Gardner's 9 Tasks adapted for Christian Leadership

Gardner’s 9 Leadership Tasks adapted for Christian Leadership Matthew Johnson CL 612 Final Project

What is Christian Leadership? Christian leadership is the process of leading God’s people toward’s God’s purpose so that they might understand and embrace their role in the Missio Dei . A Christian leader is a person formed in the Imago Dei with a servant heart whose God-given skills and talents are purposefully surrendered to the Holy Spirit so that He might use them to Influence a specific group of God’s people towards God’s purpose. -Adapted from Dr. Rick Gray

Three Essentials of Christian Leadership
Governance
Direction
Liberation

What is Governance?
Governance is the ability to direct and structure the institution in which one works for greater Kingdom Impact. Governance is not simply a management task; instead the goal should be to move an institution toward a fuller understanding of the Missio Dei.

What is Direction?
Direction is leading people in the way that God would direct them. Direction is NOT determining a new vision; instead it is leading in a specific direction that God has already established.

What is Liberation?
Liberation is the call of God to free and grow the people of God. The Christian Leader not only thinks about the institution, but should primarily focus on the people that they are leading. Christian Leadership helps the people of God to a fuller understanding of God’s movement and purpose in the lives of the people.

But…How does a Christian Leader achieve these three things?
As someone who learns from practical thinking and concrete steps, I find myself asking how the Christian Leader might practically guide God’s people. Gardner offers 9 tasks of the leader, and I will attempt to see how they might fit under the three essential areas in which a Christian Leader works.

Gardner’s 9 Tasks of Leadership
Envisioning Goals
Affirming Values
Motivating
Managing
Achieving Workable Unity
Explaining
Serving as a symbol
Representing the Group
Renewing

Envisioning Goals
Gardner asserts that the role of the leader is to envision and voice goals for an organization. The goals should encompass long and short-term planning, and can flow from a vision of what could be or a solution to the problems currently at hand.

Christian Leadership and Envisioning Goals
Envisioning goals might fit into the area of direction. Christian leaders do not simply envision goals; they understand goals in the light of the missio Dei and they must always ask the question “Whose vision is it?” The vision MUST be God’s vision and plan; it cannot simply be human agenda.

Christian Leadership and Envisioning Goals (Con’t)
According to Dr. Gray, the overarching goal for Christian leadership must be a call to “grow the people.” In this sense, the task of envisioning goals might be considered to be liberation. After this, as leaders attempt to envision goals, they must ask what God is already doing in their midst, and they must practice prayer and discernment to better understand how to move forward.

Christian Leadership and Envisioning Goals
Finally, I believe that envisioning goals is not simply the job of the leader, but it is the job of a team of individuals who understand the missio Dei and who want to better understand how God is at work in their midst. Decisions regarding visions are best made in community rather than isolation.

Affirming Values
Each society and organization is based on core values. These values are both written and unwritten and can be seen in history, art, music, etc. Yet, values can disintegrate over time, and the role of the leader becomes reaffirming and rediscovering the core values that hold a community together. Often these values can renew, but sometimes the difficult job of the leader becomes proclaiming values that are not as popular.

Christian Leadership and Affirming Values
The task of affirming values can be considered governance and direction. This task is governance as values must give shape and structure to the overall organization. This task is also direction, as our values must guide our goals and our movement forward.

Should values follow goals or should goals follow values?
While Gardner lists the first task of leadership as envisioning goals, I believe that an affirmation of values must come before goal setting. Values should be the foundation that any community or group is structured around.

What values are essential to Christian Leadership?
Love of God, Love of Neighbor
The Lordship and Leadership of Jesus Christ
Mercy and Justice
People over Institutions

Motivating
Gardner states “Leaders do not normally create motivation out of thin air. They unlock or channel existing motives.”
Gardner states that a leader must realize the need of the followers for security and the ways that fear might drive and motivate the followers.

Motivating and Christian Leadership
The idea of motivation falls under the areas of direction and liberation.
Motivating is direction as it calls Christian leaders to move people in a certain direction.
Motivation is liberation as it frees people to achieve all that God has in mind for them.

Motivation and Fear
Should the Christian Leader use fear to motivate?
I believe that motivation for the Christian leader flows from two areas:
An understanding of God’s previous work in history AND
A hope for what God is currently doing

Motivating as Christian Leaders
When we realize the many ways that God has intervened in history and has worked in the lives of God’s people, we are given assurance of God’s continuing work in history. God’s people are not motivated by fear, but by a desire to serve and work with God.

Motivating as Christian Leaders
God’s work in history gives us an awareness of God’s work in the present. The role of the Christian Leader is to name the ways that God is currently at work, and to encourage God’s people that God has a plan and hope for the future.

