Transforming Church

While I am still searching, and perhaps some of you can enlighten me on the subject, I find the ELCA has been slow making it a priority to help our pastors develop leadership skills. This might help explain why we have had over 100,000 page views in the year since we launched this web community, and why the site now comes up first of 800,000 hits when you search Google for "transforming church." There is a real yearning for help.

During my business career, I had wonderful opportunities for mentoring and leadership development. I was invited to join a Management Development Institute that Ingersoll-Rand (a several $ billion company) had created for those who they determined had the potential to move up at least two more levels in the company. People offered this opportunity were on the Hi-Po list (high potential future leaders). As a distributor and business partner, I was offered the chance to join this program. It began with a 360-degree review of our management skills completed by our peers, direct reports and manager. Then, we gathered for a week each quarter for a year to study, with a cohort of other executives, ten practices of management. At the end of the year, another 360-degree review measured our growth.

The program had multiple benefits. We were given tools of management and the opportunity to practice them, but we also developed a network of friends who were considered among the best and the brightest. For the next decade, many of us stayed in touch, sharing best practices, encouraging each other, and building long-term friendships.

I also had the opportunity, with the financial support of my company, to go back to school and get an Executive MBA from Georgia State University. Our cohort of 50 organized into ten teams that stayed together for the two years. This was a wonderful experience of collaboration and synergy. In this setting, I learned the value of working in a team. Finally, I have had the wonderful opportunity to study for the last five years with Robert Fritz, who certified me as an Organizational Structural Consultant in 2002.

Is there a Hi-Po list at the ELCA? If not, why not? Those blessed with the gift of leadership need to be equipped to lead. In most organizations, these people are viewed as an asset for the whole organization, not the domain of one region or division. The Education Foundation of the Associated Equipment Distributors (the industry where I spent my business career) asked me some months ago to help create a leadership development offering for the future industry leaders.

They are concerned with equipping the best and brightest 30-40 year old future leaders with tools to cope with a rapidly changing environment where the successful practices of the past are now longer working (sound familiar?). They are trying to create a new business model that will allow them to move beyond survival (again, familiar?).

After working on this for several months, we convened the first gathering of future leaders at the Eagle Peak Wilderness Retreat, a retreat center we built near Boulder, Colorado. Using Creating What Matters as the format of the course, we gathered 8 of these hand picked future leaders together for two nights and two days. We worked together to envision the future of the industry, to begin to articulate a sustainable organizational model, and focused each of the participants on a vision of their future.

The energy in the room was incredible. These young leaders learned principles of Structural Thinking from Robert Fritz, crafted a vision of the future, got painfully clear on the current reality they were facing, and developed action steps to move them towards the vision. During our time together, they learned a process that they can use with their own organizations to develop a strategic vision, and the tactics, actions and goals that will lead to the accomplishment of the vision.

Equally important, each of the participants developed a network of leaders from around the country with whom they could share and develop ideas and best practices. The older generation has this kind of network, but these young leaders were struggling to create one. Their feedback showed they placed great value in this aspect of the experience. These outcomes, along with the opportunity to spend two days in a wilderness setting, looking at Rocky Mountain National Park and the Continental Divide, well exceeded their expectations. We agreed to make the place available for a number of subsequent events.

Leadership Development for High Potential Future Church Leaders. At the conclusion of the event, I began to realize that a similar retreat, targeted at high potential young pastors and mission developers would create significant value. Over the course of the last weeks, I have discerned a vision of leadership development for our future church leaders. To that end, I have begun a dialog with the ELCA and Thrivent to see if there is support for such a vision. I am approaching both at a national level. I hope Thrivent will see the value of funding all but the travel expenses of the participants. I hope the ELCA will collaborate to identify and recruit cohorts of 10 to experience this together.

At the Synod level, Bishops who support the idea could identify a cohort from within the Synod, building the additional benefit of geographic proximity. They could then work with Thrivent at the regional level to fund the group. At each event that Thrivent supports, one of their people would be invited to be part of the cohort. Synod level cohorts would have one colleague from Thrivent participating, in each case to build partnering relationships with the best and brightest young leaders of the ELCA.

The event will introduce elements of leadership that will be new and profound to the participants. They will leave with tools that can build shared vision, a sense of urgency, and action steps that will lead towards the realization of the vision. In addition, participants will experience the glory of God’s creation in a truly wonderful wilderness setting. Finally, during their experience together, they will create a cohort of friends who can support each other on the journey by sharing best practices, encouragement and prayer for each other. These cohorts will facilitate the spread of ideas that can transform churches and lives. It’s hard to sell the idea that lives can be changed by a two-day event, but I truly believe that is what God has in mind here.

At the local level, those identified high potential young leaders who have experienced this event could later invite their church leadership to schedule a Creating What Matters offsite at Eagle Peak to clarify vision, strategy and tactics. They could approach Thrivent at a local level to support such events. Once again, a Thrivent colleague would join the cohort and build partnering relationships with the local church.

By supporting the leadership development of the best and brightest pastors and mission developers, Thrivent will be building partnerships with these churches that will benefit each one greatly. Since Thrivent markets to a strictly Lutheran audience, they realize that their long-term success is dependent upon the Lutheran church reaching an ever-larger audience. This program is one that can contribute directly to building healthy churches that will attract the unchurched and grow.

In an article titled Encountering God on the Mountain, I describe how God has revealed this calling on my life over the last few years. These ideas are further expanded in the article Infrastructure for a New Reformation.