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Tim Tucker

About Tim Tucker

Tim is the Africa Development Director for The Message Trust and the author of four books including Grab a Towel.

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A life-giving corrective (a review by Rev. David Meldrum)

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A review of Grab a Towel: Christ-centred servant leaders for the 21st Century by Rev. David Meldrum

I’ve read a lot of Christian and not Christian books about leadership over the years; I’ve heard lots of talks and had lots of conversations on the subject as well. Some of those have been formative; some of them have been a mix of helpful and unhelpful; some of them have been awful. And quite a few of the high-profile Christian leadership input is now being shown to have come from people who had been hiding significant moral failings that, in the end, undid them.

In amongst all this, sometimes the conversation turns (in Christian circles) to the servant leadership – an inescapable centrepiece of Jesus’ modelling of leadership for us. Too often I have found that while much of that input in this area may be theologically correct, it is expressed in ways that repel. I’m left too often with the inescapable feeling that servant-leadership is deeply painful, and when it is we just have to shut up and take it without complaining … and we really mustn’t complain to God at all. It seems we’re expected to accept and embrace a kind of humiliation, stoically toughing out suffering; and so I’ve often lost the good stuff in all this input because I’m so put out by what seems to me to be a kind of neo-muscular Christian leadership.

This book is a life-giving corrective to all this, painting a picture of servant leadership that’s both honest about the difficulties, pain and challenges – but also emotionally truthful about the ups and downs and how we might deal healthily with the suffering that is likely to come our way. The author is based in Cape Town (where I’m also based), and I’ve got to know him a bit over the last year or so – and I know him and the organisation he serves as leader to have a humble, graceful and life-giving presence in the area. He and his ministry often seem to me to model the kind of humble strength that characterises true servant leadership; and while this book is truthful about the struggles, it also presents an inviting vision of the eternal fruit that flows from servant-shaped leadership. It’s in short, easy to read chapters that can easily be slotted in to to devotional practice should you wish; there’s good theology and quotations drawn from a wides range of sources and is not uncritical in doing so (another rare feature in much Christian popular writing).

If you’ve grown a bit weary or cynical of Christian leadership books in recent times, this is a much-needed tonic that refreshes, challenges and needs much thinking on. Whatever your sphere of leadership this is a valuable and important book to draw deep wisdom on. Read it.

 

See https://www.grabatowel.site/grab-a-towel-books to purchase Grab a Towel.

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Expectant Leadership (lessons from slip-fielders)

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I love this quote from George Barna’s book, Master Leaders:

Leadership is motivating, mobilising, resourcing, and directing people to pursue a shared vision that produces positive transformation… Leadership is the identification of noble goals and objectives with such intensity that others are drawn into the process… Leadership is taking people where they are not already going. It is about redefining the possible.

What a great definition of leadership: it is about redefining the possible…

However, to redefine the possible can seem unobtainable when we look at the challenging realities we face on a daily basis. Sometimes it can seem that, in spite of our best and most intense efforts, transformation can seem slow or even non-existent.

So how can we retain our optimism and positivity and continue to provide transformational leadership for the long-haul?

I’m a big (armchair) cricket fan – and as it’s summer here in South Africa I’ve been wallowing in an over-abundance of cricket-viewing (sorry if you don’t like cricket… but please stick with it).

As I’ve been watching, I’ve been fascinated by the slip fielders. They stand there, positioned, as ball after ball is bowled. 99% of the time, they get prepared, but then the ball goes nowhere near them. This could lead to despondency and pessimism, however, each time the bowler starts his run-up, they crouch and prepare again. They are expectant… because they know, at any moment, the ball might fly off the bat and hurtle towards them at 150km/h! And in that split second they can either be the hero that takes the catch, or the buffoon that spills the ball to the ground.

Expectant… means living with the anticipation that something good is going to happen. The key to the success of the slip fielders is that they need to have the right attitude and adopt the right posture. Maintaining a vigilant and positive attitude will keep them alert and ready for the opportunity. Having the right posture means they are positioned for success when they are called to spring into action.

In a world where there is so much negativity, pessimism and disappointment, I believe God is calling Christ-centred servant leaders to be expectant that good things will happen…. that ultimately we will redefine what is possible.

