MIM Ezine, May 30, 2008

-- Login Leadership: Open Source Leadership Development: Part III, by Tom Hanover.

-- Book Review: "The Leadership Engine: How Winning Companies Build Leaders at Every Level," by Noel M. Tichy, reviewed by Tom Hanover.

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In the last two columns (April 1 and April 30), Paul and I shared about the concept of Open Source Leadership based on the model of open source programming by the Mozilla Foundation and the Mozilla Corporation. Mozilla is best known for its web browser, Firefox, and its email software, Thunderbird.

The concept of open source is that a leader will propose an idea. For a programmer, it would be a series of code. For a ministry leader, it would be a proposal for a new ministry, leadership development, or plans for a worship service. Then others make their suggestions or changes to the project. In this way, many people make contributions to the final product. Many of the open source programming code is then available for very little or no cost.

Rev. Paul Risler is Senior Pastor at Central Avenue United Methodist Church in Athens, Ohio, where the average attendance has grown from an average of 158 to more than 220 today. During the school year attendance often breaks 300 when Ohio University students are in town.

Paul uses the open source concept for the planning and leading of worship. Worship is critically and strategically important at Central Avenue. Generally, college students have not developed deep roots in the life of congregation. Consequently, they will not return to a worship service that does not address their real life concerns, especially in a creative manner.

Furthermore, the Central Avenue facility offers limited off-street parking and limited seating. Presenting three worship opportunities every weekend is necessary just to accommodate everyone who wants to participate. Therefore, Risler pays close attention to the planning of worship and the preparation for preaching.

However, Risler does not do it on his own. He meets with a group of people on a weekly basis who he calls his “creative team.” He presents his basic theme and ideas for the upcoming worship services and then he sits back and lets the team brainstorm and generate their own impressions from the scriptures.

The net result is worship that is both creative and experiential, involving a variety of spiritual gifts and graces through the efforts of numerous volunteers. Using people from generations different from his own, Risler sees the scripture through their experiences. This approach deepens his understanding of the text as well as widens his pool of examples, metaphors, and illustrations.

Younger generations today prefer to interact in worship that is more experiential and invites active responses. They seek worship that appeals more to multiple senses than just through the spoken word. Thus, worship at Central Avenue uses more than just audio and video resources. Frequently, they are using additional symbols that are available for people to touch and feel. Invitations for response to the worship experience offer opportunities to physically engage in prayer, meditation, or conversation.

Since these concepts are natural to many younger people, Risler taps their creativity by inviting them to help plan the worship experience.

Risler notes that three changes need to take place in leaders who attempt this style of worship planning.

One, ministry leaders need to have a very secure ego. Often, they share their ideas of the text and the theme only to discover that some of their team members argue with them about the direction and interpretation of the scriptures. By sitting back and allowing this tension to develop, significant creativity emerges as the team bats ideas back and forth.

Sometimes the leaders’ ego takes a beating as the group discards his or her ideas to pursue other possibilities. But without reservation, Risler notes their ideas and plans are far superior to what he could do by himself.

Two, Riser is still responsible for connecting the themes of worship and preaching to the mission and vision of the church. It is not only the current vision emphasis that matters, but also the balance of all the worship and preaching for the coming year. So, Risler is balancing the various directions with an awareness of worship and preaching that will come.

He does not regularly preach from the lectionary, so he is balancing the mission and vision of the congregation with the themes of the series he is proposing. These themes emerge from his involvement in the community, the communications of his key leaders, and the interaction with the creative team.

Thirdly, Risler needs to spend as much time developing the people who create worship as he does developing a sermon. Using the experiences and creative gifts of a team of people as one of his key resources, he invests in this team by cultivating a process of sharing that values each of their gifts. He spends time with each of the team members to create high levels of trust. He shapes an environment where each team member can risk zany ideas safely.

This open source process is not a short cut to doing the hard work of writing sermons. Risler still researches and studies each text, and provides these resources to his creative team.

Once the creative team has created the elements of worship which often include music, video clips, drama, visual aids, and even creative seating arrangements; Risler still needs to compose the message. Because he values a quality of substance and thorough preparation, he writes out a manuscript for the sermon. However, he often finds he has far more material to work with as opposed to creating the message on his own.

Risler notes it would be wonderful to have a paid staff working on this creative team, but his team is comprised of only volunteers. They donate their time and gifts to this important work because it is their answer to God’s call to ministry.

Teams like this are not born over night. They require weeks and weeks of nurture and practice. But Risler notes that the return on his investment in his team has produced exciting, stimulating worship experiences where the congregation encounters God’s presence and they sense a call to the ministry as a disciple.

