Learning Leadership (Tyler)

Learning through mistakes is just a natural process of learning. I don't believe any great idea was created from perfection. Great ideas were created through imperfection as perfection was desired and sought after. It is the same with leadership. As we "shoot for the stars", we will realize that the stars are so much farther than we originally thought. And so, we will fail. We won't "launch" as far as we originally thought. We will crash and burn. But, if our desire and our will to grow is strong enough, those failures will not stop us. They will encourage us to continue to relaunch and relaunch until eventually we break through the atmosphere and find ourselves amongst greatness. The same principle applies to seeing others fail. You wouldn't attempt to fly the same way that others have flown if you know that way would fail, would you? No! Of course not. You would be grateful for their mistakes and learn from them as they have. You should expect others to do the same to you. It is not taking advantage of your mistakes, but instead, growing from them and helping others. Failures and mistakes are mutually beneficial. Through a series of failures and mistakes, one begins to form what it truly means to be a leader.

Formal Leadership Theory (Tyler)

Leadership Substitutes Theory

The leadership substitute theory could do really well at Davis Wesleyan Church. The environment of that church is set up perfectly for a leadership substitute. In fact, the way the church is designed, the leadership substitute theory would actually be the only way the church could be ran efficiently. Aaron is the only "leader" in the church and while it is a small church, it remains a difficult task to attempt to organize and arrange everything for the church by himself. Luckily there seems to be a leadership substitute concept that is integrated into the church in order to relieve some of the pressure on Aaron. There are many people in the church that simply accomplish so many tasks because they have the natural ability to lead. This ability is so necessary for the survival of the church. If it wasn't for the leadership in the congregation, there would be so many things that would fall through the cracks. Something that I believe that Davis Wesleyan Church could do better is to specifically assign people to certain tasks. There are so many leaders that are willing and able to accomplish different things for the church, but they have not been asked or told how or what to do. If the leadership at Davis could simply instruct some people and guide them in some of their tasks, then there would be so much more completed. The amount of drive and willingness that I see in the community at Davis is astounding. They love their church. They love their pastor. There is so much willingness to serve and lead. I couldn't think of a more perfect environment to implement a leadership substitute theory. It would flourish. It just needs to be implemented in a careful and efficient fashion.

Week 12 (Michael Berens)

Week 12 (Michael Berens)
Tuesday 6, 2009
Formal Leadership Theory

360 Degree Leadership
Bill Hybels 360 is a leadership theory that describes how leadership is all around you. It says that you are always under a leader, over a leader, and next to a leader. It is not leadership that is only focused on the people “below” the leader, but also in other directions. The 360 Degree Leader is anyone who desires to lead those around them in any direction. Co-Workers can lead each other. Subordinates can lead their supervisors. Supervisors can lead those that are “above”, “below”, and “across” them. What matters is that you are a leader.

This theory is easily applied to Exit 59. At Exit 59 the leadership of the church is in the laypeople. There are pastors that are hired. They are bi vocational pastors though, so the amount of work that needs to be done is large and vast. The different chores around the church alone would take up someone’s whole week. The children’s ministry could not be done unless there were numerous volunteers. Even cleaning the church needs volunteers. Exit 59 also wants lay people to dream up their own ministry and run them. We want to empower not hand hold. Since there are so many things running at the same time, leadership is distributed among many people. It is a 360 degree leadership naturally. If you come into the church to volunteer or work, there is good chance that you will lead others, be lead by a pastor and lead alongside a team all at the same time. That is the point of Exit 59. It is about empowering lay people so that they will go out into other churches and serve them well as leaders, co leaders, and sub- leaders.

Week 11 (Maxwell's book) Michael

Michael Berens
Week 11
04/02/09

Maxwell Book

From the book: 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

The Rule:
The Law of Process, which is the idea that leadership develops daily, not in a day.

Exposition:
This rule states that a leader will develop over time, not in an instant. Though it may seem like a leader understands a new concept in leadership, they may not know not how to apply it. It takes time to realize the full extent of being a leader. When it comes to communication skills with people, it takes a long time until a leader understands the different people types and how they need to be communicated to. Some may need facts to understand a lesson. Others may need abstract stories and analogies to understand a lesson. A leader realizes this and develops a holistic understanding of the people they are leading. It is known that even communication takes time to learn and grasp.

Maxwell Book (Tyler)

360 Degree Leader

There are many principles listed in John Maxwell's 360 Degree Leader. One of those principles is called the "lead across" principle. Essentially this principle represents the idea that one must lead others on the same level as them.

Exposition: Leading across is something that many people and churches avoid because it involves “mentoring” or giving your peers advice. People don't usually like to hear advice from someone who is on the same “level” as they are. It seems condescending and as if you are receiving advice from someone who isn't at a place to give advice. Even if this isn't the case, there are still hesitations among people. But, it is important to not only teach those who are considered our peers, but also to be willing to be taught by our peers. There are people who have experienced things that we could never experience before and they are willing and able to teach us. We need to be able to both learn to lead and learn to learn across our “levels”. By allowing others to teach and lead us, we are able to grow more as leaders in the church.

Mistakes Ministers Make (Tyler)

I interviewed Lauren R. a church member of Davis Wesleyan Church on Sunday, March 29th. about some of the mistakes a new staffer could make on their first job. Here is what she said:

1) Have a Prideful Mindset - If you come into a pastoral position with the mindset of "I am doing the congregation a favor", you will fail. Put yourself at the same level as the congregation.

2) Be Shy - On the flip-side, if you are scared of the congregation, they will not get to know you and trust you. It is a catch-22. You are scared of the congregation and they are scared of you.

3) Make Drastic Changes - If you have a change mindset, great. But don't go making changes that are going to scare people. Slowly ease people into the ideas that you want to bring. It is a slow, but progressive process.

Week 11 (Mistakes Ministers Make) Michael Berens

Week 11
Michael Berens
March 31st 2009

Mistakes Ministers Make

I interviewed Nancy Campbell (Darren was also there)
March 11th,2009

1. Don't assume More Authority than you have
New Pastors come into the game biting off more than they can chew and getting themselves stuck

2.Don't Over Work yourself
New pastors always seem exhausted, probably becasue they are not use to all the pressure

3. Dont Neglect internal Life for business
It seems like a lot of pastors forget to be filled and they just give and ive until they are empty/

Extra
4. Dont forget Ministry is about relationships
at the end of the day, Ministry is about people, not about getting the job done.