Just like the slip fielders, maintaining expectancy is all about having the right attitude and posture. Servant leaders need to keep the faith. Our attitude needs to be fueled by the truth of God’s Word. When I spend time in God’s word, it emboldens me to hold on to God’s promises even when everything else may seem to be falling apart. Another way that I fuel my faith is to hear or read other people’s stories of success and breakthrough. I get greatly encouraged when I read about someone who has overcome the odds, triumphed against adversity, or just stuck it out with gritty determination when they could easily have thrown in the towel. God’s word and the testimony of others can give my attitude a shot in the arm and enable me to hang-in-there, expectant that God is in control and at work in the world.

Alongside adopting a faith-filled attitude, I need to cultivate a humble posture – one that demonstrates my dependence on God. This involves ensuring that I have a consistent prayer life. I find that I need to have a rhythm of prayer that underpins my daily tasks. When my rhythm is consistent then I can feel I’m in an expectant posture. But when I squeeze out time with God, then I become discombobulated which can lead me to feel despondent and discouraged… or even worse, self-reliant and think that my success is dependent upon me.

I believe that our levels of expectancy are directly proportional to the attitude and posture that we’ve adopted. If we truly want to lead in such a way that we serve others by helping them redefine what is possible, then we’ll need to be disciplined and consistently attend to our attitude and posture. Then we can be expectant that we can serve people towards a shared vision that produces positive transformation. Our attitude and posture will contribute to our longevity as leaders, ensuring that we don’t lose heart, but continue to lead with purpose; expectant that God will use us to redefine what is possible.

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Leadership Myth Busting #6… people mean problems

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“People mean problems…”

To my shame, this is a phrase I have used in the past. And it seems like a fact of leadership… the more people we have around us, the more problems we can end up dealing with. We’ve just been through our annual appraisal season at The Message SA. On my good days, I recognise that the appraisal season is a good time to unearth some of the challenges that my team are facing and find constructive ways to deal with them. On my bad days, my insecurities emerge and I become unduly concerned that we’ll uncover latent problems that will absorb time, effort and emotional energy. Clearly, this comes from past challenges and hurts and can lead to the second element of the same myth: the more people we lead, the more problems we will face.

These attitudes can debilitate us from effectively leading our teams because it causes us to devalue our most important asset – those we are leading. The consequence is that the myth of people mean problems makes it impossible to be a servant leader because the foundation of servant leadership is that we value others as of the utmost importance. When we believe that people mean problems, we can end up isolating ourselves from people and building barriers rather than bridges. This is the antithesis of servant leadership because it is the antithesis of how Jesus viewed people.

Would Jesus have said ‘people mean problems’? Of all people – Jesus was qualified to make this statement because he didn’t carry the baggage of sin. He could have easily written us all off because we do carry problems. However, rather than write us off, Jesus invited those of us with insecurities, hang-ups, issues, and problems to come to Him:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Matthew 11:28-30

Throughout his life on earth, Jesus continually sought out people with problems. He hang-out with those who no doubt drained him emotionally, frustrated him no end, and caused him undue stress. And in so doing, he called out latent potential and saw many ‘problem people’ be transformed (e.g. Zacheus and the Samaritan woman).

The beautiful reality that we now behold as leaders following in Christ’s example is that the same invitation that Jesus made 2000 years ago, is available to us today. So, when we encounter people with problems, we don’t have to be their solution. In fact, if we try and be their solution, we will just add to their problems. But we can ask Jesus to help us love and serve them in such a way that will enable them to take their stress, pain and sorrow to Him. He is the only one who can carry their burdens and heal their brokenness.

Yes, people do have problems and they carry problems and can cause problems. But we must never define people by the problems they carry. When we do that, we lose any opportunity to actually help and empower the people we lead to overcome those problems and become positive and constructive team members.

To really debunk this myth we need to reframe how we think about people. Here are four ways we can re-prorgamme our thinking to help us Grab a Towel and genuinely value people.

  1. People are your priority. In Grab a Towel I write that we must Put People First! People must come before programmes, projects and profit. If we only see people as a means to an end, then we devalue them because we will judge them based upon their output and contribution to our agenda. This means that when problems do emerge, we are quick to write people off because they are no longer adding value towards our goals. If this is how we view people, then we need to have our minds and hearts transformed. People are our priority. If we accomplish great feats in life but hurt people, ruin relationships and blaze a trail of pain and fear, then I’m afraid that we have accomplished nothing of lasting value.

  2. People have potential. At The Message we believe that every person has potential. We view our mission as uncovering dormant potential where others don’t see it… in prisons, gangs and tough communities. The reason we believe that every person has potential is because Jesus was not selective in who he chose to die for. His death was once and for all (Romans 6:10). The message of the bible is eternally inclusive! If Jesus thought every person worth dying for, then I need to get on the same page as Him and have faith that even people who may cause me the most problems, still have the potential for greatness.

