Peter Koestenbaum in  Leadership: the inner side of Greatness, a philosophy for leaders, challenges leaders to achieve greatness in their enterprises. Greatness, as he defines it, is “the commitment to relinquish mediocrity forever. It is chosen as a way of life because it is right, because it ennobles the human spirit, because it honors the fact that we are alive, and because it is our meaning for being on this earth. Greatness is the struggle against mediocrity. It is the upgrading from good to excellent. It is the struggle against nihilism – which is the unwillingness to confront the painful mystery of death. Death makes one honest. It gives one the sense of time. Death is the source of anxiety and the motivation for seeking depth. It is to live out the belief that perfection matters, that excellence – as in sports and the arts – is worth pursuing for its own sake.

Greatness also means appreciating the mystery of being, the miracle of creation, the inexplicable truth that the world exists, and the wonder that consciousness and perception exist. Greatness is having a sense of the aesthetic and a feeling for the religious. Greatness is appreciating the value of art and the religious sensibilities of humankind.

There are resistances to greatness. There is dependency – the unwillingness to take personal responsibility. Children are taken care of; adults take care of themselves. Some people, regrettably, act out the system’s resistance to change. They ignore the anxiety and fear induced by change. Change leads to uncertainty, to insecurity. We feel out of touch, and it hurts. Resistance to vision is blindness. Resistance to reality is denial.

The opposite to greatness is depression. Greatness is the decision to live, to say yes to the Spirit of God, to choose to be constructive. Depression is to want to die, to be destructive, to obstruct progress – for the depressed person is not only sad but chooses not to be helped.”

My vision for my own life as one of the leaders of the Chapel, and for the Chapel, is to work to achieve greatness. On my desk is a framed photo of a boardwalk leading to the beach and the horizon with these words underneath it: “VISION: A Leader’s Job Is To Look Into The Future, And To See The Organization Not As It Is….But As It Can Become.”

What can we become? What has God in store for us? He has already blessed us in so many ways, and enabled us to be a blessing to others. Let us take these words to heart: “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12-14)

Vision, according to Peter Koestenbaum, means “thinking big, maintaining perspective, being relentlessly alert and clear. Vision is valuing intellectual brilliance. Vision means thinking for yourself, maintaining a clear image of your distant goals – in short, being not only reactive but resolutely proactive. It means having a sense of legacy and destiny and at all times, keeping that sense in view. Visioning means to think big and new…. A visionary leader sees the larger perspective.”

I need a vision for the next five years of my life. I need a vision for my work at the Chapel, and for my life as a whole. In one sense I could continue doing what I have been doing and be very productive. But what if I need to change my priorities and concentrate on something differently? What does the Chapel need to become? What is my vision for the ministries of the Chapel? What is my vision for my marriage and family life? What is my vision for my intellectual life?

Obviously these are important enough for me to make them a subject of my prayers. I should be asking what does God want me to do? What is his vision for my life? What is his vision for the Chapel?

This could be an exciting time of discovery for myself. It should also be an exciting time for our Chapel Long Range Planning Committee which is engaged in this sort of thinking. I wonder what the outcome will be. Please pray for us as we wrestle with these questions.

I came across Peter Koestenbaum in an interview in the business magazine FAST COMPANY in 2000. He is a philosopher who helps business leaders to be successful human beings. He was a professor in the Philosophy Department at San Jose State University for thirty-four years and has consulted with many large international companies. I have benefited from several of his books, and recently started reading the new and revised edition of Leadership: the inner side of Greatness, a philosophy for leaders.

In the Preface he writes that “A leader must wrestle with inward issues. He or she is expected to have great aspirations, confront great frustrations, achieve great self-control, suffer great betrayals, and manifest great compassion. Addressing the personal side of leadership also requires attention to vision and to scope, for the leader’s mind must be all-encompassing. The executive is challenged always to keep his or her inner eye on the larger picture and to find ways of reacting quickly. The personal side of leadership requires attention to such varied virtues as resourcefulness and trust, confidence and strength. It means learning the uses of power and developing a flexible imagination. The personal side of leadership challenges you to give meaning to your life through the quality of your work – how you manage your career or job, and how you invest your time and energy. The personal side of leadership also recognizes that deep thoughts and clever ideas are not enough. Executives must remind themselves that they are measured by cold effectiveness and hard results, for leadership is tied to survival.”

