I would recommend you contact them.

They had asked me to take 20 minutes or so to share with the group how our approach to ministry and leadership at Fairhaven Church has changed in the midst of the recession.  Hmmm... an interesting question.  After several weeks to reflect and pray about that, here is what I came up with:

Just a couple of weeks ago, I finished teaching an undergraduate class on business leadership, which was 90% theory, which actually was a good thing.  Because with all that is happening in our society right now, I’m not sure I really wanted to be too practical. If you read the papers, follow the news, or surf the internet, you’re bound to come to the same conclusion as I have: these are very challenging and difficult times in which to be a leader. I wouldn’t trade places with President Obama for anything in the world. The country is in recession. People have lost jobs, wealth and homes. The future is uncertain, the world seems as dangerous as ever, and those we look to in government - experts, and economists- offer no real consensus on what to do. In the middle of this chaos, we as Christian leaders are trying to lead our churches, parachurch organizations, and Christian businesses.

I’ve served at Fairhaven Church as an Executive Pastor for almost seven years now and in that time God has shown us unusual favor. He has blessed us in so many ways. We have great leadership in place with our pastor and Board. We’ve grown by probably 40% in the last few years. Even in the midst of the recession, our giving has exceeded our expectations. Our ministries are growing and there is an excitement in our organization that is palpable. We’re expanding our campus through an $8 million building project and rather than fulfilling the horror stories I heard from so many other pastors about building programs, this project has infused our church family with enthusiasm. So from an organizational perspective, we are really experiencing the grace and the favor of God.

But in spite of the great things going on in our church—in our organization, there are still lots of hurting people around us and among us: Moms and Dads who’ve lost their jobs, folks in the financial sector whose livelihood has been pulled out from under them, people in our neighborhoods who have been forced for the first time ever to come to our church and ask for help...  to read the rest of the talk: Download Talk - ECCU beakfast

That was a satellite?

It was awesome to visit Buckhead Church yesterday morning.  Buckhead is a satellite location of North Point Church.  They have a great church and it was a learning experience to be there.  They do their video work and their worship with an excellence that I haven't seen matched anywhere.  They videotape their announcements and their baptism testimonies and they have a Hollywood feel.  Really done well.  The only hint this was not a totally independent church was when the screen came down in the center stage and Andy Stanley came on.  There were a couple of things I saw that at least let me know they are human, but other than that, it was a great time--moving worship and a thought-provoking message.

I spent the rest of the afternoon hiking around Kennesaw Mountain National Park, the only park in Atlanta that memorializes the battle of Atlanta in 1864.  It was a beautiful afternoon to be outside!

The CLA conference starts today.  Looking forward to speaking tomorrow!

On my way to Atlanta for CLA

What a nice day!  It was fun traveling to Atlanta today for the CLA Conference and getting a chance to do some different things.  I always enjoy traveling, although not as much without my wife Kay.  Anyway, I got the airport in Cincinnati three hours early--which was a new record for me in terms of margin.  I love margin, but that was a little extreme.  It took much less time to get down to Cincy and get all checked in than I thought it would. Oh well.   Plenty of time for Starbucks and it gave me time to work on my presentations.  I dropped by the Borders Bookstore in the terminal and couldn't believe how many of the books on their first bookshelf were subtly or blatantly anti-Christian: "I Hope They Serve Beer in Heaven," and "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything" to name two...  wow. So sad. We really are in a culture war.  On my flight into Atlanta, the plane got about 100 feet from the ground and then abruptly aborted the landing attempt.  That was interesting.  It seems another plane was unusually slow getting off the runway and the tower felt it was too close for comfort.  I know I was uncomfortable. This evening, I attended church at Perimeter Church in Duluth.  It was a great experience.  Pastor Randy Pope preached a solid message on love from Galatians 5.  The worship music was phenomenal.  I guess that shouldn't be a surprise since Laura Elvington, the worship leader, is up for a handful of Dove Awards this coming Thursday.  She has a great presence and she leads you gently into genuine worship.  Tomorrow, off to Andy Stanley's Buckhead satellite campus, where I'll see what I can learn about how they do satellites.

