ARE WE A PEOPLE AT HALF TIME? - Leadership Network

They evaluate their leadership by its positive
impact on helping people's lives be
transformed by Jesus. No leader who serves
followers has ever wanted for lack of them.
No one would argue that inauthentic
leadership was ever acceptable. However,
the stakes have never been higher for leaders
to evidence authenticity. Leadership has
shifted from positional to personal, from
role to responsibility, from commanding to
covenanting. Leadership is increasingly
exposed rather than insulated. The distance
between the front lines and the bottom lines
is narrowing. All this means that some
significant things hinge on the promise and
presence of authentic leadership.
Spiritual vitality begins with authenticity.
Spiritual formation is the number one issue
for Christian leaders. This is not to discount
the need for leaders to be competent.
However, we must see a lack of personal,
spiritual vitality as a competency issue. A
growing number of church leaders (lay and
clergy alike) grow dissatisfied with serving
as mechanics on church machinery. They
yearn for deeper meaning and a sense of
significance in the pursuit of their call.
Spiritual authenticity shows up in the
leader’s being open and vulnerable. The
imprimatur of authenticity extends to the
development of grace-based relationships
with others that grows out of seeing others
with Jesus' eyes. Authentic leaders don't
pretend with God or with others. They
don't hide their weaknesses. Nor do they
ignore them. These challenges serve as the
green edge of the leader's personal growth.
Authentic leaders are ones who still struggle
to grow and invite others to do the same.
Authenticity promotes accountability, with
the leader going first. Genuine spiritual
leaders leave others encouraged, refreshed
and hopeful. Their authenticity allows
them to bless others. They reflect the heart
of God to their followers.
Community-building rests on the
foundation of authenticity. Jesus established
the Church as a faith community. The Spirit
descended at Pentecost on members of a
praying community in the Upper Room,
many of whom had spent three years in
Jesus' personal group of disciples. Jesus chose
community as his leadership development
model because He was used to community
where He came from. He chose to do His
work on earth as He had in heaven — in
community with the Father and the Spirit.
The early Church maintained this sense of
community. Life transformation still occurs
best in community. This is why
congregations that take life transformation
seriously look for ways to create intentional
community, usually in some kind of small
group expression.
Genuine authenticity cannot thrive absent
authenticity. Dysfunctional community can.
Noncommunity can. Bureaucracy can.
Programs can. Clubs can. But communities
of faith require covenant and accountability
and a priority on relationships. Lifetransforming
congregations provide healthy
environments where people can be real with
each other and real with God. Being broken
is the entry requirement to the community,
not having it all together. Without leaders
who traffic in honesty and grace,
community breaks down. People then
pretend and power up. They judge and
exclude. When leaders practice candor,
when they admit they do not have all the
answers, when they acknowledge they have
shortcomings, when they celebrate others'
accomplishments and when they coach with
grace, they foster community.
Team-based leadership requires
authenticity. Teams use trust as currency.
If it is in short supply, then the team is poor.
If trust abounds, the members of the team
have purchase power with each other to
access each other's gifts, talents, energy,
creativity and love. The development of
trust, then, becomes a significant leadership
strategy. Trust creates the load limits on the
relationship bridges among team members.
Trust grows only to the extent that
authenticity is present. This means that
leaders cannot be isolated and insulated.
Authentic leaders risk. They trust their
followers just as they want to be trusted by
them. They give freedom for failure but
ensure that learning practices are in place
to coach for life and ministry effectiveness.
Authenticity supports better decisionmaking
because options can be debated.
Pre-Christians search for authenticity.
A final argument for authentic leadership
comes back to the leader’s passion to partner
with God in His redemptive mission in the
world. In an experience-based postmodern
culture, leaders can no longer count on the
authority of the Bible to challenge
peoples' lives. What counts today is what
counted in the first century before the New
Testament had even been written…the
power of an authentic life. This is why Jesus
is still held in high esteem today, even while
the institutionalized expression of the faith
He founded is suspect to many, particularly
those whose view of Christianity is limited
to its un-grace-ful expressions.
Those outside the Church culture flee
institutions or religious clubs that exist to
serve themselves. They are not interested
or impressed with the size of church
buildings or membership rolls. They are not
looking for religious activity; they are
looking for spiritual authenticity. They are
desperate for God. Any Christian leader
who takes seriously the Great Commission
seeks for ways to reduce the barriers between
people and God. This passion for people
will drive the leader to authenticity. A love
for the people Jesus died for will lead leaders
to create authentic expressions of Jesus' love
by helping people, not condemning them,
by creating hope, not generating shame. In
short, authentic spiritual leaders have a shot
at people outside the faith because they will
follow Jesus into the streets and meet people
on the turf of their own life concerns.
Practicing authentic leadership will demand
two things from you. First, it will require
choices. Not just one choice, but thousands.
Every encounter with God, with other
people, with yourself will create a choice of
whether you will be authentic or something
less. Second, authenticity will require
courage. The courage to face your own self,
to risk vulnerability with others, to place
your life completely in God's hands. It
requires the courage to disappoint others,
but to please the One who desires to make
you into an authentic masterpiece —
a whole person.
Reggie McNeal is the
Director of Leadership
Development for the
South Carolina Baptist
Convention. 800-765-0030
reggiemcneal@world.att.net
www.leadnet.org
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