BTS - Two Things About Leading People
"You can shear a sheep all its life, but you only get to skin it once."
For the life of me, I wish I could remember who said that. I heard it so long ago, there's no hope of remembering now.
My grandparents lived on the main street in a little Kansas town called Harper, and every August we'd go visit during the Harper County Fair. We'd sit on their front porch and watch the parade (which was a lot of saddle clubs, farm equipment and high school bands), listen to grandma and her sisters talk about the politicians walking by and afterward head downtown to ride the rides, eat gloriously unhealthy food and watch some of the county fair contests at the Big Red Barn. My favorite was the sheep shearing contest. Huge clumps of fluffy white wool strewn everywhere, clueless sheep looking at you like "what?", and a few hundred people cheering on a rancher to do quickly what he was going to do anyway. Sheep shearing is actually pretty exciting. You know what's not exciting? Sheep skinning. Nobody enjoys that... least of all the sheep.
You don't grow up in a Christian home, attend Christian schools and Christian college, and go into ministry without knowing more than an average number of pastors, teachers and church leaders. I know a lot of sheep shearers, and I know a few sheep skinners. Both wield the sharp instrument of authority - one to the good of shearer and the sheep, the other to the good of the skinner and the detriment of sheep.
Sheep shearers have a way of getting an amazing amount of productivity out of those they lead. They encourage growth. They nurture those they lead and challenge those who're disengaged to offer their unique contribution for their own health and vitality. Sheep shearers have sheep that are grateful to have something to offer and a place in which to offer it.
Sheep skinners have a way of intimidating people into doing the skinners task list. They use people. They love sheep who don't know how to tell them no. They have no problem asking the sheep to sacrifice everything and they usually resent the ones whom they've failed to engage in meaningful service. Sheep skinners have sheep that "burn out".
Leadership is stewardship having been given the management of God's human resources. Are the people you lead better for how you've engaged them in serving? How well do you know them? Do you know what they have to offer, what their gifts are? Do you rely too much on only a few? Are their sheep in your care you've told no when they try to over-commit themselves? Lead with diligence. Love your sheep, not just what they have to offer.
"You can love God by loving people; and you can serve God by serving people; but you can't please God by pleasing people."
This was the hardest, most painful principle I ever learned in churchworld. This one came with scars. I like to be liked. I like people to value what I do. I like when everybody gets along. But I don't always get what I want.
In a recent job interview, I had a someone question my ability to handle conflict because I'd only worked in churches for 20 years. I responded with "you might not have an accurate idea of church work if you think there's never conflict... if it is accurate, I wanna go to your church." I don't like conflict but I've had my fair share of it.
I genuinely love people, and with my whole heart I want nothing more than to help them know God, understand scripture and operate from the faith that those two things inspire. But when you're leading a group of people who are all different in nearly every way, not everyone will want to go there with you and not everyone will agree with the route you've chosen to get them there. You have to know that what you're doing is what God has asked of you not only as His follower, but also as a leader of His people.
Several years ago, I was working in a church that was making a lot of changes - all necessary changes to help free people from a faith based on their performance to one centered on their position as a child of God. We call performance-based faith "legalism", and it's a nasty set of chains to wrestle out of. In this church, there began a huge debate over what version of the Bible the Pastor was going to preach from. It got pretty intense. (Weird, right?) I'll never forget the response of little old lady named Faith when she was confronted by someone about the change and asked what she thought about it - "I don't know what I think about it, but I do know the Pastor has prayed about it more than I have." She had confidence in his leading of the church, because she had confidence in his following after God.
Paul said it this way in his letter to the Galatians: "If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ." Choose your Master - one or the other will dictate what you do as a leader. Love people, serve them, but know that not everyone will like what you do. Please God, and let the critics whine.