In his chapter on the Nine Keys to Business Wisdom, and remember that all enterprises are businesses, whether they are families, churches, charities, missions, ministries, or other non-profits, as well as for-profit businesses, Koestenbaum addresses the frustrations of leadership. “Leaders can be targets of severe hostility – not that it is never deserved; sometimes it is. Nevertheless the anger of others is difficult to bear….Specifically, leading requires ownership of the meaning of personal responsibility and accountability. It means fully internalizing the human truth that, in your world, nothing happens unless you make it happen….Leadership requires teamwork….Specifically, a leader is a person who is truly effective in achieving worthy results in any field, not matter what the obstacles and with unfailing regard for human beings. A leader is a person of unimpeachable character, an individual thoroughly to be trusted. Leaders are open-minded – good listeners, flexible, secure in the knowledge that they alone do not have all the answers….Leaders lead by teaching, that is, empowering, and what they teach is how to attain a different, uncommon, but highly specific form of intelligence…you must model leadership.”

I am beginning a series of messages on Second Timothy, which is all about leadership. St. Paul is modeling leadership to Timothy and teaching him the requirements of leadership in the church. I learned leadership from my first boss, colleague, mentor, and later friend, John Stott, who will be 89 years of age on April 27. Every year since I served with him at All Souls, Langham Place, London, England, I have drawn on his example and his writing to hone my leadership skills. A new biography on him has just been published entitled, Basic Christian, by Roger Steer. I was interviewed for part of it and paid tribute to what John Stott taught me about the craft of pastoral ministry, and of being personally accountable. If you have not read any books by John Stott I recommend them all. His commentary on Second Timothy, Guard the Gospel, is invaluable.

The last week or so I have been under the weather with a common cold. Not having the energy for much activity I used the time to read as much as possible. In that way I could rest up and give my body time to heal, while at the same time taking in some mental nourishment.

My first book was The Imperfect Leader by Davis H. Taylor. Several notable quotes struck me, especially since our Chapel leadership is forming a new Long Range Planning Committee to look at our need for renewed Vision and Mission statements.

Vision is looking beyond the current reality and painting a picture of the preferred future, clearly bridging the gap between what is and what could or should be.

Compelling visions usually arise from the collective passions of leaders and followers at all levels of the organization – passions that cause people to dream about and strive for what could be.

The leader is the cheerleader for the vision. She or he repeatedly paints the picture for a preferred future and demonstrates the courage required to step into the unknown, taking necessary risks as catalysts for action. The pursuit of a preferred future is seldom easy and is often risky. Safe and easy are bywords of the status quo – they are attitudes that almost guarantee things will remain the same….corporate culture is the primary determinant of what can be achieved. Therefore, leaders must understand the realities of their current cultural environment and proactively influence that culture to greater effectiveness.

Since this places a great deal of responsibility upon leadership, whether it be the Pastor or the Board, there is the temptation to resist change because it may reveal our weaknesses and shortcomings. This advice helped me in that:

He helped me to understand the necessity of accepting my limitations, staffing to my weaknesses and focusing on my strengths. I learned to appreciate the fact that people don’t want to follow me because I am perfect, but because I am genuine enough and authentic enough to admit that I am not perfect. That’s how trust grows… and when trust grows among team members and employees, there’s virtually no end to what can be accomplished.

Just because I can’t do something that is needed to be done, doesn’t mean it cannot be done in other ways. Part of our process will be looking at what needs to be done and to find ways of doing them. This may mean adding new staff members or reconfiguring our present staff and Board responsibilities.

I liked what Taylor said about the leader’s role:

Not to impose his or her will on others or on the organization,

But instead……

1.      To act as steward of the organization’s mission, vision, values, and resources.

2.      To creatively use his/her influence to motivate, energize, and facilitate growth in his/her followers.

There are a lot of other good things in this short book. It certainly stimulated me in my desire to provide leadership as it is needed.

I love to follow the Blog of Tullian Tchividjian, who is Pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale (www.crpc.org/blog/) . Recently he had to deal with criticism from some members of his congregation, who did not like his style. His response, in this extract from his blog, is one of the best I have read. I would echo it from my own experience..

As many of you know, my family and I were recently faced with the painful challenge of how to handle public criticism. It forced me to carefully think through how the gospel should inform and shape our response to public, personal attack.

