A Catalyst For Change

I serve as an adjunct professor at Southeastern University. One of the classes I teach is Change Management. Change is all around us. Todays leaders must learn how to manage change in an organizational context in such a way that the overall vision and the basic values of the organization are moved forward in a way that is productive and Glorifies our Heavenly Father. John F. Kennedy said: “Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” Why is change management important? We are living in a day when society is changing at a faster rate than ever before. Because of this rapid pace, faith based organizations must be willing to change their methods if they are to remain relevant. The challenge is to change the methods, which are temporal, without changing the message, which is timeless. Many resist change for fear of compromising the message of Christ. For this reason, the 21st century leader must engage change management principles that can implement effective changes while making them palatable to stakeholders and guarding the values we hold dear. We must view change as a process and not an event. The process will involve understanding how people interact with change, as well as equipping ourselves with a basic knowledge of change management theory. As Christian leaders, it is imperative that we look to the Holy Spirit to empower us through the change process. The Holy Spirit can be a catalyst for change in people, situations and organizations. In organizational terms, a catalyst is someone that precipitates change without being altered in the process. The Holy Spirit has a clear view of every person’s heart and mind so that He knows what changes are necessary and will empower us to lead the change process. The Holy Spirit uses a variety of gifts, abilities and personalities to affect change. God is able to harmonize a wide diversity of gifts, talents and personalities for the most effective change in people and organizations. Paul wrote, "There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good." (I Cor. 12:6,7) We can ask the Lord to help us understand and cooperate with the way the Spirit is harmonizing a wide variety of peoples’ gifts, abilities and personalities to effect His changes in our organization.

What Is Your Vision?

In most churches the Lord planted that church in that place for His purpose long before the current pastor ever arrived. I know that is true in my case. In order to understand the vision we must come to grips with a very important question. Why? Why did God put this church in this place at this time? When a new pastor comes to a church the first question that is asked of him is “What is your vision for the church?” Most enterprising pastors have learned to keep a well-crafted vision in their suitcase should someone ever ask him about it. When asked, most pastors pull out the mission of the church rather than the vision, with full confidence that no one will recognize the difference. The mission of the church was given by Christ to the church as a whole. It will be the guiding force for every vision, but it is not the vision. The mission of the church is to “go then to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples” (Matt. 28:19). This is the same for all churches. The vision, on the other hand, will be different for every church and every community. The question should be asked collectively: “What is God’s vision for our church?” By this means, the vision comes from the grassroots up as opposed to from the top down. As we redefine vision, we must realize the vision must come from the Lord by the Spirit through the grassroots—the people, God’s people. The way you find this “right” vision is to look for the activity of God in that church and in that community. Once we find where God is showing up we can more clearly see what God’s vision for that church is.

Let’s Talk Extraordinary

Recently, I was reading John MacArthur’s book: Twelve Ordinary Men. He points out how, in Matthew Chapters 8, 9, and 10, Jesus shares leadership responsibilities with his disciples. Our Lord chose ordinary men and trained them to become extraordinary leaders. There are four natural progressions in their training. First, they simply followed Jesus. These followers grew as they listening to and learned from His teachings. A fundamental principle of discipleship and leadership training is that you cannot be trained as a leader if you are not interested in learning and following. In other words, it is difficult to lead others if you have not first learned to follow. How can you lead if you do not understand being led? Second, there must be commitment. When Jesus called these men, they left everything to follow him. You cannot be trained to lead others if you fail to commit. If there is absence of self-sacrifice, there is absence of service. There is a connection between dying to self and service to God and for God. We are living in the most self centered society since the days of Noah. Jesus showed His followers the virtue of true servant leadership. Commitment to something greater than self gain is the key to becoming a servant leader like our Wonderful Lord. Third, there is internship. The Twelve had experiential opportunities and were privileged to spend premium time with Jesus being mentored and taught by Him. Think of it. How would you like to be mentored personally by the Son of God! Such education and experience can not be obtained in Seminary. It is through the process of internship that their character was shaped and their destiny fashioned. The final step of leadership training is empowerment for specific service. This is primarily the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus instructed followers to stay in Jerusalem until they receive the dynamic power from the Holy Spirit so that they might fulfill the Great Commission (Acts 1:8). These were ordinary men. It was the power of the Holy Spirit that made the difference. The lesson here is God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things so that He can be glorified. John MacArthur says, “God’s favorite instruments are nobodies, so that no man can boast before God.” (Reference: John MacArthur, Twelve Ordinary Men (Nashville: Nelson, 2002), 15-19)

