Pastoral leaders are wandering into a new, uncharted era.We’re driving off the edges of our old maps for pastoral leadership.What happened?Old ways aren’t working any longer.New ways haven’t become second-nature yet.Where are we going?How is our theological Map Quest guiding us?Here are three “mile markers” for your leadership way-finding.

Mile Marker 1: We’re moving into “organic” leadership and leaving “mechanical” leadership behind.

The key theological question for practicing pastoral leadership is straightforward: do you believe the church of Jesus Christ is alive?Do you?Are you sure?Most of us automatically answer, “Yes.”But, maybe we aren’t aware of the impact of science on our thoughts and actions.So, we think we’re treating followers and congregations like living things, but when we use images of “machines” and “levers,” we aren’t.

The Industrial Revolution, along with its reliance on science, has left an unseen mechanical legacy.Without examining our assumptions about people and organizations, we have tried to make congregations into “well-oiled machines.”That’s the modern mind set of “push and pry” leadership.

Organic leadership recognizes and treats the body of Christ as a living, breathing, learning, adapting community.Organic leadership is more than a way of acting---it grows out of a deep belief that God is a life-giver.Affirming that Christ’s church is a living community calls us toward a biblical “sow and grow” approach to pastoral leadership.

For a GPS to guide you into organic leadership, see Peter M. Senge’s “Leadership in Living Organizations” in Hesselbein, Goldsmith, and Somerville’s Leading Beyond the Walls (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999), pages 73-90, and Robert D. Dale’s Seeds for the Future: Growing Organic Leaders for Living Churches (St. Louis, MO: Lake Hickory Resources, 2005).

Mile Marker 2: Organic leadership travels along a flow of basic processes.

Theologically, organic leadership mirrors God’s creation.Good leaders know the most elegantly simple solutions to today’s challenges are built into the handiwork of the Creator.The older styles of leadership featured sequential steps, the logical heritage of science.Too often in that world, leaders relied on one-size-fits-all programs and used them mechanistically.

Creation moves constantly by God’s design.It proceeds in arcs, loops, or spirals rather than the straight lines, sharp angles, and geometric shapes that were common to the industrial world.

Organic leadership’s basic processes are connecting, centering, and challenging.“Connecting” cultivates community relationships.“Centering” roots the community in God’s will.“Challenging” sows seeds for the community’s future.Which process is in the foreground at any given moment in time?The one that matches the community’s need at that moment.These three processes may overlap and are done over and over forever.

Leaders live amid change.Organic change agents recognize that living things change as long as they live.Nothing stays the same for long or is completely settled.Consequently, organic leader encourage change like Creation does: they sow lots of seeds in well-prepared seedbeds and cultivate what God germinates toward harvest.

For a GPS to guide you in the processes of organic leadership, see Janine M. Benyus, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature (New York” Perennial, 1997) and Howard Foltz and Ruth Ford, Paradigm Lost: Rediscovering God’s Plan for Spiritual Harvest (Waynesboro, GA: Authentic Media, 2004).

Mile Marker 3: Organic leaders grow inside out by “soul gardening” over time and with the practice of leadership.

Growing self and soul are the first jobs of leaders.The best leaders know instinctively that they’ll never be better leaders than they are persons.Integrity, values, and character show through.Leaders invest in depth, in the anchors of the soul, for the long haul.They are persons of inner substance rather than folks who are concerned about style and appearances.

The “Great Man Theory,” the earliest researched concept of leadership, saw leaders as persons who were in the right place at the right time.Presidents Washington, Lincoln, and Truman are often offered as examples of emergent leaders for crucial times.In this view, leaders were largely accidents of history, good accidents.It was as if they had magically appeared, fully formed, at the hinges of history.

Organic leaders are often reluctant leaders.They are life-long cultivators of the best gifts and strengths God was embedded in them.They know who they are, where they’ve come from, and where they’re going.They have strong egos, not egos hungry for the spotlight.

Organic leaders understand and learn from their roots and heritage---family systems, mentors, support system, and heroes.They appreciate what life’s crucibles and callings have given them.They have patience and a thirst to learn every day.

For a GPS toward growing self and soul, see Terry Hershey’s Soul Gardening: Cultivating the Good Life (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 2000) and Ronald W. Richardson’s Becoming a Healthier Pastor: Family Systems Theory and the Pastor’s Own Family (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2005).

Let This Mind Be in You

Organic leadership is a new way to be, to live, and to lead. It's as old as Scripture and as new as postmodern thought. The only way to become an organic leader is to risk a fresh mindset and to practice, practice, practice. Then, you may provide a clear map for the rising generation of pastor leaders.

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