Well, the other day I found great help (and healing) from Carl Trueman’s thoughts on how Christian’s should respond if they are criticized or defamed (specifically on the web). His gospel-drenched insights are right on the money:

The answer is simple: for myself, I do not believe that it is appropriate that I spend my time defending my name. My name is nothing—who really cares about it? And I am not called to waste precious hours and energy in fighting off every person with a laptop who wants to have a pop at me. As a Christian, I am not meant to engage in self-justification any more than self-promotion; I am called rather to defend the name of Christ; and, to be honest, I have yet to see a criticism of me, true or untrue, to which I could justifiably respond on the grounds that it was Christ’s honour, and not simply my ego, which was being damaged. I am called to spend my time in being a husband, a father, a minister in my denomination, a member of my church, a good friend to those around me, and a conscientious employee. These things, these people, these locations and contexts, are to shape my priorities and my allocation of time. Hitting back in anger at those who, justly or unjustly, do not like me and for some reason think the world needs to know what they think of me is no part of my God-given vocation. God will look after my reputation if needs be; He has given me other work to do.

About 70 people attended a meeting in the sanctuary on October 11^th to discuss the addition of a new worship opportunity at 11.15 a.m. beginning in January. I presented the purpose of the new service: “To provide a vital worship experience for seekers/believers of all ages from diverse cultures, who enjoy a wide variety of music, that will lead them into a deeper relationship with the Father, through Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit.”

            Dr. Jim Hart presented the theological and historical rationale for a possible format, and discussion followed. Members requested a participatory rather than performance oriented service, with provision for children. There seemed to be a desire for a weekly celebration of Holy Communion. Dr. Hart presented some songs, hymn and psalms for us to sample. Afterwards one member said that she was moved to tears by the music touching her heart.

            The following format is likely to be followed: 1. the Ministry of Praise, with songs and prayer (20 minutes); 2. the Ministry of the Word, with scripture reading, children’s talk (after which they would leave for their own lesson) and sermon (20 minutes); the Ministry of the Sacrament, with Holy Communion and healing prayer (20 minutes).

            Suggestion for the right name for the worship time were solicited, e.g. Family Celebration.

            The 9.15 a.m. worship will not be affected by this addition. We will continue to have the same quality of choral music as we have enjoyed in the past. The 11.15 a.m. worship will provide an alternative for those who need a later time on Sunday.

Brian Till of Creators Syndicate, in an op-ed piece in the Florida Times-Union tries to shed a little light on what reaches through the generational divide, to speak to us, i.e. the youth of today, called Generation Y. He has two answers: be clever and adapt.

 He claims that the ways to speak to the young and the listless are comically, visually, ironically and lyrically. “Give us something real and insightful, something that’s humorous and memorable.”

 This changing demographic will reject commercials and sales pitches for any product, including sermons, unless they are new and brought to them in a creative manner.

 “Barack Obama broke through the wall of monotony – he wasn’t an old white man with grey hair that spoke like a grandfather. He effortlessly hit threes in dress shoes, spoke with the cadence of a king and showed us a family that made us all a bit jealous. We’re a generation with very little tolerance for violence, crime and disorder of any kind. We adore structure and ease; we’re in search of compromise and commonality and most importantly, ideas and politicians and law that make things work more efficiently.”

 “So you want to reach this generation? Two steps: First, make us laugh; then make our lives easy. Google, Macintosh, Obama – all three have succeeded with us, and all three make things simple – whether using our email, taking our music on the run or volunteering at a phone bank…..sorry, seniors, it’s time to adapt.”

 This is a wake up call for any of us seniors who resist change, and won’t experiment with new methods of communication. The reign of the ‘old white men with grey hair’ is over. The Sotomayer Senate Judiciary Committee hearings demonstrate that clearly. For career women and qualified minorities their time has come. And rightly so.

 Having said that, it is also necessary to be concerned about the arrogance of youth. The intolerance of youth for suffering, their adoration of structure and ease, their tendency to compromise when it gets difficult in order to avoid discomfort, speaks volumes about their failure to think things through and to weigh up the consequences of such listlessness. Life is not that easy or simple. We can be hoodwinked by attractive politicians and media stars who talk well but who don’t deliver with integrity. The impression given is that Generation Y is spoilt rotten by the affluent society in which they have been raised. They know how to text message, but do they know how to love deeply and honorably, by persevering through hardship, and by overcoming difficulties? I know many who do. There are lots of great Generation Yers like my children and their children who are keeping the faith and working hard at their jobs and their relationships.

 Jesus said, “He who stands firm to the end will be saved.” Matthew 10:22; 24:13 Perhaps Generation Y needs to be challenged with the call to service that will cost them something. Nathaniel Flick in his memoir of the war in Iraq, One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer, writes that he was drawn to the infantry “where courage still counts. Being a Marine was not about money for graduate school or learning a skill; it s was a rite of passage in a society becoming so soft and homogenized that the very concept was often sneered at.”