Let’s Talk Authenticity

There are many people who have lost confidence in the church because of the abuses and misuses of a few. These days every shortcoming in the church of Christ is spread out over the media to such a degree that, to the outsider, it makes all of us look corrupt. There is a cynicism towards the church today that causes many people to turn us off before we ever get a chance to let them know how wonderful Christ is. I believe that anyone who has the opportunity to see Jesus as He really is will want Him. He is that wonderful. He is that loving and kind. The problem is that there is a distorted portrait of Christ out there that causes people to push away. This explains why conventional modes of outreach that were effective in days gone by are no longer effective today. When you mention Christ or the church, people in our society immediately think of a fallen evangelist or the latest scandal in the church world. If they cannot trust the preacher with their money or the priest with their children, why should they listen when we try to share life with them? The truth of the matter is the day of hard sell, cold turkey evangelism may be coming to a close. The best way to get people to listen to us may be by developing a relationship with them. The key is trust. We can only influence people if there is a bond of trust in place. Trust can best be developed through relationship. Relationships can only happen as we are connected with each other. It is the relationship that builds the bridge of trust. Our society as a whole is so sick and tired of the “phony baloney” religion they see all around them. Quite frankly, so am I. People are looking for something real. As they develop a relationship with authentic believers and get to know them, they will become exposed to genuine Christianity. They will realize that Christians are real people just like they are, not perfect people, real people with real issues. They will see how God helps the believer with those issues. They will see the difference Christ makes in a real persons life. May God help us to develop the kind of authentic relationships that will empower us to influence our world for Christ.

To God Be The Glory!

I have a friend who prayed a prayer thirty years ago asking the Lord to help him remain humble. He received an astonishing reply from the Lord. The Lord spoke to His heart that he should look at his life as that of an instrument. The instrument is not what receives the glory in a concert, it is the musician. The instrument is the vehicle through which the musician expresses himself. The instrument is the prized possession of the musician. Keeping the instrument clean and shiny is all a part of the performance so that light is reflected by it. From time to time the instrument must have the impurities blown out of it so that the music will be pure. He said that the Lord shared with him that the wind that blows through the instrument comes from the musician himself. In other words, it’s all about the musician making music and expressing himself through the instrument. The challenge of the Lord is to always be willing to be the instrument in the hand of the master musician. If we are willing to fill that function then we will go to the concert and great music will be shared but all of the glory will go to the one playing the instrument. To God be the glory!

Leading Change

Change is all around us. There is only one thing that really never changes and that is the fact that everything changes. Society is changing at a faster rate than ever before. How we, as leaders, handle change is critical if we hope to remain relevant and be productive in what God has called us to do. What does a leader do when change is unavoidable? John Kotter in his book Leading Change lays out a process to implementing change in an organization. He places an emphasis on the processes by encouraging several steps to be followed by the leader. The process begins with developing a desire for change by examining the landscape and identifying and discussing potential opportunities. Next, the leader would create a guiding coalition by putting together a group with enough power to lead the change and encouraging the group to work together like a team. This coalition would develop a vision and strategy to help direct the change effort. The leader would then empower broad-based action by changing systems or structures that undermine the change vision and encourage risk taking and nontraditional ideas and actions. Next it is important to generate short-term wins by visibly recognizing and rewarding people who made the wins possible. These wins lead to consolidating gains and producing more change by reinvigorating the process with new projects, themes, and change agents. The last step is important as the leader must work to anchor new approaches in the culture by creating better performance through productivity-oriented behavior and more effective management. These steps should be effective in helping the leader become a change agent in the organization. May God help us to become that change agent.

Prioritizing Connecting

Jesus prioritized connecting by commissioning all believers to go out and make disciples of all people everywhere. This cannot be done without connecting. Connecting helps us to understand and comprehend the true essence of ministry. There is no higher goal than that of obtaining the standard of Christ Himself. When asked which is the greatest commandment Christ answered with the standard of God. That standard is to love God and to love people. Connecting Points is designed to connect people with God and with each other. It is by this means that we will begin to see people experience the two great purposes of God. These two purposes are communion and community. We were made for God (communion) and for each other (community). As we help people find their purpose singularly, we will see our church find its purpose collectively.

