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Building Leaders - Empowerment
By jason | May 7, 2008
I just finished Malphurs chapter The Challenge of Empowerment in Building Leaders (co-written with Will Mancini). You need to rush out and buy this book. It has been great to this point and so far their chapter on empowerment is worth the price of the book. Great stuff.
Here are some thoughts throughout the chapter.
Definition: Empowerment is the intentional transfer of authority to an emerging leader within specified boundaries from an established leader who maintains responsibility for the ministry. (40)
Alternatives to Empowerment (42-45)
Directing - keeps authority and responsibility.
Abdicating - gives away authority and responsibility. Established leader no longer feels accountable for ministry outcomes.
Disabling - giving away responsibility but keeping authority.
Contrasted with empowering - giving away authority but keeping responsibility.
Empowerment Applied (45-59)
1. Giving up Control - empowerment increases the scope of unknown ministry outcomes. We must embrace uncertainty.
Hellen Keller Quote: “Security is mostly a superstition - it does not exist in nature. Avoiding danger is not safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing at all.”
Questions to ask:
- In what general areas do you gravitate toward control?
- What types of people or roles do you tend to control?
- In what kinds of activities do you want control?
- What are your hot buttons?
2. Slowing Down - empowerment requires a sacrifice of short-term ministry efficiency. We must slow down to speed up.
Unfortunately, the attractiveness of short-term effectiveness is too strong for many leaders. To complicate matters, the interest in efficiency is usually accompanied by the pride of competence.
We must become “legacy minded.”
3. Humility - empowerment requires giving away authority that previously provided the basis of personal ministry success. We must starve our ego.
Some pastors have a need to be right and to be in control, lest their competence seem challenged or threatened. This kind of minister will experience difficulty multiplying teachers, advisors, counselors, and other persons of wisdom, since these lay pastors may come to wield almost as much influence in their small groups as their senior pastor.
4. Building Connection - empowerment necessitates close support and authentic community with other leaders. We must connect with others.
From Robert Coleman: “Amazing as it may seem, all Jesus did to teach these men His way was to draw them close to himself…Knowledge was gained by association before it was understood by explanation.”
We need to develop a life-on-life relationship with leaders outside of our organized ministry activity.
Topics: Books, Leadership |
May 7th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
I’m reading this book too, for class, which makes it a very pleasant surprise. I agree, great stuff. I’ve been recommending it to people as well. Wait until you get to the chapter on “leadership culture”–I loved it.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Whatever happened to good, old-fashion dictatorships?
You hippies are ruining everything — Ian
May 11th, 2008 at 12:55 am
Hey Jason, Thanks for the comment on the book. Aubrey is a mentor of mine and the comments you made were on the chapters I wrote. The empowerment chapter is my favorite chapter!
Thought you might like to know about three resources I have developed further for developing leaders. First is my new book by Leadership Network called Church Unique (churchunique.com). The second is a creative tool called the Vision DECK (visiondeck.com). These are highlighted on my blog at clarityevangelist.com.
May 12th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Thanks for stopping by Will. I appreciate the other links. The Vision Deck looks cool, a little pricey though (or maybe I’m not sold that flash cards should cost more than $70).