Leading in Troubled Times

I recently watched a very good webinar offered by Patrick Lencioni.  If you don’t know him, he is a popular consultant for secular businesses to help them create better leadership within their culture.

As a leadership advocate, he co-founded the Amazing Parish organization because he felt that parishes could utilize the tools he uses in secular organizations.

I was fortunate to attend one of his Amazing Parish conferences in Colorado a few years back.  It was inspiring and well done.  It was/is also dependent on pastors (who he greatly respects) to lead the way in creating a healthy culture at their parish.

So anyway, in his webinar the other day, he said parish offices should be “nuclear power plants of prayer.”  Isn’t that great?

Lencioni said if parish staffs could get to a place where they not only begin their meetings with prayer, but have prayer as the go-to throughout the day for everything they do, they have the power to change the culture.

Lest you think Lencioni has a lot of nice platitudes that would not work in your parish, think again.  He’s the real deal.  His method is tried and true.

No more silos (for those of you who are not familiar, a silo culture is where you have different departments—like religious education, music, etc. working separately, without any sense of being part of the larger mission and working interactively).

There is a lot of talk these days in church life about not wanting to go back to “normal” when we are able to return to work.  This is because many people recognize that holding in a “normal” pattern isn’t necessarily what we, as a church, were designed to do.

 On the webinar, Lencioni and his associate interviewed a priest from Texas who described how he got his “leadership team” problem-solving so as to attack their biggest problem—which at the moment was the financial crisis.

Because they worked together as a team, they were able to make good strides in meeting their problem head on.  Lencioni mentioned that no pastor should be “sitting alone in his office trying to figure out what to do.”  The burden really shouldn’t be on the pastor alone.

At the conference I went to, he stressed that pastors should bring together a small team of people that he can fully trust.

And before I go any further, let me just say, he is the biggest promoter of priests and highly respects them.  He is involved in his parish and isn’t someone who is simply an outside commentator.

Here’s his promotion:

“Every pastor needs a leadership team, a special group of people who are collectively committed to helping him make the parish amazing and bring more people to Christ and his Church.” (Amazing Parish)

That’s just one of the first steps. It really works, when it is put into place. 

Can you guess what the number one question was that I heard at the conference?

People wanted to know how to bring their pastor on board.

Amazing Parish lays this all out for churches, and most of the attendees (which did include plenty of parish priests who heard this comment), wanted to know how to motivate their parish leadership.

The lay people were definitely ready and some of the priests as well. There was definitely an understanding of how busy priests are, but I think the success of Amazing Parish reveals they have a good system, if it is put in place. 

I don’t suppose their idea is particularly new when you think about it.  What did Jesus do in his day?  While he didn’t have what we call team/leadership meetings, he did have a small group of people close to him that he led very well.

He taught them what his mission was about.  They understood the importance of multiplying their influence, as they went from town to town.  His close group of twelve expanded exponentially.  Before you knew it, Jesus was addressing thousands of people from his boardroom (the mountaintop!)

Today, as everyone is tightening ship and feeling the separation from their co-workers, this would be the perfect time to take a look at the Amazing Parish method to see if a cultural change is overdue in your church.

As we celebrate the risen Christ, let’s look at how his churches can enjoy their own resurrection in the people who minister and in those they serve.

Be sure to check out the Amazing Parish website here.

Janet Cassidy
janetcassidy.blogspot.com
janetcassidy.blubry.net (podcasts)