 If we can communicate the cost of commitment and courage that is necessary in order to follow Jesus we will be truly counter-cultural. Perhaps we need to adapt to Jesus and the realities of life.

Ted Schroder

What are our core values?  Those that deeply motivate me at the Chapel are:

 Intellectual Integrity.

• - Demonstrated by dealing with faith problems honestly and openly, and not sweeping them under the rug or denying their reality.
• - Providing a reliable response to the challenges of skepticism and unbelief.
• - Arguing the case for an intelligent and informed faith in Christ and the Biblical message.

Emotional Intelligence.

• Recognizing the need to grow into emotional maturity.
• Dealing with problems of addiction, anxiety, depression, fear, and anger as they arise.
• Identifying the underlying causes of problems in traumatic events, abuse and neglect.

Future Oriented.

• Identifying how and where progress can be made in our personal lives.
• Embracing the hope of the Gospel and the gift of eternal life.
• Seeing life as growth and opportunity.

 Outwardly Focused.

• Looking beyond our own problems to the needs of others.
• Seeking to grow in love and concern for others.
• Being generous in our support of ministries to those in need.

 God Glorifying

• Seeking first God’s kingdom in worship and service.
• Entering into worship in Spirit and in Truth.
• Acknowledging the sovereignty and worth of God, and our complete dependence.

  What is my strategy for fulfilling the mission of the Chapel? 

  If the mission of the Chapel is:To worship God in Christ in Spirit and Truth, and to love our neighbor as ourselves then there are five areas in which I will seek to fulfill the mission.

1. Worship God in Christ: come to experience the worth of the Gospel.
2. In Spirit: come to experience the indwelling of the Spirit.
3. In Truth: come to experience the whole counsel of God and Scriptures.
4. To love our neighbor: come to experience the needs of others and seek to meet them.
5. As ourselves: come to expericence our own needs to grow in Christ.

 What is our definition of spiritual maturity, our measure of success? What should a follower of Christ look like? How do we measure discipleship and our mission?

1. We know that we are experiencing the worth of the Gospel when we are enjoying a vibrant worship and prayer life in the grace of God.
2. We know that we are experiencing the indwelling of the Spirit when we are exercising the gifts and the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
3. We know that we are experiencing the whole counsel of God when we are daily studying the Scriptures for ourselves, and appreciating opportunities for further insight through classes and sermons.
4. We know that we are experiencing the needs of others and seeking to meet them when we see our giving, serving and relationships with others as priorities in our lives.
5. We know that we are experiencing our own needs when we are committing ourselves to follow Christ in every part of our lives, through the use of such strengths and skills as we have, and denying our self-centeredness.

How do you measure your spiritual maturity by these?

  What is the most important need at this time in the life of the Chapel?

It is to become Sowers of the Word to produce a fruitful crop for the Kingdom of God. It is to reproduce ourselves, to provide for the next generation of faithful followers of Jesus at the Chapel. If we don’t, then our community of faith will decrease over the next few years due to normal attrition due to death and departures.

Jesus said: “I will make you fishers of men.” (Mark 1:17) We are called to catch followers for the kingdom of God. Before he left his disciples Jesus said, “As the Father sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.’” (John 20:21-23) He commissioned us to continue his mission of proclaiming the Gospel of forgiveness. If we don’t then those who need it will be deprived of it. He gives us the power of his Spirit to do the job.

By fulfilling this mission we will:

1. Secure our legacy of faith for the next generation of believers.
2. We will make sure that the Chapel will continue in a healthy way and not face decline and extinction.
3. We will provide for spiritual regeneration, hope and renewal in our community which needs the Gospel to combat selfishness and despair.

 The question that faces each one of us is what are we doing to meet this need? Who have we shared our faith and fellowship at the Chapel with in the past year or so? What sowing are we doing? If we were held accountable by God for our witness, what would his verdict be on us? What do we have in our faith and fellowship that we hold dear, that we need to share with others? Let us not be selfish with God’s gifts, but scatter them abroad as the Sower does with the seed.

Ted Schroder

I have been reflecting on how I would express the mission of the Chapel. We know what the generic mission of every church is. I was raised on the Articles of Religion written by Thomas Cranmer at the time of the English Reformation in the sixteenth century. The 19^th Article, “Of the Church” describes what the Church is supposed to be: “The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments duly administered according to God’s ordinance.” However this statement doesn’t give you a sense of what makes up the Church’s life. Every organization today has a mission statement to give it direction. If you go into a hospital you will likely find its mission statement posted in prominent places such as the elevators.