Tom Hanover is Advertising and Promo Director of MIM ezine. He has served in a variety of pastoral leadership roles for more than 30 years, the last seven as a District Superintendent supervising the ministries of more than 100 pastors and churches in southern Ohio. He has a BA (cum laude) from Taylor University, and the MDIV and DMIN degrees from United Theological Seminary in Dayton. You can contact Tom at hanover@dbmim.net.

DreamBuilders Ministry in Motion is looking for reliable volunteers for several positions.

After I was home for a few months, I happened to be at our Conference office for a meeting when I was brought into the Conference Director’s office. He began asking me some unique questions about my background. Much of the conversation did not make sense to me. What did a radio/television degree have to do with anything about Russia? The direction of the conversation caught me off guard. The Director asked if I would be interested in going back to Smolensk by myself to teach American Communications in the schools there.

Well… at least that was the reason for my Visa. The real reason I was being asked to go was to see if there were enough people in the group we had been working with to discuss birthing a church.

Things moved like lightning. Five months later I found myself in Smolensk staying in a friend’s flat. I did two to three lectures a day while interviewing, writing, and observing many of the people we had been working with. The purpose was to see if we had a strong enough group to form a church.

It was a wonderful three weeks. What was even more amazing was a second trip to Yuri’s studio. He asked me where I had hung the first plate he had given me. Was there room for a second one to be hung next to it? I laughed and told him I could always make room. That’s when I learned that he’d created a part 2 to my plate after learning I was returning to Russia.

This plate was very different from the first with vibrant colors. It was work of joy. Yuri told me how much of an impact the Peace Camp was to him. This new plate expressed what God had been doing in him. The face on the plate with gears represented himself. It illustrated how God had created a new person within him and old parts were being removed. The illustration also showed a dove flying away--Yuri’s spirit finally freed by the changes in his life from knowing Jesus’ love.

Though it has been a number of years since I have been to Smolensk, it remains in my heart. As a United Methodist, I sometimes get annoyed at apportionments we pay as an individual church. It is similar with all denominational churches. What helps me is knowing that this is one way that enables us to share the gospel in a much bigger way than simply through our local church. It makes the impossible possible in many areas of the world.

My heart breaks knowing that both the local government of Smolensk and the orthodox bishop worked so hard to close this church down. I also know that closing a building does not close down “the church.” Still, it is a bitter disappointment for many involved there.

I hope you will join with me in keeping the congregation of The United Methodist Church in Smolensk in your prayers. In America, we can never understand the kind of persecution they experience. However, I also know God has worked through them before and will continue to work through them in spite of the legalities.

R. Scott Miller is the Director of Christian Education and Youth at Milford First United Methodist Church in the suburbs of Cincinnati, OH. In his 17 years of youth ministry, Scott has written and developed much of the youth programming used in his churches. Scott has a B.A. in Radio/TV and Journalism from Morehead State University and an M.A. from Asbury Theological Seminary. Scott is the author of7 Things Christians Don't Do and What To Do Instead by Abingdon Press.

My leadership coach recommended I read this book for a topic we were working on together. It has been out for a few years and it is written strictly for a business leader audience.

However, I discovered a couple of pieces that fit ministry leadership quite nicely. So, if the reader is captured by Tichy’s thoughts, the book is readily available at your favorite store.

Noel Tichy is a professor at the University of Michigan Business School, director of the school’s Global Leadership Partnership, and former head of GE’s Crotonville Leadership Development Center. He has just released his newest book, The Cycle of Leadership.

Why do some companies consistently win in the marketplace while others struggle from crisis to crisis? While his examples are from the business world, his ideas apply to ministries, too. Why do some churches or ministries seem to flourish while others struggle from crisis to crisis?

Tichy believes effective leaders consistently present a teachable point of view. This point of view becomes the lense through which they see the opportunities and challenges of each moment. Most of us have this lense, but effective leaders are aware and annoyingly consistent in using this point of view.

This consistency can be learned by others who then begin to understand and anticipate the vision and responses of the leader. Effective leaders will teach this point of view so that others will see what they see.

Tichy believes six characteristics come together in winning leaders: teaching and learning, ideas and values, energy and edge. All of this ties together into what Tichy believes is the ultimate hallmark of world-class champion leaders: the ability to weave all those elements into vibrant stories that inspire their organizations.

Ministry leaders often have many opportunities to speak to groups. Some preach every week. Others are leading their teams in worship or devotions. There are usually meetings of some fashion or another. These are fantastic opportunities to share stories of that teachable point of view. Some of these stories come out of the pages of scripture. Some will come out of the leader’s personal experience.

Stories not only convey information. They have a way of capturing the heart and inspiring the spirit. Leaders who intentionally choose stories with the purpose of forming and re-forming their teams around their mission will experience a remarkable spiritual synergy.

Tichy includes many stories from his consulting experience. The book is an easy read, but will require some translation from business to ministry leadership.

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DBMIM- May 30, 2008