30th of June, 2007
The myth of the omni-competent leader
Posted by greglarson in quotes, theology at 8:47 am | 
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Great article on leadership. HT: Kairos website
Here is a partial quote from the article…
“There’s a myth out there right now that’s fairly common. It’s the myth of the omni-competent leader. It’s a myth that is partially true because there are truly outstanding leaders out there. But in the end it isn’t true or helpful for a number of reasons:
- There aren’t enough extraordinary leaders to go around.
- Where they exist, a personality cult develops.
- As Jim Collins points out, these extraordinary leaders aren’t good long-term for an organization. “The moment a leader allows himself to become the primary reality people worry about, rather than reality being the primary reality, you have a recipe for mediocrity, or worse.”
- Within the church, the extraordinary leader receives undue attention and the other necessary parts of the body don’t get to play their roles.
But still the myth of the extraordinary leader persists, even (especially?) in the church.”
3rd of July, 2007 at 10:50 am
I would argue that we are to take Paul’s lead on this through the example he sets all throughout the Pauline epistles and arguably most bluntly represented in 1 Tim 1:15 “This saying is trustworhy and deserves full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners - and I am the worst of them” Paul quickly squashes any confusion about where he should be placed on the “totem pole”. Our leaders of today could go along way by following Paul’s example of contiually reminding people that they should be placed at the very bottom not at the top. This forces everyone to redirect their attention to the only one worth 100% of our worship Christ Jesus our Lord. If 2% of that is going to our pastors or leaders then we are 100% guilty of idolotry. Oswald Chambers talks about something to the affect of what we do should draw people to want to exault our God not us, to what to know more about our God not more about us. What ever it takes to shift the attention from us to God even to the point or especially to the point of the announcement of our sin or the plan fact that of all of us who are sinners - I am the worst. I love when I hear a preacher talking about their sin in a real way.
10th of July, 2007 at 10:23 am
wow. Thanks for sharing Greg, that’s good to think about, but also intensely scary to consider living in a “community of honesty, brokenness, repentance, grace, forgiveness and restoration.” I guess if we all owned up to all of our crap, then giving and receiving grace becomes vital, so in theory it could work…
I would think as a pastor that would be incredibly hard work to stay humble and continually admit one’s faults, because as someone more in the public eye and appointed as one that would have a calling from God, it would be pretty easy to succumb to the need to feel worthy of that calling or to prove oneself to the people around them, like “I really can do this job”. I think we should pray for you guys more often…=)
11th of July, 2007 at 9:43 am
Josh,
good thoughts — I would agree with your quote:
“Our leaders of today could go along way by following Paul’s example of contiually reminding people that they should be placed at the very bottom not at the top.” Very easy to say, very hard to actually live that out in our culture.
11th of July, 2007 at 9:47 am
Ann, thanks for your comment & your prayers! Yes, please do pray for us more & more
You are so right — it is hard to be living in a “community of honesty, brokenness, repentance, grace, forgiveness and restoration.â€?
Something all communities of faith need to continue to strive for.
hope you are well,
Greg
11th of July, 2007 at 11:15 am
actually in my case it is very easy to live out because the only people relying on me right now our my girls and they know how flawed I am
just kidding, that is a very good point. I can only imagine what that looks like to try to live that out on a daily basis.
I will go on burning my incense at the alter of Greg Larson every morning and evening.
11th of July, 2007 at 11:31 am
Josh — too funny…. yes, please continue the incense at my altar. I already have 100’s of people out here in LA doing that also