Do you know anyone operating at this level of leadership?

“Bruna Martinuzzi, author of Become the Kind of Person Others Want to Follow, compiled a list of ten ways to achieve this level of leadership.

1. Always act with honesty.
2. Treat people who have wronged you with civility.
3. Fulfill your unkept promises from the past.
4. Help someone who can be of absolutely no use to you.
5. Suspend blame when something goes wrong and ask, “What can we learn?”
6. Hire people who are as smart as or smarter than you and give them opportunities for growth.
7. Don’t interrupt people; don’t dismiss their concerns offhand; don’t rush to give advice; don’t change the subject. Allow people their moment.
8. Do no harm in anything you undertake.
9. Don’t be too quick to shoot down others’ ideas.
10. Share your knowledge, expertise, and best practices with others.”

Excerpt From: Kawasaki, Guy. “Enchantment.”

A Confession of Arrogance

It’s January 5, 2014.  I haven’t written anything on this page for a long time.  This isn’t the beginning of a New Year’s Resolution.  I am not going to fill this article with excuses of why I haven’t written.  I want to make a confession, a confession that I have needed to make for sometime.  I started a series of articles called, “10 Stupid Things Churches Do”.  I thought it would be fun.  I even asked readers to shoot me a few ideas.  Many did.  Actually, nine did.  However, I don’t know how many actual readers there are so it might be that “all of my readers responded.”

After writing about the first stupid thing – I hated the idea.  I thought the idea was arrogant and rude.  It was probably passive aggressive.  You know, I had a bad meeting with a church and on my way home, after being so nice and gentle, I thought to myself, “I will write an article and let every church know that I am smart and they are stupid.”  I told you it’s a confession.

I confess my arrogance.  I don’t know too many churches that do stupid things on purpose.  I confess my arrogance.  I do not know what is right and what is wrong in every situation.  I know that there are many things that work well and lots of things that don’t. I know this because I tried a lot of stupid things.  What I know was taught to me by people who gave me a chance to lead them.  They trusted me with a sacred trust.  I have read more books on church leadership and church health than most people but I have retained very little. 

I don’t want to be an arrogant leader.  I don’t want to be a leader that knows exactly what to do in every situation.  I don’t want people to look at me when I walk into a room and think to themselves, “all is well, Eric is here.”

I want to be a leader that gets up every morning and with a good cup of coffee spends time in the Word of God, a leader that listens to God more than talks to God, a leader that points people to Jesus more than to a best selling book or the latest research. 

I want to be a leader, no, a servant, that talks about integrity, holiness, humility, trusting, loving, forgiveness, acceptance, unity, and Jesus. 

So – that’s why I haven’t posted anything lately.  I have been embarrassed by my Stupid Articles.  I have tried to think of a way to start again.  So today, on this snow day in 2014, after all my assignments at churches were cancelled, after praying and worshiping throughout the day, after watching four hours of Law & Order, after ordering a movie, after working on my final project in my MBA, I finally decided to say it.

I am sorry for my last articles on “Stupid Things Churches Do.”  I will not delete them.  I need them to serve as a reminder of what I don’t want to be like.