Leaders who have to rely on position and power for compliance from their followers are one bad decision away from becoming toxic leaders …..

Great Post! Having grown up in the church with my dad on staff and having been on staff at a church…all I can say is….GREAT POST!

Mark,

Great response as well. I have seen some churches get it right and remember that it's about God and it's about people….not the corporate culture.

I recently read a book by Howard Behar who was the president of Starbucks at one point. The book was called "It's not all about the Coffee". In it he says "at starbucks we were never in the coffee business serving people…we were always in the people business serving coffee." If churches could wrap their head and vision around that one there would be a lot of changed lives and less corporate culture.

Perhaps the leaders you discussed would do well to study Skipper the Penguin in the 2005 movie Madagascar.   He takes charge, takes responsibility, makes things happen and when wrong or confounded, he admits it and insists his team help him get back on track as a leader.  Skipper the Penguin never gives up his responsibility to keep his team moving forward.  He is transparent, confident and real… uh hum, even though a cartoon character.

See:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0351283/quotes.

My take on Christian leadership as witnessed in televangelism is that their escape from responsibility is doctrine driven.  Now, this website is not the place to discuss doctrine.  And it’s too bad, because Skipper Penguin has the right doctrine, and the wayward leaders Phil mentions don’t.

To me it is clear that about seventy years ago the secular branches of technology, medicine, communications, travel, business, electronics, science, physics  and such really got going with a bunch of Skippers of Penguins who really advanced their fields of endeavor.  And their heirs continue in excellence and bless all mankind with secular advancements.  Look at the recent Mars landing!

It is my hope that once the popular wrong doctrines of popular Christianity get fixed, new Christian Skippers of Penguins will have, oh maybe, seventy-five years of catching up to do.  Then they will bless their generation in their time, as King David did so long ago.

But first these leaders have to realize there is a reason their rockets don't fly.  Then fix what is broke.  Then shoot for the stars.