Are you a complainer?

Do you know someone who is always complaining? Are you a complainer? In 1 Corinthians 10:10, a stern warning is given: “We must not complain, as some of them did (referring to the children of Israel of old) – and they were destroyed by the Angel of Death.” (GNB) Due to the negative complaining, the Death Angel destroyed them. Literally this means that negative complaints are an invitation for evil to plague your life. It is like a welcome mat to Satan. Demons are just drawn to that kind of attitude. On the other hand, praise repels demonic forces. If you utter praise from your lips, demons will not come close. They hate it. They stick their old, pointed fingers in their old, nasty ears and their old, pointed tails between their legs and run from people who praise the Lord. Negative complaining produces an atmosphere conducive to evil. Negative complaining is like a sickness. It affects your health. Some people will complain about everything. The story is told about an old farmer who always complained about everything. “Got a new plow,” he said, “Oh, it’ll just get rusty.” It rained for his crops, “It will probably rot out the roots.” He just complained about everything. So his hunting buddies got together and said, “We’re going to find something he can’t complain about.” So, they trained this hunting dog to walk on water. One day, they went duck hunting. Boom! Boom! They killed two ducks and they said, “He won’t be able to complain about this.” They sent the dog out across the top of the water, grabbed the ducks, and back to the boat he came. They looked at the old, negative farmer and said, “What do you think about that?” The farmer said, “Old dog never learned to swim did he?” Some people are negative about everything. This isn’t the attitude we as followers of Christ should have. What should we do if we find ourselves with a complaining attitude? Eph. 4:23-29 gives us the answer: “Let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy ... Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.” (NLT)

Can you name your neighbors?

Can you name your neighbors? You probably cannot. We are living in a day when people are not as connected as in days past. Most adults, over the age of forty, remember a more innocent time. As a child, they could name every neighbor on their street. This is not true any more. Society has changed. People are more cynical and suspicious today and it is for good reason. Twenty-five years ago parents allowed their children to roam the neighborhood without fear. Only a fool would do that today. The deeper society plummets down this dark hole of innocence lost, the more disconnected we become. This is a problem. God created us to have relationship with Him and with each other. We, as believers, have a more involved problem. We are commissioned to connect to the greater community for the cause of Christ. This becomes more difficult, as society becomes more disconnected. The problem is that people are not connected to God, each other, or the greater community at large. May God help us to get back to the basics of relational ministry so that we can do what He wants us to do: Get Connected!

A Time To Stand

My heart is both sad and challenged as I write this blog. I believe that June 26, 2015 will stand as a day of great significance in the history of the Church of Christ in the United States of America. On this date, the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges, by a 5-4 majority, that the Fourteenth Amendment requires a State to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out of State. I love our country and I am fiercely loyal to our nation and what it stands for in this world ... but I cannot stand in agreement with this interpretation. I find myself in the position of the apostles of old as they faced oppressive pagan authorities who attempted to thwart the spreading of the Gospel - “I must obey God rather than man.” Acts 5:29 In my opinion, this court has disregarded thousands of years of defining marriage as a God-ordained union between one man and one woman, and the affect it will have upon our culture will be broad and impactful. In the light of this monumental interpretation by the highest court in our land, we must articulate what we believe about marriage. We must not define marriage in terms of values or culture alone. Our challenge is to talk about marriage the way Jesus and the apostles did. Marriage must be seen as a picture of the union of Christ and his church (Eph. 5:32). Scripture defines marriage solely in terms of the union of a man and a woman (e.g., Matthew 19:4–6; Mark 10:5–9; cf. Genesis 1:27–28, 2:20–24; Ephesians 5:21–32). Not only that, Scripture prohibits same-sex intercourse (Romans 1:26–27; 1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Timothy 1:10; cf. Leviticus 18:22, 20:13). When it comes to same sex marriage, the Scripture stands clear and uncompromising. So then, must we. At the same time, we must lace our convictions with love. We must stand with conviction and with kindness, with truth and with grace, with strength and with love. We must hold to our values and love those who hate us for them. We must not only speak Christian truths; we must speak with Christian love. We must make certain that we convey our truth with mercy and with an invitation to new life in Christ. The early church ministered under an oppressive pagan empire and grew in power, strength and numbers. We can too. Lastly, we must intensify our prayer for this great nation. I am reminded of the challenge found in 2 Chronicles 7:14: “Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.” (NLT) So, let us stand ... let us love ... let us pray! Can you say amen?