  3. People are your pride. I love how Paul talks about people. Whether the church in Thessalonica (see 1 Thess. 1:2-3) or individuals like Timothy whom he was mentoring (see 2 Timothy 1:3-5), Paul exuded great pride in his friends and team-mates. The secret to taking healthy pride in your people is to start looking for what they are doing well and praise them for it. An atmosphere of encouragement builds trust and enables people to fulfil their potential. Additionally, boast about your people to others… let people know that you take pride in your team. [On that note… I’m so blessed to lead the greatest team – so I’ll let the rest of you fight it out for second place!]

  4. People are not perfect. At the risk of a seeming contradiction, this is critical to overcoming the myth of seeing people as problems. Sometimes the myth rears it’s ugly face because our expectations are simply too high… we’re asking people to be perfect. This causes all kinds of undue stress and strain. If we recognise that people aren’t perfect then it allows people the freedom to mess up, fail, and cause us the occasional problem. The environment we need to foster should allow people to make mistakes in the knowledge that second-chances are always available – because we recognise that we ourselves are not perfect. This contributes to a redemptive environment that fosters unity and hope.

Let’s not buy into the myth of writing people off as problems. In the diversity of our teams, there is so much we can learn. In the words of Eugene H. Petersen

People are not problems to be solved. They are mysteries to be explored.

As we put people first we will find that exploring these mysteries will lead us to become richer people able to better grab a towel and serve others.

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Leadership Myth Busting #5… the ‘frontline’ of missions

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This is a guest post by Pete Portal taken from his book, No Neutral Ground: Finding Jesus in a Cape Town Ghetto. Pete has lived and served in Manenberg, one of Cape Town’s most notorious gang-infested communities, over the past decade. The book tells stories of God’s mighty works, as well as relapse, hopelessness and despair; the miraculous and the mundane, heaven and hell, all balanced on a knife-edge.

The Myth of the Frontline

I think I know what people are alluding to when they say that because we live in Manenberg, we are ‘ministering on the front line’. I think I know what they mean. We have had two bullets fly through our office windows during gang fights, dear friends and family have been killed, our houses have been broken into by those we have been trying to serve, we’ve seen miraculous financial provision come in as we’ve prayed for salaries or emergency rehab funds, we’ve watched friends come painlessly off drugs through the power of the Holy Spirit, and felt the hope drain out of us as others crash and burn for the umpteenth time, and we’re all committed to living among the poor and marginalised.

But here’s my issue with the F word – isn’t this just the normal Christian life? What else do we honestly think following Jesus is about? He did miracles of great power, loved until it hurt, equipped his disciples to cultivate counter-cultural communities of faith, celebrated the outcast, and obediently followed the Father’s voice (despite Peter’s sensible-sounding but ultimately demonic advice to the contrary) all the way to Calvary. Then he told us to ‘go do the same’. I sometimes wonder where the concept of ‘front-line’ ministry came from. Might it have come out of the boredom of the Christian ghetto – where Jesus’ passions have largely been replaced by chatting about church culture or running Christian courses while sipping a cold drip coffee and Instagramming a photo of our homegroup?

The notion of ‘front-line’ ministry creates two problems. It disempowers and it dichotomises. Let me explain. You’ll rarely hear those who are part of ‘front-line’ ministry describing their lives that way. It’s a term generally used by Western Christians who don’t spend their lives, say, preaching on street corners or living among the poor. And it’s a concept that automatically disempowers those who subscribe to it – because it implies they aren’t ‘doing the stuff’, ‘sold out for Jesus’, or ‘living a life of sacrifice’ (to use the clichéd phrases), and are unable to, living as the do in middle-class suburbia. Is it any less ‘front line’ to stack supermarket shelves, or buy out bankrupt companies, or sell cars, or arrange flowers, or raise children a home, or make multi-million-pound deals in a boardroom? As Bill Johnson has helpfully put it, ‘there is no such thing as secular employment for the believer. Once we are born again, everything about us is redeemed for Kingdom purposes. It is all spiritual. It is either a legitimate Kingdom expression, or we shouldn’t be involved at all.’ It’s got to be true that any vocatio can be ‘front line’ – if we live with the deep-set conviction that we have been placed in a specific sphere of influence to represent Jesus and make him known.

