What do you have to be thankful for?
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"The Christian is the one whose imagination should fly beyond the stars"
The above quote is from the title page of Francis Schaeffer’s collection of (two) essays entitled Art and the Bible (a L’Abri Pamphlet). The full quote goes on to say, “For the Christian artist the sky is not the limit because [s/]he can distinguish between reality and illusion, [s/]he is the one whose imagination can fly above the stars.” [The first essay can be found on Google Books.]
Schaeffer firmly states, “For a Christian redeemed by the work of Christ and living within the norms of Scripture and under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, the lordship of Christ should include an interest in the arts…An art work can be a doxology itself.” (pg 18)
I would take it even further than Schaeffer and say that I think we need the artists to help the rest of us interpret the Bible. As I mentioned in an earlier post the Bible is almost one-third poetry and because art is nonverbal it can convey a plethora of messages — even to people who can’t read, including young children. For those of us who have grown up in a church context art may have been one of the first ways we learned about the Bible. At different times and in different places, art has been the primary way of teaching stories about the Bible to entire communities.
Schaeffer points out that God instructed Solomon to fill the temple with artwork…“And he [Solomon] garnished [covered] the house with precious stones for beauty” (2 Chron 3:6). “Notice this carefully [Schaeffer says], the temple was covered with precious stones for beauty. There was no pragmatic reason for precious stones. They had no utilitarian purpose. God simply wanted beauty in the temple. God is interested in beauty.” (pg. 26)
7 Thoughts on Transformational Leadership – Aiming to Create A Synergy of Energy
“Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people who do the right thing (transforming others).” Warren Bennis, On Becoming a Leader
Charles Handy, in his book, The Age of Paradox, states that lifecycle curves (of organizations started by baby-boomers) are free-falling everywhere, so that this moment in time is characterized by the transitioning of a very significant period in our history. He says that this difficult period is marked by fear, confusion, and faltering new steps as we attempt new life curves. (This is a good reason to consider the wisdom of a bailout for the big-3 automakers and the plethora of financial institutions in the US and around the world. New and transforming leadership is needed for this moment in history.)
Transformational leadership is a style where one or more persons engage with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and integrity. James MacGregor Burns (1978) first introduced the concepts of transformational leadership in his treatment of political leadership, but this term is now used in organizational psychology as well. Transformational leaders offer a purpose that transcends short-term goals and focuses on higher order intrinsic needs.
Consider the seven principles listed below and evaluate yourself by responding honestly to the statements made. A good understanding of our strengths and weaknesses will help us to become more effective transformational leaders.
1. Clarity – Successful leadership begins with a compelling vision, which reflects the shared purpose. The ability to articulate a clear, practical, transformational vision which answers the question, “How will we accomplish our mission?” Illustrations teach this idea – the stonecutters’ tale: The first stonecutter says, “I’m cutting stone,” the second says, “I’m carving a cornerstone,” but the third says, “I’m building a cathedral.” The third has vision. For any team, dialoguing about vision, goals, and objectives unifies the members.
Self-Assessment: Transformational leaders are able to articulate a clear, practical, and transformational vision.
I clearly articulate a clear, concise, and compelling vision to others:
X ———————————————————X
NEVER——————SOMETIMES——————REGULARLY
2. Motivation – The ability to gain the agreement and commitment of other people to the vision. Once the transformational leader is able to bring synergy to the organization s/he must then use various means to energize (motivate) the core. General ways to motivate others is to challenge them, provide ample opportunity to join the creative process, and give them the credit.
Self-Assessment: Transformational leaders are highly effective at gaining the agreement and commitment of other people.
I am able to gain the agreement and commitment of others to my vision:
X ———————————————————X
NEVER——————SOMETIMES——————REGULARLY
3. Facilitation – The ability to effectively facilitate the learning of individuals, teams, and other reliable resources. Peter Senge in The Fifth Discipline says the primary job of leadership is to facilitate the learning’s of others. The organizational quest to learn becomes the leaders greatest asset to address organizational challenges. Transformational leaders have been given a sacred trust of being stewards of their core’s intellectual capital.
Self-Assessment: The ability to effectively facilitate the learning of individuals, teams, and other reliable and reputable resources.
I am facilitating the learning of others:
X ———————————————————X
NEVER——————SOMETIMES——————REGULARLY
4. Innovation: The ability to boldly initiate thoughtful change when needed. An effective and efficient organization requires participants to anticipate change and not fear it. Leaders must initiate and respond quickly to change. Team members successfully influence one another to assimilate change because the transformational leaders have built trust and fostered teamwork.
Self-Assessment: The ability to boldly initiate thoughtful change to fulfill the vision.