God Help Us To Reach Out

We live in a sea of people who do not yet know Christ. There are enough people in our community to fill up every church fifty times. This is one reason that I find transfer church growth so distasteful. It is critical that we are more interested in reaching the lost than growing our church. I am not sure how interested God is in growing our church; but He has proven how He feels about reaching the lost. He proved His heart at Calvary. It is a matter of priorities. Let’s face it, if we reach the lost we will not be able to stop our church from growing. If on the other hand we strive just to grow our church we may find ourselves wandering lost in the forest of other peoples’ methodologies and miss altogether God’s plan for reaching the lost in our own culture and more specifically in our own community. When I speak of community I am not just speaking of people who live near our church. In today’s society, community has more to do with culture and less to do with geographic proximity. I believe God wants to reach the lost in our community more than we do. If this is true then it stands to reason that He has a plan to reach them. This is why we developed Connecting Points in our church. I believe that the principles of Connecting Points will lead you to that specific plan. Every believer is a minister of God. As we embrace this powerful truth, we can expect our Wonderful Lord to direct our path. We can reach our sphere of influence. God help us to Reach Out!

Let’s Talk Potential

Let’s Talk Potential! God made us with different levels of potential. This is made clear in Jesus’ story of the talents in Matthew Chapter 25. Here the Master, before going on His journey, left one with five talents, one with two talents and yet another with one. The first point is found in verse 15. He gave every man according to his “several ability” or, stated differently, according to his potential. God is the one who gives the potential and everyone has different levels. The second point is that God only requires productivity that is proportionate to the potential that He gives. The scripture declares “To whom much is given much will be required” (Luke 12:48). God did not require five from the one He gave two. The one who produced two received the same accolades as the one who produced five. It is clear that the man who was given one would have received the same if he had produced only one more. Why? They each have different levels of potential. What does the Lord require of us? The answer is to reach our full potential by simply being what God made us to be and doing what God made us to do. Our potential is always changing. Notice the three men in Jesus’ parable. Focus on the fluctuation of their potential. The man with five worked to reach his full potential and developed another five. Now he has ten. The one with two earned two more. His potential is now at four. Their potential has grown because of their faithfulness. The man with five grew even further because the master gave him one more. What about the man with one? His potential decreased. The master took his talent and gave it to the faithful man that reached his full potential. Can you see the pattern? The principle goes like this. If we are faithful to work hard and reach our full potential; our potential actually increases. If we just stand by and embrace status quo; we lose the potential we once had. Use it or lose it! You can see that the possibilities are endless. Imagine with me the man with five talents. He reaches his full potential and he now has eleven. What will happen if he now reaches his full potential with eleven? Now he has twenty four. He’s faithful with that…well, you do the math. The point is it really starts to get exciting when we reach our full potential.

The Joy Of Connecting

God is all about connecting. He wants to connect with us and He wants us to connect with each other. God wants us to connect to the community so they can connect to Him. You and I will never be happier than when we are fulfilling God’s dream for our lives. We will never have more joy than when we are connecting with God, connecting to others, and when we can connect others to the Lord. There is genuine joy in connecting. It stands to reason that if God is all about connecting, He wants us to be a Connecting Point for Him. We live in a sea of people who do not yet know Christ. There are enough people in your community to fill up every church in your town fifty times. God revealed the principles of connecting when I hungered to see people come to faith, not just to grow our church. Did you get that? It is critical that we are more interested in seeing people come to faith than growing our church. I am not sure how interested God is in growing our church, but He has proven how He feels about connecting with people. He proved His heart at Calvary. It is a matter of priorities. If we connect people with God, we will not be able to stop our church from growing. On the other hand, if we strive to grow our church, we may find ourselves wandering lost in the forest of methodologies. We may also miss God’s plan for our culture, and more specifically, for our community. When I speak of community, I am not speaking of people who live near your church. In today’s society, community has more to do with culture and less to do with geographic proximity. I believe God wants to connect with people in your community more than you do. If this is true, then it stands to reason that God has a plan to reach them. I believe the Holy Spirit will lead you to that specific plan. Once you engage the plan, you will find the joy of connecting.