Off to the CLA national conference

I've been looking forward to being at the Christian Leadership Alliance conference in Atlanta next week.  There will be lot's of great seminars and a special emphasis on Monday for Church Executives, put on by David Fletcher.  I'm really excited about that, since I've never been able to attend one of the XP Conferences he hosts.  I'll get a chance to present a seminar on Tuesday afternoon regarding church finances and strategies, and have been honored to be invited to speak for the ECCU breakfast on Tuesday morning.  So it will be a busy week but a great chance to learn, grow, meet new people and encourage others.  I'll keep you up to speed with some conference posts through the week.  If you follow my blog, I hope you'll look me up.

Legitimate Power

Legitimate power exists when the leader has the right or authority to tell others what to do; employees are obligated to comply with legitimate directives. In the church setting, the Elder Board or Governing Board may have legitimate power based on Bylaws and a Constitution. The Senior Pastor almost always has legitimate power over staff. Wherever a supervisor-subordinate relationship exists, there is  legitimate power.

Use: Legitimate power is used rightly when a leader, by virtue of positional authority, is able to exert that power to move people and resources toward the successful accomplishment of the church's vision and goals. Legitimate power works best when it flows from a clearly defined job description or organizational structure. Some examples might be:

• When a Senior Pastor uses his or her legitimate power to cast the vision, set the agenda, and orchestrate staff responsibilities.
• When an Executive Pastor sets deadlines for subordinate staff to submit annual goals.
• When a treasurer insists on supporting documentation for expense reimbursement in an accountable plan.
• When a receptionist insists visitors check in before proceeding to pastors’ offices.

Without recognition of and respect for legitimate power, there is likely organizational chaos (Judges 17:6). Legitimate power is best used coupled with qualities of transformational leadership: strong role modeling, a sense of vision and trust, a strong moral code, high expectations, and a supportive climate (Northouse, 2007, pp 181-184). A good leader takes the legitimate authority granted by the organization and builds upon that foundation qualities that will inspire commitment, excellence and achievement.  When that dynamic happens, legitimate power morphs into referent power, which only increases a leaders' effectiveness.

An interesting personal observation: there seems to be less recognition of legitimate power on the part of the Millennial Generation now joining church staffs. How will that impact the church organization in the decades to come? How do we coach younger staff in working through a hierarchy of authority, while still fostering a sense of collegiality and teamwork?

Abuse: Legitimate power is essential and natural in any organization. Ultimate responsibility must reside somewhere. Yet even legitimate power can be abused.

• When someone with legitimate power tries to exercise that power over those to whom they do not have legitimate power, i.e. a pastor in one department tries to exercise positional power over those in other departments. That creates confusion and friction and has to be addressed before unhealthy patterns take root.
• When a pastor or leader with legitimate power wears that power on their sleeve so that other people give them preferential treatment, i.e. people do things for them that they would not do for others. It takes a self-aware and humble leader to refuse to take advantage of the legitimate power that can cause others to respond with unusual favor.
• When someone with legitimate power forces others to comply without regard for relationship or other supportive behaviors necessary for good leadership. Goleman's emotional intelligence is key here: empathy and social skill must undergird legitimate power.
• When the leader gets away with substandard behaviors- missed deadlines, unresponsive communication, policy violations, etc.- because of their legitimate power. How often do we dismiss or overlook behaviors that we would hold others accountable for simply because of position and status?
• When a leader exerts power disconnected from the source of legitimate power. A great example of this is a Board member who wields individual power throughout the congregation in an unhealthy way, even though his or her legitimate power is only as they act in concert with the entire Board. In a healthy situation, Board members understand that their legitimate power lies in acting as a Board, not as individuals.
• When such power overwhelms others’ ability to disagree or offer dissenting opinions. That misuse of power causes myopia and cancels the advantage of a diversity of opinions and perspectives. How many leaders have you known whose mere presence in the room seemed to cancel all debate?

Northouse, Peter G. (2007). Leadership: Theory and Practice (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Next up: Reward Power

[Postscript: Today's the best day of the year--Easter Sunday!  May you experience the life and hope that can only come through the one who died and rose again. He is Risen!]