Once during an ugly gang fight in Manenberg I went to buy milk from a local house shop run by a Somali man. This involved running from the door of our office building, looking left and right to make sure no one was about to blow my head off, and nervously jog-walking across the road. The shopkeeper was stood behind a metal grille that was not remotely bullet-proof. He’d been there all morning witnessing the gun battles on the street. I asked him if he was doing OK and how he was dealing with life on the front line. His reply was a belter: ‘My friend, I’m from Mogadishu – living in Manenberg is easy! It’s pieces of cake!’ I wandered back to the office, struck by how relative everything is. I grew up in middle-class Sevenoaks, half an hour south of London, in the county of Kent, aptly named the Garden of England. The only gang I came into contact with, growing up, was a group of prepubescent kids roller-skating on a road up from ours who called me name. And to me, some of the things that go down in Manenberg are pretty shocking. Yet, had I grown up in war-torn Mogadishu, my perspective of Manenberg would be completely different.

And so I wonder if the ‘front line’ might be a myth. I wonder if, like the single story, it really exists. Might it be yet more evidence of the unhelpful dichotomy we’ve established between what is seen as being sacred and what is termed ‘secular’. That a dichotomy has been created between the sacred and the secular is no secret. But it’s unbiblical. To assert one vocation as being secular and another as front line is theologically wrong… So let me say it again: we are all in front-line ministry if we are doing what God has asked us to do.

 

Pete is originally from London but has lived in Cape Town since 2009. He left a promising career in children’s television to move to Manenberg, one of South Africa’s most notorious communities. He and his wife Sarah serve on the Core Leadership Team of Tree of Life, a church community in Manenberg that runs ministries among the vulnerable and marginalised.

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Multiplying Leaders by Jeremy Koeries

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Christ-centred servant leadership is all about empowering others to fulfil their potential as a disciple of Jesus. In this post, Jeremy Koeries underlines for us the importance of the principle of multiplication within the disciple-making process.

Discipling Leaders

In Acts 6:1-7, we read of the disciples multiplying and new leaders being appointed. Multiplication is the end result of a disciple-making process. This process can be seen in the life of an individual disciple or a ministry leader, or even the church! The end result of this process is mature disciples reproducing themselves into other disciples. All disciples are called to disciple-making. All leaders are called to leadership multiplication. Leadership multiplication is about discipling leaders.

The word for “multiply” in the original Greek language of the New Testament means:

  • made full, especially to maximum capacity or potential;
  • the fullest measure
  • to increase, multiply

This word is used in Acts 6:1, Acts 6:7 and Acts 9:31. This word (multiply) carries the idea of something that has grown, increased, become full and mature – ready to reproduce itself. Throughout Scripture, we see that God has designed creation to be fruitful, to increase and to multiply. From the beginning in Genesis 1, God intended for all creation to reproduce after its own kind – the living creatures, the plants, the trees and also the human beings. This is multiplication. In the same way, God has designed and called individual disciples, leaders and the church, to reproduce after its own kind, once they have reached spiritual maturity. Just as mature disciples will make disciples, in the same way, mature leaders will disciple new leaders.

When leaders are multiplied through disciple-making, local churches and ministries will be multiplied, resulting in either pioneering or succession. Pioneering is when a new leader is blessed and released (sent out) to start a ministry or new church. Succession is when a new leader is blessed and released to lead an existing ministry because the original leader has been sent out. This is the disciple-making movement that Jesus began and left us to continue.

Reflect on the following questions:

  1. Am I reproducing after my own kind by making disciples who can lead like me?
  2. Am I withholding authority from the leaders I disciple so that they cannot lead like me?
  3. Are the leaders that I am discipling making disciples of other leaders?
  4. Are the leaders I am discipling mature enough to lead in my place or to lead something new?
  5. Are the leaders that I am discipling releasing their disciples to start or lead new ministries?

 

Jeremy Koeries is based in Cape Town and is a leader within J-Life South Africa. J-Life Africa is a disciple-making movement that mobilizes disciple-making through local churches across Africa. We aim to help church and ministry leaders study the life and ministry of Jesus in the Gospels & Acts, to learn to make disciples like He did. See https://www.jlife.org/ for more information.

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Leadership Myth Busting #4… “full time ministry”

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I’ve now been in paid Christian work for over 20 years. Initially, I worked in two churches as a ‘youth pastor’ but have since been leading missional organisations (registered as Christian non-profit organisations). I have, therefore, been employed in what is commonly called ‘full-time ministry’. Yet, the longer I’ve been doing what I do, the more I’ve come to realise the dangers of the distinction between those in ‘ministry’ and other classifications of Christians.

