Farewell
In this week’s post, I want to take the time to reflect on the last three months, in particular the group blogging experience. So where do you start? Difficulties: Well, I’ve been blogging now for 6 months and I have to admit, it hasn’t been easy. Apart from the what-am-I-going-to-write-next issue, I found that it was intimidating writing alongside some fine Australian Christian writers. These were people I could sit and listen to about the things of God for an evening and a day. Blessings: Despite the problems, what I have found though is not a bunch of know-it-alls but a group of people with very real lives. I found reading about people’s devotional discoveries, or their personal experiences both in their domestic and public lives, I found people with a willingness to declare God’s faith... Read more
Keep on Keeping on…
In light of a busy schedule, I will only be able to write briefly in this post. I would like to share a verse which has been a blessing in these busy times… "And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9 Perseverance has been well defined as “courage stretched out” or “to persist in a state, enterprise, or undertaking in spite of counterinfluences, opposition, or discouragement”- Merriam Webster Dictionary. Although God sometimes delivers his people from difficult, overwhelming, or even painful circumstances, he more often calls us to a courageous and enduring faithfulness in the midst of trials. It’s in these times we ought to continue. We ought to be relying and asking for the grace God provides in these situations of suffer... Read more
Leading Management
Leadership, in many ways, is very similar to management. Leadership, like management requires influence, working with people, and a concern with effective goal accomplishment. But leadership differs to management: “Kotter (1990) argues that the functions of the two are quite dissimilar. The overriding function of management is to provide order and consistency to organizations, whereas the primary function of leadership is to produce change and movement. Management is about seeking order and stability; leadership is about seeking adaptive and constructive change.” One way that management differs to leadership in regards to planning and budgeting is that management’s emphasis is on “establishing detailed agendas, setting timetables from several months to a few years, and allocating the neces... Read more
I ‘Have’ Power
“Power is the capacity or potential to influence. People have the power when they have the ability to affect others’ beliefs, attitudes, and courses of action…” In this article we will be simply touching on the concept of power. The idea of management versus leadership will be written about in the following week, rather than in this post as promised, as this post will become lengthy. Follow me as we explore this concept of power in leadership The concept of power is important in the discussion of leadership because it specifically relates to the leader’s influence. Examples of people who possess this power are people like pastors, doctors, coaches, and teachers. These people all have the potential to influence us. In any organisation this ‘power’ can be divided into two major categories:... Read more
X Leads, Why?
“Leadership is a word on everyone’s lips. The young attack it and police seek it. Experts claim it and artists spurn it, while scholars want it… bureaucrats pretend they have it, politicians wish they did. Everybody agrees that there is less of it that there used to be”- Warren Bennis Thanks to those who have submitted a definition or at least have thought through the idea of leadership. It really is one of those ‘roles’ lacking in today’s society and dare I say in our churches. I have derived important words and ideas from your definitions and they are: leadership is influential, leadership is a position, leadership achieves, leadership differs from management, and leadership is of God. These are really great thoughts and ideas and hopefully your definitions, like mine, are working defin... Read more