 It is helpful to ask the questions, Why do we exist? What is our purpose? If we exist to glorify God and make disciples then we will be outwardly focused to God and others. There is a tendency in many churches for the focus to be turned inwardly – ‘the church is there to meet my needs.’ It may, and should meet our needs, but as a by-product of worship and service. We are here for God and others. Jesus commissioned the disciples to go into all the world and make disciples of all people. He criticized the religious establishment of his day for caring for their own prerogatives rather than producing the fruit of blessing others with the light of God’s Word.

 Mission statements tend to be too wordy. As I look at the mission statement of the Chapel, which I wrote nine years ago, after becoming the pastor, I think I tried to include too much. I doubt whether any of us could quote it, or remember it, despite it being on the front page of the Sunday Bulletin every week. Here it is:

 “We belong to a diverse congregation, united by our faith in Jesus Christ, committed to worship the living God, and to study the Word; so that we may witness and serve in our community.”

 This describes us, what we do, but doesn’t give us much direction. It is too long if it is twenty words or more. It is too generic. How would it look if I tightened it up and made it more purposeful? Here is an example:

 “We exist to worship God in Christ in Spirit and Truth through loving our neighbor as ourselves.”

 Perhaps you might have a suggestion as to what our mission statement ought to be. Remember, twenty words or less!

 Another exercise we need to do is to clarify our motives or our core values. What makes us unique? Why is the Chapel special? What is God doing through us? What are our strengths? We can’t be everything, but God can make us something important. What deeply motivates us? Speaking for myself, I wrote down five values that motivate me, and I see in those around me in the Chapel.

1.  Intellectual Integrity

2.  Emotional Authenticity

3.  Future Orientation

4.  Reality Grounded

5.  Outwardly Focused

 What do these values really mean? How do they make a difference? I will address these questions in future blogs.

 Ted Schroder

The loyalty of so many church people, where there is no vision, often gets placed upon the buildings, the personality of a beloved pastor or other staff member, particular programs in which they have invested, or an ingrown fellowship where they are known and respected. The church may be declining but as long as one of those substitutes for vision exist, it will continue.

 Will Mancini, in his book CHURCH UNIQUE, cites Jim Collins in his classic book, BUILT TO LAST. He said that enduring organizations have two dominant characteristics that are complementary opposites. The first is a strong conviction about core ideals that never changes: there are purpose and values. The second is a clear understanding that everything must change in order to preserve the core. Collins describes this as ‘a relentless drive to stimulate progress.’

 If you take a hundred-year time frame, for example, organizations would not exist if they did not stimulate progress by changing methods, processes, structures, leadership and technology. The fascinating observation is that by discerning the core ideology and distinguishing it from what is noncore, a leader can free people to embrace change by connecting their identity to the core ideology. This allows people to feel important despite the fact that the methods or technology or structure may be changing. In other words, if people are nourished by unchanging vision, they are more agreeable when the rules change with the tactics. Collins says it takes clarity and discipline to understand which things in the organization belong to what category.

The leader should help people embrace change by nurturing an emotional connection to the unchanging core vision. The leader should then preserve and champion the core vision by showing people how to constantly adapt. Make no mistake: our change management problems today are vision problems first and people problems second.

 What is our core vision? That is the important question. After a congregation has been in place for a while the vision gets blurred. Recently, I had cataract surgery. I was finding it hard to read. The print was getting fuzzy. After the surgery clarity was restored. My vision is now like High Definition television. Everything is clearer and brighter. The role of the leader is to clarify what is already there and help people perceive what has gone unnoticed.

 What is clarity really about? Will Mancini writes that it means being free from anything that obscures, blocks, pollutes, or darkens. Being clear as a leader means being simple, understandable, and exact. The leader helps others see and understand reality better. Leaders constantly bring the most important things to light: current reality and future possibility, what God says about it and what we need to do about it. Are we clear about the mission of Jesus in the world?

 Mancini writes, What is God uniquely doing? What is our mission? The passion for mission can more easily be spread when it is clearly understood by all. Clarity makes success definable. Henry Ford said that the great weakness of all human beings is trying to do too many things at once. What matters most? What good thing do we need to say no to so that we can do the best? Many opportunities are really distractions in disguise. There are lots of things we can do for God, but we must do the one thing God is calling us to do.

Ted Schroder