The myth that there are varying degrees of Christian ministry is one that needs to be busted. The danger of the concept of ‘full-time ministry’ can be particularly pernicious when related to leadership. There is a double power-whammy when secular approaches to leadership are coupled with a hierarchy of Christian ministry. This toxic mix can result in Christian professionals who are paid to perform Christian duties on behalf of a consumerist Christian culture. Over hundreds of years of the church, this has resulted in a distinction between what is termed the ‘laity’ and those in “ministry’. This separation causes some to ‘sit and soak’, while others are expected to ‘stand and deliver’.

 I believe Peter helps explode the myth that some are in ministry and some aren’t when he wrote: As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. (1 Peter 4:10 NKJV).

 Let’s break this down by asking some questions:

Who has received a gift? Everyone. Not just church leaders, missionaries, or any other form of paid Christian worker. The implication is everyone has been given a unique gift – something given by God for the purpose to serve others. Not the chosen few. Everyone!

 What is the purpose of the gift? It is to minister to others. The gift is to be employed in the service of others… that’s what ministry is. One Christian simply serving another person.

 What is the ultimate purpose of ministry? Peter says that each person is then required to be a good steward of their gift, through which they are revealing the grace of God. When we grab a towel and serve others, we are demonstrating the ‘multi-faceted grace’ of God (as the Amplified Bible puts it).

 The conclusion is that ministry is not about position, professional or otherwise. It is all about service. When we serve we are in ministry… nothing more, nothing less. All of us. Title or no title. Qualifications or no qualifications. New believers or mature elder. Those that serve are in ministry, and those in ministry are those who serve!

 Christians have continued to create a divide between the so-called laity and clergy, the sacred and the secular. Frank Viola argues that “the term ‘laity’ is one of the worst in the vocabulary of religion and ought to be banished from the Christian conversation….” Likewise, AW Tozer exploded the myth of dichotomy between what is sacred and secular. He wrote: “It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is why he does it. The motive is everything.” Therefore, the person serving in their work-place is performing an equally ‘sacred’ role as a full-time pastor (or other paid Chrisitan worker), if their motive is to bring pleasure to God

 Paul sums up the heart and motive of what true ministry is when he wrote to the church in Colossae, He said, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Col.3:17). The key word here is whatever. In the Bible, there is no limitation on what is considered ministry and what is considered something else. As believers, everything we do is a function of our ministry and calling to serve the Lord.

 One of my favourite quotes on this subject is from Stacy Rinehart who wrote in his book Upside Down,

Ministry is not a task, program, or production. It is an act of worship by people who acknowledge that God’s great mercy has redeemed them for the purpose of relationship with Him, for sacrifice, and for service to others.

 Of course, the terms ‘being in ministry’ and ‘full-time ministry’ have become entrenched in our language and will probably remain that way. However, we need to be careful of the assumptions that are being perpetuated through the language we use. It is a myth that there are different classes of Christians. It is a myth that those of us who receive salaries because we are in some form of Christian employment are more qualified to minister than anyone else. Everybody is in full-time ministry! God has uniquely called and equipped every follower of Christ to serve others. There is a distinct purpose and role for every believer.

And as leaders we need to be especially careful that we don’t reinforce the ‘full-time ministry’ myth through our words or actions. The best way to do this is to grab a towel and ensure that we assume the posture of a servant… recognising that our ministry, as leaders, is to enable others to flourish. Our primary goal is to help others serve God more effectively as they discover their calling, gifts and purpose. Therefore, my job as a leader within a Christian non-profit organisation is to provide a platform for as many people as possible to discover that they are in full time ministry as servants of the Lord.

 How about you – how are you expressing your call to full-time ministry?

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A call to servant leadership – by Afrika Mhlophe

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When I look at Christian leadership today, I see a situation akin to that of a dog chasing after a car. When the dog catches up with its target, it does not know what to do with the car because its purpose for chasing was not clearly defined. The absurdity of this situation is best explained by a quote from the late Dr Myles Munroe, who said, “when a purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable.”

Christian leadership today is characterised by much abuse. Values that are true marks of greatness and distinguishing feature of Christianity are increasingly being discarded in favour of worldly values. For instance, instead of aspiring for personal purity more leaders are after positional power. Some are convinced that charisma is more important than character. As a result, many of today’s Christian leaders are now after anything that gives them a whiff of importance. Things like fancy ministry titles, a bevy of attendants, and so forth.

