The kids are lined up at the school bus stop. They are ready to board the big yellow bus to start fall classes. I know I am a little late talking about the beginning of the “school year” but I confess to questioning why schools don’t wait to start until after Labor Day and end before Memorial Day.
The back-to-school process also signals “Back to Church” and “Back to Sunday School initiatives”. During the summer with interruptions from vacations, mission trips, time away for rest, and lest I forget, family reunions, the routine of life can become scrambled. Now is the time to re-engage in the healthy aspects of life and one of those is to re-engage with the body of Christ – the local church.
We all know we need the experience of weekly worship, encouragement and community reinforcement from being part of a local church. Online worship helps fill the void for those who are unable to attend but fails to engage the community of Christ—the local church. Spending time with the people of God on mission with God is the powerful tool the Lord uses to hammer out character, virtue and faith. The Lord uses the gifts and insights of the saints of God to help us stay true to biblical truth and a healthy walk in ways of God.
To a certain extent, it can be said we need our families and our church family to help us get past ourselves and to “go to school” on things like loving one another, faithfulness, accountability and trustworthiness. When we fail to be part of a group of lifelong learners, we can more easily fail. After all, if we do not engage with others in seeking the Lord, our flesh can quickly do stupid and bring incredible havoc in our daily experience.
Some of us were taught by our parents to make preparations on Saturday for church on Sunday. Lay out your kid’s clothes. Write your tithe check on Saturday night before you go to bed. Do whatever it takes to prepare as if you were going to meet the most important ruler of the earth—the Lord our God.
TurnAround
In the context of making change, a powerful book was released this week by Broadman & Holman. Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary president, Jason Allen’s new book “TurnAround” is a testimony of the revitalization experienced by the seminary. Just two decades ago the institution was in such deep trouble, theologically and financially, there was even talk of closing the doors. Today it is one of the largest and most formidable Christian institutions in North America—the World.
What happened is nothing less than the Lord assembling a team of great, godly leaders to accomplish His purposes. That leadership is personified by Dr. Jason Allen. His book documents the brokenness of the past, clarifies the mission, strategies and core values, and points to the future.
Whether lay or salaried, church leaders need to go “back to school” on the principles and practices necessary for leadership within the context of leading a group of people (a church, a business or a government).
One such principle that Allen superbly articulates is found in Chapter 5, pages 77-92, Cultivate Trustworthiness. Using a page from the life of former Secretary of State, George Shultz who is quoted as saying “trust is the coin of the realm,” Allen states that so many national political leaders have violated trust that people, especially Americans, have minimal trust in their national leaders. At the seminary, the failure of past leadership had birthed a systemic lack of confidence. Morale was low, distrust abounded.
Allen weighs the difference between trustworthiness and loyalty. Who wants to go to battle with a disloyal person? But trustworthiness “prioritizes the character, behavior patterns, discretion, responsibility, thoughtfulness and follow-through that naturally cultivate loyalty in the first place” (page 83).
Trustworthiness is not the mythological “silver bullet” for organizational health, but it is a necessary ingredient. Allen distills in the closing of this extraordinary chapter a list of five essentials:
1. The entity you serve is trust dependent. People need to know they can trust you.
2. The more you expect trustworthiness from the people you lead, the more they expect it from you.
3. A leader is never removed from the ethical standards (values/polices) of an organization. Leaders do not get a pass from the disciplines demanded by the group.
4. Trust is slowly earned and quickly lost.
5. Trust is a continuum; it is strengthened or weakened, gained and lost, ebbs and flows.
“TurnAround” is more than a testimony of one institution. Allen’s writing about the organization he leads is sprinkled with leadership principles for relationships, for churches and church related institutions and for businesses.
Go back to school. Secure a copy of “TurnAround” for yourself. Buy a copy for a friend or mentee as a gift and lean heavy into being an initiator and facilitator that helps your world or organization turn around.