George Bullard's Journey

Talking Down to Your Staff Must Pay!

I am sitting in the Delta Crown Room in Salt Lake City with a four-hour layover before my flight to Calgary. In the cloak room a guy had set up office and was lecturing his staff on the telephone regarding an upcoming sales campaign. If he is a successful sales manager—and I did not attempt to discover this—then talking down to your staff must pay. By his own admission at the end of the call he had gone on for 75 minutes lecturing his staff as if they were all Alec Baldwin’s daughter. It has been a long time since I have heard such parent-child talking as part of an employer-employee relationship. His staff either thinks he is a comedian or they really need the job or it pays enough that they can put up with the abuse.

 

Thankfully he is now finished and has left the building—along with Elvis who was recently seen departing.

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Life is Made Up of Dreams

I was in my hotel room Saturday night flippin’ channels when I came across the last part of the move The Astronaut Farmer: http://theastronautfarmermovie.warnerbros.com/. I am a sucker for these types of movies. I love dreams that are just a little farther away than the horizon; a little farther away than reality; a little farther than reason will allow you to go.

It is also one of the reasons I love working with leaders, congregations, and denominations on their future story of ministry. I love to see them project a future that is beyond their grasp; beyond that facts; challenging enough that the only way they will be fulfilled is for God to be the initiator of these dreams.

This week/weekend I am working with a denominational organization and a congregation that I hope will be examples of dreamers of horizons yet unseen. At the same time several other congregations and denominational organization have contacted me this week about their yet unseen and unrealized horizons.

What are your life dreams? What are your ministry dreams? What are the dreams of your congregation? What are the dreams of your denomination? You wanna talk about it?

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Ministry Networking for Early Adopters, Post 001

O.K., after several false starts, I am ready to wade into the pool of social networking and its implications for congregations and denominations.

Just as we are in the season of the year when the water in the pool in my backyard is cooler than I prefer, and that makes me hesitant to wade in, I have to follow the lead of my grandchildren--who symbolize the innovators by their willingness to wade in so quickly--and join them in the pool to closely connect with them and tell other early adopters to wade in because the water is fine once you get accustomed to it.

As I wade in I choose to label or brand social networking for congregations and denominations as Ministry Networking. I believe this approach has comprehensive implications for connecting people with a Christ-centered faith journey, connecting people with a congregation, assimilating people deeply into congregational community, developing people as disciples, and empowering the missional efforts of people. It also has tremendous implications for staffing and governance in congregations and denominations.

As I ponder wading into the pool of social networking I must acknowledge a minimum of a 12 year journey to this point. As early as 1996 I was beginning to talk about defining the difference between congregations who organize around committees, versus those who organize around teams or better yet communities. I also began to talk, teach, consult, and coach around the difference between organizations who are centralized, versus decentralized, versus distributive or networked. Further, it was then that I was modulating my approach of working with congregations and denominations from being a process consultant [I had tried except in conflict situations never to be a prescriptive consultant] to being a framework coach that could empower and energize networking approaches that ultimately learn best and fastest through peer learning communities.

I first began to write some articles about this around the turn of the millennium in which I indicated several things:

       Religious organizations who were just now moving from committees to teams ought to skip this stage and move immediately to communities as an organizing principle. Doing so could be one of the best ways to reach the generations of people born after February 9, 1964 which is the hinge point between baby boomers and baby busters.

       Religious organization who feel that moving from centralized to decentralized structures is enough, are probably afraid of losing control if they empower distributive or networked efforts. Therefore, they are willing to keep their organizations boxed rather than centered. They are willing to stifle creativity and perhaps to even stifle the movement of the Holy Spirit or of a clear discernment of the movement of the Triune God.

       The answer or solution to the great opportunities and challenges faced by religious organizations at the turn of the 21st century probably lies within them as they respond to God's calling on their organism or movement. The answer is not in more ideas, directed strategies, overbearing leaders who personify the vision, but is in an enduring visionary leadership community.

Well, please excuse me for abruptly getting out of the pool to dry off and respond to crisis in the "big house", but I have chosen to make these posts short. However, I acknowledge this is so short that I have hardly gotten to the first major point about Ministry Networking. Stay connected. Much more is to come.

 

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Is It Possible to Write a Second Volume of Your Ministry?

With numerous clients in the past three months the issue of writing a Second Volume of ministry has arisen. This means can pastors or denominational leaders, having served ten to twelve years in their current role and having completed the First Volume of their ministry, write a Second Volume?

Inherent in this question is the assumption--which I am indeed making--that the First Volume of pastors or denominational leaders ends around ten to twelve years into their tenure. I strongly believe this is true in many situations. I believe it occurs because the vision or movement new pastors or denominational leaders may be able to initiate early in their tenure runs it full cycle within seven to nine years which is often ten to twelve years into the tenure of leaders.

A Second Volume involves the ability to cast a significantly different vision or empower a different type of movement for the next season of leadership. A big difference exists, however, between leaders who simply hand on more than ten to twelve years, and those who are able to truly write a Second Volume.

Second Volumes are not all that common. I recently spoke to a group of 35 pastors, and only two of them at been in their current role for more than ten years. I have dialogue with denominational leaders quite often, and many of them find their face a crisis of leadership about ten to twelve years into their tenure. They wonder if it is time to move on, and it is at times difficult to move forward from a denominational role.

I have decided I want to study this issue more. So, I am looking for pastors and denominational leaders who have been in their current position for fifteen years or more and would be willing to take a survey and perhaps participate in a teleconference that investigates this issue. If that is you, please connect with me by sending an e-mail to me at gbullard@thecolumbiapartnership.org. I would appreciate hear from you.

Whew! The Week That Was! Read on . . .

This past week was not the typical week.

 

It was the week that was. It was extremely full, fulfilling, and physically tiring. It involved finishing up grant applications for two denominational judicatories, meeting with the staff of five denominational judicatories for 24 hours to help them think about a more effective future. It included a day of dialogue with 40 pastors. And, finally two days with 12 congregations is explore the spiritual strategic journey process.

 

It involved traveling by car to three states [West Virginia, Georgia, and South Carolina] and driving over 1200 miles.

 

It also involved helping a lot of folks to move down the road—at least in their understanding—of what it takes to engage in faithful, effective, and innovative ministry. The feedback was great. The joy of service was exhilarating. But, now I am tired.

 

I am going to take the next four days to go on a writing retreat and reflect on issues that have emerged in recent days.

 

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Day of Labor? Read on . . .

Today has been Labor Day. Traditionally a day of relaxation, it is amazing how many people have been busy working on various personal and work projects. [I have seen them on Facebook and Twitter.] That includes me. I have this week perhaps the busiest week of my year—thus far. So, I have spent half of today working on various projects: a grant proposal, a speaking engagement to denominational leaders, a seminar on nurturing pastoral leadership excellence, an exploratory experience for congregations on the Spiritual Strategic Journey process, and marketing September webinars.

 

The other half of today I had the great joy of having my son, daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren here. They had come on Sunday. It took until lunch time for the air and water temperature to be warm enough for them to get in the pool, but there was no going home to Charleston until they had a last swim. It was great to have them here!

 

I also slipped in getting some much needed work done on my car before I drive 1500 miles over the next five days. My car is approaching 100,000 so some typical maintenance is raising its head.

 

How was your Labor Day? Or, was it a Day of Labor?

 

 

 

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