In my book, ‘A Passion for Position’ I point to a different way. I show that Christian leadership is meant to be oriented towards something else. The subtitle is, ‘A Call To Servant Leadership’ because I believe that this is the only form of leadership that is compatible with God’s kingdom. To some people the term ‘servant-leadership’ sounds like an oxymoron. And yet Jesus was a servant who ruled and a ruler who served.

In fact, servanthood and sacrifice is what distinguished Jesus’ leadership to that of the Pharisees and Sadducees. As a result, He never needed to announce Himself as a leader but demonstrated it by serving. But like the rich young ruler, many people who purport to represent Jesus are walking away from the leadership principles He demonstrated. Why is that? The answer lies in not understanding the real purpose of leadership.

Hanz Finzell tells us that the subject of leadership is vast, so much so that “decades of academic analysis have given us more then 350 definitions of leadership.” In other words, there are so many chances of getting it wrong as a Christian leader. However, the chances are drastically reduced when we keep our eyes firmly fixed on Jesus. In fact, you need to know that leadership is not only framed around who follows the leader but also around who the leader follows.

Every leader is also a follower. He follows a leadership philosophy or a certain style of leadership. It goes without saying that if you are a true follower of Jesus you will take your cue from Him. You will lead as He led. Jeremiah said, “As for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd who follows You” (17:16).

Self-promotion and obsession with leadership positions is a certain approach or form of leadership. Jesus revealed that this is a form favoured by pagans. According to Him, pagans or the ungodly do not only lead, but want recognition. They like to parade themselves as leaders. Jesus said to His disciples, “Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant” (Matthew 20:26).

Jesus shows that self-aggrandising leadership is wholly incompatible with the values of His kingdom. Therefore, every kingdom citizen should reject this type of leadership. And yet many Christian leaders today are holding on to this type of leadership for dear life, like a drowning person clinging to a log in a raging torrent. Everywhere I go I encounter leaders who insist on introducing themselves with their ecclesiastical “titles”.

It is as if their identity is now interwoven with their ministry function. The position has become the core of their leadership and everything else is peripheral, including people. And yet with Jesus people were at the centre. In fact, when He invited people to follow Him, He promised that they will find rest for their souls (Matthew 11:29). In other words, people who follow Jesus are never exasperated or subjected to tyrannical leadership.

In Jesus, people encounter a shepherd who leads them besides peaceful streams (Psalms 23:2). He lessens the load that His followers carry. Unlike Rehoboam who increased it and lost his position as a result. Rehoboam was Solomon’s son who took over rulership from him (1 Kings 12). He became what John Maxwell refers to as a positional leader. A positional leader is someone who is followed because of the position he/she occupies.

According to Maxwell, positional leadership is the lowest level of leadership. The highest is pinnacle leadership where a person is followed because of who he is. Jesus was a pinnacle leader. He did not need a position or title in order to lead. He never announced Himself as a leader but people discovered Him as one.

As I have mentioned before, Jesus was first and foremost a servant. He declared that He “…did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). Servant leaders give so that their followers might gain. They allow themselves to become a ladder so that others might ascend to higher heights. As a result of this self-abnegating attitude, the impact of their leadership and ministry is much longer.

Think about it, Jesus was only in active ministry and leadership for 3 and half years. And yet He is still exerting influence on millions of people around the world. His life epitomises the principle of sowing and reaping. Jesus gave His life and gained many more lives. With His disciples Jesus gave away leadership by empowering them so that they can lead and function without His physical presence.

Therefore, the real focus of leadership is not what a leader stands to gain but what he’s prepared to give. It is through giving that a leader gains. He not only gains followers but others who can lead and function without him. When the new leaders opt to become servant-leaders the whole process is repeated.

Afrika Mhlophe is the author of A Passion for Position. He is the pastor of Good News Community Church in Port Elizabeth. He travels extensively and writes for various publications.. He is married to Lindelwa and they have two children.

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Leadership Myth Busting #3… Work yourself out of a job

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‘My goal is to work myself out of a job.’

I’ve heard the statement many times. I’ve probably said it myself. I don’t think anyone says it with anything other than well-intentioned motives. However, is it factual… or is it a myth?

