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World News & Perspectives » News Continued from page 10 ■■WORLD CHURCH Management Expert Exhorts Adventist Leaders to Encourage Innovation GC’s LEAD sessions feature business expert By MARK A. KELLNER, news editor, with ANSEL OLIVER, Adventist News Network One of Silicon Valley’s brightest minds challenged 400 world leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church to create a climate of innovation at every level of the movement. “I think aspiration is the best insurance against irrelevance,” management thinker Gary Hamel declared in a keynote address to the Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) training program, which preceded the October 11 opening of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists’ Annual Council. “No organization ever outperforms its own aspirations.” Hamel, cited by the Wall Street Journal in 2008 as the world’s most influential business thinker, encouraged leaders to be aware of changing climates in their constituencies. Overall, he said, society is changing the way it views and interacts with institutions such as the church, sometimes rendering those institutions less effective: “Every successful organization is successful until it’s not,” adding, “as human beings, we are all susceptible to denial.” The LEAD program is part of an effort to introduce Seventh-day Adventist Church decision-makers worldwide to current innovations and best practices in leadership. Hamel is a founder of Strategos, an international management consulting firm. His books include What Matters PHOTO: Ansel Oliver/Adventist News Network BUSINESS THINKER: Management consultant Gary Hamel speaks to Adventist Church leaders during Annual Council at the denomination’s world headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, on Friday, October 11. Hamel has been recognized by The Wall Street Journal and Fortune magazine as one of the world’s most influential management experts. He is the author of many books, including What Matters Now. Now, a guide to building organizations that thrive amid uncertainty and shifting priorities. He urged Adventist leaders to facilitate experimentation and change within the organization’s ranks: “The pace for change is ultimately the question of how much experimentation is going on inside that organization,” Hamel said. “The job of every leader is to make sure that change always seems more exciting than standing back.” Hamel reminded his audience that while divinely given truths are eternal, the structures of organizations to communicate those truths can and should adapt to the times: “We don’t worship tradition; we worship a risen Lord,” he said. Drawing from his consulting experience at the epicenter of America’s high technology industry, the famed “Silicon Valley” area between San José and San Francisco, California, he noted that Google strives to have 5,000 experiments aimed at improving the firm’s computer search technology every year, with the expectation that a significant number will yield results for the firm. “Basically every large corporation has an innovation lab in the Silicon Valley, he said. “Maybe the [Seventh-day Adventist] Church needs an innovation lab, too.” Hamel said that while the church is committed to redemption, renewal, and reconciliation, there are times that established programs, policies, or practices obscure the core message. “The only way you would really know you are committed is if you were willing to sacrifice some of those habits, some of those structures, to those commitments,” he said. G. T. Ng, executive secretary of the General Conference, said Hamel’s earlier presentations to the Secretariat sparked the invitation to address the leadership at this year’s Annual Council. Ng said the church can learn much from Hamel’s message. “The church at different levels could do more to overcome the inertia to change in terms of methodologies, to maximize the use of technology, to keep pace with a fast-changing world,” Ng said. “We probably could do better in empowering the rank and file for mission by removing or reducing red tape. In [Secretariat] we have already taken steps in that direction. The South Pacific Division’s example of downsizing in order to allocate more money for mission is a good example.” n 12 (1004) | www.AdventistReview.org | November 14, 2013
did you know Adventists hold 28 fundamental beliefs that can be organized into six doctrines: the doctrines of God, man, salvation, the church, the Christian life, and last things. In each teaching, God is the architect, who in wisdom, grace, and infinite love is restoring a relationship with humanity that will last for eternity. To find out more, and to share with others, visit the Adventist Church’s revamped Web site at www.adventist.org/ beliefs. share with us We are looking for brief submissions in these categories: Sound Bites (quotes, profound or spontaneous) Adventist Life (short anecdotes, especially from the world of adults) Camp Meeting Memories (150 words or less) Jots and Tittles (church-related tips) Please send your submissions to Give & Take, Adventist Review, 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, MD 20904-6600; fax: 301- 680-6638; e-mail: marank@gc.adventist. org. Please include phone number, and city and state from which you are writing. Sound Bite “There is no place safe except where God sends you.” —Homer Trecartin, during morning worship at the General Conference, October 9, 2013,. church bulletin adventist life I had a little conversation with our son Camden about bedtime one evening. He said that we shouldn’t sing songs (what we usually do for bedtime worship), but just go straight into bedtime stories, because “Mommy has a headache.” I said to him, “You just don’t want to sing songs, do you?” Camden admitted this was the case because singing takes too long and he wanted to go right into the stories--the best part. So I asked him, “Why? Worship is great. Jesus is the best part of the day.” To which he replied, “I hear you, friend.” Funny kid— even if he is trying to work the system. —Shawn Brace, Bangor, Maine The Campus Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church in Loma Linda, California, has a unique way of announcing sunset times in their bulletin. One of their church members submitted a bulletin from this past summer with the announcement worded this way: “The blessings of the Sabbath draw to a close at 8:02 p.m. and resume next Friday at 8:03 p.m.” © terry crews www.AdventistReview.org | November 14, 2013 | (1005) 13
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