Your Dreams Come True

Do you remember when you first gave your heart to the Lord and became born again? You realized that old things were passed away and everything was brand new. Those were marvelous days as you explored your new life in Christ. There were days of hope and vision. There were days of dreaming about your future with the Lord. You were aware that God had a plan for your life and you believed, somehow, He would make your dreams come true. The fact of the matter is, when a person accepts Christ as their Lord and Savior they are changed on the inside. There are many things that happen. We are forgiven of our sins. We get a brand new start in life. Our names are written in the Lambs book of life. One of the most significant things that will happen is God will put a dream in our hearts. He impregnates us with the vision He had in His heart before we were ever born. Long before you were conceived in your mother’s womb, God had a plan for your life. He had something for you to do for Him during your time on earth. God made you with this plan in mind. He gave you just the right gifts and abilities to afford you the opportunity to be successful in His plan for you. When you accepted Christ, God planted this vision and this dream in your heart. You could see yourself serving God and fulfilling the dream. Oh, the wondrous days of dreams and visions. What happened to those days? What is it about the cares of this life that cause us to lose touch with the dream God planted in our hearts? What is it about life’s troubles that cause us to lose sight of the vision we know is from Him? I want to declare that God has not given up on the dream He placed in your heart. God wants to make our dreams come true. God will make your dreams come true. God has a plan for your life that includes you having a ministry that connects people to Him.

Let’s Empower People To Serve

The mission of the Pastor is to empower people to develop a ministry by connecting with people in the community and, in turn, connecting them with God. This is accomplished when people operate in their gifting by doing what they have a passion for and doing it for the Lord. Is that it? Is that all God requires? Why would God require something of people that He never equipped them to do? That is what religion does. God would never do that. Christ’s heart in this matter is revealed in Mark 14:1-9. When the woman anointed Christ at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, some were troubled. The perfume she poured over Jesus’ head was “very expensive”. They objected because of what seemed to them to be a waste. When Jesus heard their murmurings, He rebuked them and expressed His pleasure with what she had done by saying “Leave her alone … she has done what she could.”(Verse 6) What pleased God? She could not do everything, and there were some things that others could do that she could not. But what she could do...she did do. Think about this. God was pleased when she did what she had potential to do. She reached her potential and that was enough for God. It was true then, and it is true now. So relax! This is supposed to be a journey of joy. God will never require anything of you that He does not provide the means whereby it can be accomplished. So, let’s get out there and empower others to “do what they can” for our Wonderful Lord.

Messy Christianity

I must say, as I look at Jesus’ building relationships, that it is time consuming, requires an intentional willingness to see where people can be and not just where they are now and at times can just be messy. Jesus looked into the eyes of rough fishermen and saw that they could become apostles. We must be willing to do the same thing. We must look around us and see those people who can shine like stars if someone is willing to invest in them. If we are going to connect with one another, we must be willing to make room for one another, our idiosyncrasies, our personalities, and sometimes even our faults. We ought to bear with one another. We ought to build relationships with one another. None of us are perfect. We all have issues, and we all have difficulties in our lives. We all need friends. We all need someone to look after us. We all need someone to look after. There is fulfillment in relationship. The scripture tells us that we’re to have hearts of compassion, that we’re to have hearts of love, that we’re to have kindness and humility and gentleness towards one another. We are to even feel this way toward those who have complaints against us. In other words, find the people you can connect with and connect with them. We’ve all had problems; we’ve all failed in many ways. The point is we should connect with one another and we should bear one another’s burdens because Jesus has chosen to do that with us. When we read the Gospels we see how often the disciples blew it, fell short, let Jesus down, showed little faith, and Jesus still connected with them. He still found reason to disciple them and keep them in the circle. At times they all showed faithlessness. But Jesus kept His relationship with His disciples. His kindness should be a catalyst, a motivation, to reach out to one another in kindness. We must find people with similar interests and connect with them. It is the responsibility for every Christian to build strong relationships with other Christians and pre-Christians ... even if it gets messy.

What is your vision?