Managing
Gardner lists five ways that leadership encompasses management responsibilities. He lists those tasks as:
Planning and Priority Setting
Organizing and institution-building
Keeping the system functioning
Agenda setting and decision making
Exercising Political judgment

Management and Christian Leadership
Management falls into the area of governance. Yet, several management tasks come into conflict with Christian Leadership.
Organizing and Institution Building
As noted above, an important Christian value is people over the institution. How does a leader respond when growing the people and managing an institution conflict?

Agenda setting and decision-making
Christian Leadership happens best in the team setting, while Gardner seems to state that management is partly individual decision-making. How does Christian Leadership understand management in a team setting?

Achieving Workable Unity
Leaders must be able to negotiate conflict and build trust so that a team might have a sense of unity and not be destroyed by internal strife and conflict.

Workable Unity and Christian Leadership
Workable unity is a type of governance. It is an absolutely necessary skill for Christian leaders, as conflict often surfaces within the Kingdom of God. Christian leaders with conflict resolution skills are especially valuable in organizations that are polarized around particular issues.

Explaining
People want to know what the problem is, why they were being asked to do certain things, how they related to the larger picture. It is the role of the leader to communicate and explain what is going on. In this sense, leaders are teacher. Great leaders are clearly teaching.

Explaining and Christian Leadership
Explaining falls under the idea of direction and governance. Christian leaders have an understanding of the overall picture, and are able to enlighten those who follow. Christian leaders must also be aware of their role as communicators as it gives direction to the followers.

Serve as a symbol
Leaders serve as a symbol to their organization. Leaders are set apart and examined by the followers, and no longer speak for themselves alone. Leaders are called to serve as a symbol that galvanizes and empowers their followers.

Symbols and Christian Leadership
The idea of serving as a symbol can be seen as direction or governance. Do Christian leaders merely serve as symbols, or is our call something greater?

Concerns with Symbols
Christian Leader are to serve, not serve as a symbol. The idea of being symbol makes the Christian leader a figurehead, rather than an active participant with the followers in the work of God.

Concerns (Cont.)
2. Christian Leaders are not to be seen for outward appearance. Christian Leadership is an attitude of the heart, thus integrity, character, and one’s regression to holiness is crucial. Christian Leaders must serve as examples, not simply symbols.

Representing the group
Leaders cannot merely focus on their own followers; instead they represent the group the world at large, and serve as a representative between those inside the group and those outside of the group.

Representing the Group and Christian Leadership
I do not believe that the idea of representing the group falls into any of the three essential functions of Christian leadership. I believe that Christian Leaders must be representatives, but not simply of a group of people, but representatives of Christ. Christian leaders must not only focus on the current followers, but those who need to hear the message of Christ.

Moreover, Christian Leaders are called to grow and mentor the people so that the people are prepared to represent the Gospel of Christ to a fallen world. Christian leaders do not hold the key; all of God’s people must be involved in God’s redeeming work in the world, living their lives as ambassadors of Christ.

Renewing
Gardner states “All too often on the long road up young leaders become ‘shapers of what is’ rather than ‘shapers of what might be.” Leaders are called to help bring about appropriate change to an organization that will breathe new life into that organization.

Renewing and Christian Leadership
Renewing falls into the category of direction. Christian Leaders, though, are guided by two important ideas. First, what is God doing and how can we be involved? Second, is the change that we seek brought about by the Holy Spirit?

We realize that true change and true renewal in an organization only comes when it is God-breathed and Holy Spirit ordained. Change for the sake of change is not our responsibility; Change for the furthering of God’s Kingdom must become our goal.

What brings renewal?
As Christians, we must realize that programs and ideas do NOT bring renewal. Throughout history, renewal comes from a rediscovery and proclamation of God’s Word. Whether King Josiah, Martin Luther, or John Wesley, renewal happens as people continue to interact and be changed by the Word of God.

Summary
Gardner’s tasks are heavily geared towards governance and direction. Very little of Gardner’s ideas focus on liberation and growing the people.
Gardner’s tasks are very leader-focused, rather than people-focused.
Gardner does not include any ideas of legacy or self-leadership. All of Gardner’s ideas are based on public presentation.

All information regarding Gardner’s 9 Tasks were found in an article entitled “What works, what matters, what last, Vol IV.” The article is available at
http://www.pkal.org/page.cfm?page=4159

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Gardner's 9 Tasks adapted for Christian Leadership

by mgjohnson23 on May 10, 2007

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Gardner’s 9 Tasks adapted for Christian Leadership — Presentation Transcript