When a leader, pastor, manager or executive is asked; what is your main goal, they may well reply; ‘to work myself out of a job’. It’s one of those statements that sounds so convincing and perhaps is adopted by many people as a de facto goal of being a leader. But, is working yourself out of a job a realistic aim.? Or is it a myth? Does grabbing a towel as a servant leader mean that working yourself out of a job becomes an imperative aim?

One article I read (by Robert Greiner) describes working yourself out of a job in this way:

[it] means building up your team in such a way that someday you could walk away from your project and everything would continue running normally without a hitch. In order to do this you must invest greatly in your team. You must push and inspire them to grow and improve their skill set. You must keep them from becoming demotivated and complacent.

The anticipated culmination of this process is that someone moves from purely accomplishing certain delegated tasks that the leader assigns them, to being able to take full responsibility for the role.

He then goes on to write: In the process of working yourself out of a job, you also need to focus on working yourself into the next job.

I have to concede that this is probably great advice if your goal is to climb the corporate ladder. Clearly, empowering others is a really great goal and one of the hallmarks I wrote about in Grab a Towel. But, as we’ve seen previously in this series, we are testing conventional wisdom through the lens of becoming a Christ-centred servant leader. The conventional wisdom here is that we work ourselves out of a job in order that we can take another position and increase our opportunities for influence (and possibly earning capacity). The danger is that working yourself out of a job is less about empowering others, and more about self-advancement.

The question we should ask of all conventional leadership wisdom is, did Jesus subscribe to this approach? Would Jesus have said, ‘I’ve come to earth in order to work myself out of a job’?

You might argue that Jesus did say it was better that he went away in order that he could send the Holy Spirit… but Jesus wasn’t saying his job was done at that point. Rather, it was just beginning (John 16:7). He would continue to empower the disciples (Acts 1:8) and intercede on their behalf (Romans 8:34). Jesus did not simply ‘do himself out of a job’ – he called and trained up 12 people in whom he invested over three intense years. The disciples were not qualified and at times they were not particularly reliable! However, after his resurrection, he was able to call them together and commission them to go into all the world and become disciple-makers themselves. By training the apostles, Christ multiplied his effectiveness as they likewise committed themselves to this process of multiplication. Christ’s work wasn’t completed when he ascended to heaven. Rather, his capacity was multiplied 12 times – and multiplied exponentially more as the growth ratio of the early church exploded after Pentecost.

I believe the language of servant leadership should focus on empowering others in order that we can multiply impact, rather than build our own portfolio to enable us to move up the next step of our own leadership ambitions. Rather, as servant leaders, we should always be prepared for change and that some people we have mentored may surpass us in what they accomplish. That doesn’t mean we’ve worked ourselves out of a job. Rather, our job has simply changed.

I was recently at the induction service of a friend. Just over three years ago his father, who had planted and pastored a church in Cape Town, had suddenly passed away. In the immediate aftermath of this tragic death, his wife (my friend’s mom) took on the reigns of pastoring the church. Now, three years on, she was passing those reigns on to her son. At the induction she said something that really struck a chord with me; ‘My role now is to cheer him on as my son and serve under him as my pastor’. She recognised that even though she didn’t have the title of Senior Pastor anymore, she still had a role to play. Her work wasn’t done! Perhaps, in many ways, it is just beginning!

Again, conventional wisdom is that a senior leader should not only step aside when they hand over the reins to someone else, rather they should also move out of the way completely. I guess we all know of some disastrous cases where a founder, executive leader or senior pastor has tried to step aside, only to continue interfering and completely undermine their incumbent. And yes, in some cases the best job a former leader can do is to put some distance between them and their successor – particularly if their meddlesome interference is going to cause damage.

However, just because we can point to negative experiences, doesn’t mean that should shape our approach to succession planning. I believe a biblical goal is to recognise that we may always have a role to play in the lives of those who succeed us. We haven’t ‘done ourselves out of a job’ when someone succeeds or surpasses us – because we still have the responsibility to continue to serve them, cheer them on, pray for them, create more opportunities for them, speak well of them, encourage them, maybe occasionally (very occasionally) rebuke them and do whatever we can to ensure that they do a better job than we could ever have done. This is not simply a matter of positional leadership (I’ve worked myself out of a job so I can now focus on my next role). Rather, it concerns the nature of the relationship we have with emerging leaders and what it truly means to leave a legacy.

Afrika Mhlope writes: ‘Occupiers of positions lose their influence as soon as they vacate their positions, but leaders don’t. Effective leaders continue to be influential even after someone else occupies their former position and takes over their title. Defective leaders, on the other hand, are solely dependent on positions and titles in order to lead’ (in A Passion for Position).