As we look at the word of God and church history, there seems to be a pattern. Men and women with great visions from God started with great dissatisfaction about what they were seeing that did not line up with God’s plan. · Moses’ complaint was God’s people should not be enslaved, and God’s response was: “Let my people go.” · Gideon’s complaint was God’s people should not live in oppression from their pagan neighbors, and God’s response was: “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon.” · Elijah’s complaint was God’s people should not be serving other gods, and God’s response was Mount Carmel. · Jesus’ complaint was that religion was dead; God gave Him the vision of abundant life for all who would come. · Paul’s complaint was that God’s people were reverting to the ways of the flesh and the bondage that behavior brought on, and God gave him a vision of “who we are in Christ.” It is told that Abraham Lincoln decided to run for president after viewing a disturbing scene. He was standing at the docks observing a ship pulling in to dock. After docking, African men, women and children were taken in shackles to an auction block and sold, often splitting up families three ways or more. Lincoln was so upset he clenched his fist causing his fingernails to cut into his hand and blood was literally dripping from his fist. His complaint turned into a vision that produced the Emancipation Proclamation. Possibly the greatest complaint since Jesus was that of Martin Luther. Luther became so incensed by inequities that he observed in the church it drove him to study, which produced his Ninety-Five Theses and his assertion that “the just shall live by faith.” That complaint didn’t just produce the Lutheran Church, but rather is the seed for Protestantism today. As we drive along the streets of our city we go past the fruit of Martin Luther’s dream in every neighborhood. The question is: what is your complaint and has it become your vision?

The Pastor as a Change Agent

The following is a portion of an article I recently had published in the Assembly of God Leadership Magazine, Enrichment Journal entitled “The Pastor as a Change Agent: Remaining Relevant in a Constantly Changing Cultural Environment”. To read the entire article, go to: http://enrichmentjournal.ag.org/201301/201301_EJO_ChangeAgent.cfm Society is changing at a faster rate than ever before. Because of this, the church of Christ must be willing to change its methods if it is to remain relevant. The challenge is to change the methods, which are temporal, without changing the message, which is timeless. Many within the church resist change for fear of compromising the message of Christ. For this reason, the 21st-century pastor must see himself as a change agent that can implement effective changes while making them palatable to church members. We must view change as a process and not an event. What good does it do for the leader to yell charge and rush to the top of the hill only to find he or she arrived there alone? A more progressive approach to change is the better part of wisdom. This takes adequate planning and this is how we, as pastors, can become change agents. The process will involve understanding change management, adopting an adaptable approach to leadership style, and empowering people to think strategically. Following this process will help pastors become change agents ensuring the church remains relevant and proclaims the important message of Christ that is both timeless and life changing.

The Premise Of Discipleship

This is a portion of an article I wrote that was published in the recent edition of The Enrichment Journal: The discussion on discipleship must begin and end with the greatest discipler of all, Jesus Christ. The Gospels show the key components of effective mentoring in how Jesus discipled His followers. These components are relationship, influence, and spiritual formation. Jesus was intentional about building relationships with His followers. These relationships were essential in establishing influence. This influence allowed Jesus to develop those who followed Him into productive disciples who could, in return, spend their lives mentoring others. The progression from relationship through influence to spiritual formation points to a principle concerning the premise of discipleship. This premise is this: There can be no discipleship without relationship. To see the entire article go to: http://enrichmentjournal.ag.org/201204/201204_EJO_Premise_Discipleship.cfm

Leadership Distinctions

In todays complex organizational environment, a real value is placed on an all-round leader that can use different leadership styles in different settings. The real question is; How can we know what style to use in certain situations? In the discussion of what leadership style to engage when, I found the distinction made by Gloria Nemerowicz and Eugene Rosi helpful. They identify factors at play in two types of leadership styles called Classical leadership and Shared leadership. I have chosen six distinctions: Classical leadership: Displayed by a person’s position in a group or hierarchy. Shared leadership: Identified by the quality of people’s interactions rather than their position. Classical leadership: Leadership evaluated by whether the leader solves problems. Shared leadership: Leadership evaluated by how people are working together. Classical leadership: Leaders provide solutions and answers. Shared leadership: All work to enhance the process and to make it more fulfilling. Classical leadership: Distinct differences between leaders and followers: character, skill, etc. Shared leadership: People are interdependent. All are active participants in the process of leadership. Classical leadership: Communication is often formal. Shared leadership: Communication is crucial with a stress on conversation. Classical leadership: Can often rely on secrecy, deception and payoffs. Shared leadership: Values democratic processes, honesty and shared ethics. Seeks a common good. Reference: Gloria Nemerowicz and Eugene Rosi (1997) Education for Leadership and Social Responsibility, London: Falmer Press. Page 16.