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February 14, 2005
Skills 2
I was quite surprised by some of the comments made to my posting entitled “Skills”. I had a simple thought that in growth in devotion makes one qualified to lead while growth in some skill set makes one capable of leading. (And yes, I am referring specifically to leading the body of Christ in the local Church. But I am not referring strictly to Elders but any servant of the Lord who is in some leadership position.) Some were not sure that was quite true, others thought you would be better off spending your time acquiring ‘servant-hood heart' rather than ‘leadership skills’. From all the reaction, I decided it was necessary to post a small essay on the matter.
From Dictionary.com, the definition of a leader:
1: a person who rules or guides or inspires others
For the sake of my essay, I want to qualify that what I really mean to be talking about is “Effective Leadership” A person who is effective at ruling, guiding and inspiring. I think most of us, if we are humble about ourselves, realize that when we started leading, we were not all that good at it. I also want to qualify my thoughts by saying I’m talking about Christian Spiritual Leadership where growth in Christ-like qualities and maturity are implied. What I mean by devotion, is growth in those qualities among simply spending time with the Lord and His people.
Example 1:
When the Rock Production started in the Fall of 2000, after the third week, we had run out of available ‘qualified’ leaders to lead a setup team. I was then asked, because of my availability to lead a setup team. I was not qualified at the time, but later grew into it. At that time in my life, my devotion to the Lord was growing. I was reading my Bible on a daily basis, I was memorizing the Word, I was praying all the time and my understanding of God and our love relationship was increasing. But honestly, that meant very little (at the time) on the battlefield of Rock Setup.
I had huge holes in my skill set when it came to working with people. And sure Proverbs are clear that you must use your words wisely, but what I thought was wise, actually wasn’t. I spent a painful year learning to be more gentle, more encouraging, less critical, more flexible and more loving. These were all skills and deliberate decisions I had to make at Rock Setup on a weekly (even daily) basis in order to grow my ability to effectively lead. Sure at first I got the job done, but people’s feelings were hurt, people even cried because of some of the things I said, and sure I had John 17 pretty much down in my mind about love and unity; I knew nothing of what it really meant in practice when it came time for Setup. In short, I needed more than growing in my understanding of God and His Word and depth of devotion. I needed practical skills that I only learned on the field of battle through quite a fiery trial and a lot of loving instruction from Tim B.
Example 2:
Worship leading. If there ever was a leadership position that required much skill and devotion, this is it. You need a strong devotion to be able to effectively encourage and lead the flock from the front. But you also need skill. In contexts of Sunday morning singing as the worship format, you must be able to sing. You (at Stonebrook) have to be able to (usually) play the guitar, lead the band, coordinate practice and help the others in their instrumentation and role for the music.
Psalm 33:3 “Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.” (NIV) In versus 1 & 2, the Psalmist refers to singing, the harp, ten-stringed lyre and in other places trumpets and tambourines. Where does the Bible ever cover how to play these instruments, yet alone skillfully? This is a cornerstone verse for people in our band so they know that they are to be excellent at what they do. How does excellence at guitar playing come solely from growing in devotion to the Lord? Sure devotion will cause one to be excellent and to put in the time necessary to play well and effectively, but growth in strict devotion will not.
Hence my key thought, to grow as a leader, you need more than to grow in your devotion. There are skill sets required in areas of leadership that are extra-biblical that require other forms of study.
Other examples:
* Pastors learning how to publicly communicate
* Treasurers learning the art of money management.
* Life Group leaders learning to love people in our cultural context.
On the matter of serving:
Jesus said, “To become the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, you must become the servant (or slave) to all” (MTR’s paraphrase) So leader’s before us, took this verse and said, “Now, if you want to lead, start serving.” And we also see a Biblical example in Christ of the servant-king. This however, does not preclude the need for skill set growth. Pick any area of service, do you not need to know something about serving in that context?
Cleaning toilets, baking cookies, painting houses, roofing, siding, framing, raking leaves, dry-wall hanging, carpet laying, vacuuming carpets, cleaning house, washing dishes, washing clothes, electrical repair, concrete pouring, retaining wall laying, architecture drawing, sound wiring, lighting wiring, being generous, are all things I have either served in or seen other’s serve in. All require unique skills and some areas, more skill than others. But skills none-the-less. Growth as a servant, not only means growing in the heart of a servant, but also the skill of a servant. Serving by leading is no less different.
Thinking of servants who had a great heart, I recall when Tim Borseth our pastor bought his house on 418 Stanton Ave. (He may not have been a pastor at the time, but he was really close.) I spent, kid you not, eight (8) hours fixing the mistakes (mostly painting ones) of the good intentioned and servant hearted saints who helped fix up the place. They were (not all) a great example of people who had the heart (devotion) of the servant, but no skill. (It was a real mess and a pain to fix and clean up after them. And a full day’s work as well.)
Or when I started to lead Rock Lighting. I spent the first four months, going to others in the church getting advise on some electrical questions, fixture questions and the like. What was I doing? I was growing in my skill set so that I could effectively lead setup for Rock Lighting. That equipment was not going to put itself together no matter how much time I spent reading or praying or worshiping that week. Now, out of my prayers, out of my worship, I humbly sought the skills of the men before me so I could do the job God had given me to do. (But for that period of time, growing in my prayer skill or my understanding of worship, would have no direct bearing on my ability to setup the lights. It drove me to humility to ask for help, but was not the direct cause in of itself.) (And I can’t even begin to estimate the number of hours I have put into research on lighting equipment, setup and other related skills so that I could do my job in leading the Lighting Crew.)
Again, the point, growth in devotion is not the same as growth in skill sets. One will drive the other on, but the first will not imply the former without extra study or extra work. Thus to grow as a leader, requires growth in devotion and growth in skill sets.
Tangential thought. Some are wondering why I put generous a skill set to grow in. Surely that’s more of a heart attitude right? I’m not so sure of that. What is it we teach 2, 3 and 4 year olds when it comes to their toys? Sharing! What is the end result of sharing? Being generous with your stuff. Does that come by just knowing God told us to be generous, or also out of a life where we learned how to do it?
Posted by mtriley at 12:20 PM | Comments (9)
February 07, 2005
Skills
A couple of weeks ago I had a leadership thought bubble to the surface.
To grow in devotion to Christ is to make one qualified to lead. To grow in necessary leadership skills makes one capable of leading. Qualification and capability do not go hand in hand. I think there is some overlap, but by in far, you must be developing both skills simultaneously. And as always, any good church will prefer qualification over capability. But as we are young leaders at the Rock, besure you are growing in both! :)
Posted by mtriley at 11:00 PM | Comments (8)
I'm alive....
Well, I've been gone from the blogging shpere for some time. I thought I should write and say, "Hi". Hi. I'm still alive, just extremely busy during the holidays, traveling to Faithwalkers and now, working on Spring Semester Ministry kick-off among some other projects at the church. I hope to resume the discussion on Government soon..... (Thanks to all who posted comments.)
Posted by mtriley at 10:44 PM | Comments (1)