I believe this approach will change the focus of our goals as leaders. We’re not interested in simply working ourselves out of a job, but creating a foundation for an exponential ripple effect as we identify, support, multiply and cheer on those within our sphere of influence.

Maybe you feel that the myth has not been busted and that this is simply a matter of semantics. However, perhaps you will think twice when you state this as a goal in the future. I hope you will ask yourself the hard questions; am I seeking to work myself out of a job to genuinely create opportunities for others, or is it simply about my own self-advancement? And is my job really ever done… or does the nature of my role simply change over time? If we ask ourselves these questions, then perhaps we’ll be grappling with what the word legacy really means.

Notes:

  1. one great example to consider is how David provided an incredible platform for Solomon when his son succeeded him as king. See 1 Chronicles 28-29.

  2. I have uploaded a chapter from my book, The Pace Setter, which looks a little at this theme. Click here to open the article.

olympic torch.jpg

God’s Succession Planning

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I recently read the book 4 Chair Discipling by Dann Spader. I was particularly struck by the following illustration (which I’ve quoted at length), which helps us understand the responsibility we have as Christ-centred servant leaders to maintain faithful stewardship (see Grab a Towel chapter 3) of the Gospel which God has entrusted to us.

‘Every four years the Summer Olympics begins with an event that captures the imagination of the world: the lighting of the Olympic flame. At the end of an international marathon relay, one final runner enters the Olympic stadium. After traveling by foot, by bicycle, by boat, or by air, sometimes over thousands of miles, the torch finally enters the stadium in the hands of a runner who, to the thrill of millions, ignites the enormous Olympic flame.

‘Wouldn’t it be exciting to be one of the bearers of the flame? Picture it. Each stride throbs with a sense of mission. Your fingers carefully encircle this forged symbol of Olympic competition. All fatigue fades as adrenaline fills you for this once-in-a-lifetime moment. Your experience would be a family legends… Can you imagine holding that piece of tradition in your hands and knowing that, for a brief moment, you were the link in that historic chain?

‘As Christians we carry a torch. We carry a flame of so much greater value that there is no comparison. The pomp and circumstance of the Olympics pales against the eternal significance of the ministry with which Christ has entrusted us. Proud athletes carry the Olympic torch accompanied by global applause, while Christians through the ages have borne the torch of the gospel despite centuries of persecution and trial. The flame we carry is not a symbol. It is the light of God that is desperately needed by a dark and dying world’ (Spader 2014:33-34).

God is the ultimate succession planner! In his kingdom plan, we must recognise that we are part of a bigger picture – that of God’s sovereign plan that spans the ages of human history. As a leader, we must always be cognisant of God’s supreme purposes of which we are to play a part in our generation. Joshua understood this principle. The torch of leadership was passed on to him by Moses, and his responsibility was to steward God’s people for the tenure of his life, before passing on the torch to the next generation. In the final chapter of Joshua (chapter 24), just before his own death, Joshua summons the people to Shechem in order to renew the covenant. He instructs the people, ‘Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness’ (24:14). Joshua recognised that his legacy was not simply going to be measured by his own faithfulness to God, but by whether the subsequent generation would also remain faithful to God.

The Apostle Paul had the same outlook. Towards the end of his life he wrote to his friend and disciple, Timothy. Paul was not only concerned with passing on the torch to Timothy… but through Timothy to subsequent generations of Christian leaders. He wrote, ‘And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others’ (2 Tim. 2:2). Paul understood kingdom succession planning as he identifies four generations through which the torch must be passed:

  • Generation 1 – From Jesus to Paul

  • Generation 2 – From Paul to Timothy

  • Generation 3 – From Timothy to reliable people

  • Generation 4 – From reliable people to others

Christian leaders are not ‘owners’ of the gospel, the church or their organisation, but are stewards. We are part of God’s kingdom succession planning and have a responsibility to the generations that will follow us. What we have received from a previous generation is not ours to alter, change, peddle for profit, or pervert in any way. Rather it is a gift and responsibility that has been entrusted to us for the generation in which God has placed us. When Christian leaders fail in this task, the gospel is compromised, and its effectiveness is diminished. The church loses its relevance and the light is extinguished to the detriment of all people in the world. The Bible is unambiguous about the call on Christ’s disciples, and particularly upon leaders. Grab a towel because we are stewards of Jesus’ legacy, carrying the torch of the gospel in this generation!

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