I am able to initiate thoughtful change effectively:
X ———————————————————X
NEVER——————SOMETIMES——————REGULARLY
5. Mobilization – The ability to recruit, train, deploy, monitor, and nurture (RTDMN) others to fulfill the vision. Transformational leaders look for willing participants who have already been given formal leadership responsibilities and also among people who have not. They desire leadership at all levels, so they find ways to invite and ignite leadership all levels. They introduce simple baby steps to enlist larger participants.
Self-Assessment: The ability to enlist, equip and empower others to fulfill the vision.
I am creating a critical mass of leadership around the stated vision:
X————————————————————————-X
NOT AT ALL—————SOME LEADERSHIP —————CRITICAL MASS
6. Preparation – To become a life-long learner. Transformational leaders realize that the transformation they pursue in is a reflection of their own quest for learning — that they must serve the world through their giftedness because that is the only way they truly fulfill their life life mission. With this mindset, moments of being stuck become moments of total dependence (on God). This is such a rigorous path of learning that transformational leaders must be in thriving relationships with others pursuing transformation. It is within these vital relationships, life opportunities, and obstacles that leaders gain the perspective and authority to lead effectively. “To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it – but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.” (Quoted in Visionary Leadership, by Nanus, p.43.)
Self-Assessment: The ability to never stop learning about themselves with and without the help of others.
I am learning new skills and improving myself:
X———————————————————-X
NOT REALLY ——————REGULARLY——————DAILY
7. Principle of Determination – The ability to finish the race. A leader’s mission is sometime difficult and our journey often lonely. Leaders depend on stamina, endurance, courage, and strength to finish each day. Because our focus is not only on raising our own leadership but the development of others, the most rigorous and humbling of all human endeavors, transformational leaders experience times of self doubt, grief, and fatigue. Transformational leaders have to develop spiritual, emotional, and physical disciplines to sustain a high level of commitment to the cause.
Self-Assessment: The ability to finish the race.
I am completely sold-out to my life mission:
X———————————————————————————–X
NOT REALLY ———SOME COMMITMENT ———COMPLETELY COMMITTED
Passion Driven
We’ve heard of purpose driven, what about being passion driven? It seems that we Christians spend more time fighting our unholy passions than we do getting in touch with God’s holy passions – that have been sovereignly placed within each one of us.
Thoughts on passion (these thoughts are largely taken from Tapping Into Your God-Given Passions, a workshop developed by my Fuller friend, Marlene Molewyk):
- Passion is intense emotional excitement. To be passionate means you feel very intensely about an object, person, idea or belief.
- In his book, “The Power of Uniqueness”, author Arthur F. Miller says passion “goes beyond a mere inventory of talents. It’s the lifeblood of a person, the song that his [or her] heart longs to sing, the race that his [or her] legs long to run. It’s the fire in his [or her] belly. It’s his [or her] reason for being…. so any time you tap into it, you hit a nerve that runs right to the core of the individual.” (pg.39)
- Sometimes we allow competency to masquerade as passion.
- Getting in touch with our holy passions leads us toward a vision to live for God’s greatness.
- Focused passion is powerful… Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin brought the plight of slaves to the country’s attention in the years leading up to the Civil War. When President Lincoln met Stowe in 1862, he was quoted as saying, “So this is the little lady who made this big war…” Stowe’s words, born of passion and exercised through creativity, contributed to activity that changed the history of America and brought legal freedom to a race of slaves.
Larry Crabb on growing a passion for God (Finding God. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1993.) :
- “We cannot generate true passion for God by an act of will…True passion for our Lord is a work of the Holy Spirit…Not many of us know the powerful work of God’s Spirit because, even though God draws us into loving relationship with him, we need to cooperate…And that task is not easy” (pg. 53).
- “The [Holy] Spirit will focus our blurred vision of God as we pursue an awareness of ourselves that immobilizes us into a state of spiritual alertness, in which we are eager to hear the voice of God” (pg. 54).
- “Maturing Christians are aware. They face life as it really is, pretending about nothing. They are drawn more to knowing Christ than to enjoying their own worth. They are caught up with the beauty of Christ in a way that frees them from coveting opportunities to ‘express’ themselves. They cling to their hope in Christ during those dark days when it seems easier to deaden themselves than to suffer one more assault from life” (pg. 55).
- “We all fear that life is intolerable and overwhelming, but we don’t want to admit it. To do so would require a terrifying dependence on God. But the fabric of life is shredded beyond repair. Legislation, therapy, social action, [and] church programs, personal growth seminars — nothing can sew it back together. When we realize that we can’t fully mend the fabric of life, we first feel discouraged and defeated, a feeling that may last a long time. But eventually the Spirit of God compels us to move back into the world, with needle and thread in hand, to repair what we can until the Master Tailor returns and crafts a new heaven and a new earth” (pg. 55).
- “The more aware we become of certain truths about what life is really like, the more committed we will be to knowing God, and the less concerned we will be about solving our immediate problems” (pg. 55).
Gregg A. Caruso 