Being A Leader Can Be Painful

Romans 12:6-8 "According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts ... if leading, lead with diligence ..."

If you are a bold leader, you will eventually upset someone. Get used to it. Its part of being a leader.

Ok, so maybe that is a harsh way to start a post, but it's the truth. I've been in a leadership role in some capacity or another since I was 23 years old. Over the years, as I have matured, my leadership role has expanded. The Lord has opened up some wonderful opportunities for me and I've gotten to do some really cool things as a leader. But leading is rarely easy.

Some people wrongly think that leaders sit in an office enjoyed the "spoils" of their positions. Perhaps some leaders are like that. But good leaders are busy meeting people, thinking through strategy planning, finding resources to make things work, and removing barriers that keep the organizations they lead from moving forward. That often requires change, and change is hard. That requires bold decisions, and some people prefer bland choices. That requires some ideas to be promoted and some ideas to be set aside. All of that is going to eventually make someone upset. Leaders have to get used to it and grow think skin.

Getting used to the pain of leadership does not mean that leaders don't care about people. Good leaders care very deeply about those they are serving. But leaders often have access to information that most people don't have. Not all of that information can be shared with others. So it appears to those outside the knowledge loop that the leader ignored their concerns. While bad leaders might do this, good leaders don't ignore knowledge. But they do have to weigh different pieces of knowledge and make the best choice available to them.

Effective leaders (at least in the context in which I serve) also have a supernatural gift of leadership that comes from the Spirit. That enables them to see things from a perspective that is broader than the average person. While this gift can definitely be abused, and that always ends in disaster, when used properly, in balance with others in the body who have other gifts, a leader with a gift of leadership can take a ministry organization to new levels of kingdom impact.

The bottom line is, not everyone will like the choices leaders make. Good leaders accept that. They do their best to include others in the process. They do their best to show compassion for those with different opinions. They do their best to listen to the Spirit so they do not outrun God. But in the end, leaders lead. It's what they do. And sometimes its painful.

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Dr. Terry W. Dorsett has been a pastor, church planter, denominational leader and author in New England for more than 20 years. He is a happy husband, a proud father and adoring grandfather. He is a cancer survivor and believes that God works powerfully through times of suffering. He writes extensively and you can find all of his books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Dr.-Terry-W.-Dorsett/e/B00405U4NY

Progressive When We Want To Be

Last month my son and I spent a week traveling across Central and Eastern Europe on a bus. It was a remarkable experience and helped us learn a lot about history and also a lot about the European perspective on life.

One thing that we learned was that Europeans are only progressive when they want to be. They can also embrace many regressive ideas regardless of how liberal of a reputation they have. For example, when it comes to income taxes, several countries have a “flat tax” where everyone, regardless of income level, pays the same percentage of their income in taxes. And those taxes are quite high. For example, France has the highest income tax in Europe, at 57%. Austria’s rate is 54%. Most other European countries are at 50% or more. The “low tax” nations are mostly in the high 40% range. In most of those nations, everyone pays the same rate. In America we have different rates for different income levels, with the concept that those who make more money can afford to pay more, a much more progressive system. Another example is how liberal Europeans have made very few allowances for people with disabilities. There are very few handicapped accessible areas, especially in historical buildings. For them, the historical nature of the building trumps the importance of all people being able to enjoy the building. As a result, for most handicapped people, many of the buildings are Europe are simply impossible to navigate.

But the point of my post is not to debate the fairness of flat tax versus varied tax rates or to extoll the virtues of the American Disabilities Act which requires equal access for all in public places. The point of my post is to demonstrate that we all tend to be “progressive” when we want to be, and ONLY when we want to be. We tend to think we are enlightened in our viewpoints about things that are important to us but have huge blind spots that we fail to see on issues that we may think has no direct impact on us. We tend to not like it when others point out those blind spots to us. We defend our enlightened views while in reality we are glaringly unenlightened about so many other things. Perhaps we would be healthier people, and a healthier society if we were more willing to hear other people’s perspectives on how our decisions impact their lives. We may not always agree with each other. And honestly, we may not be able to make everyone happy. Someone might even “lose” some benefit or right that they would like to have. But at least if we all learned to listen to each other instead of ignoring, or worse, yelling, at each other, we might at least understand how a decision on some issue actually impacts the lives of the people around us. And that would be enlightened indeed!

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Dr. Terry W. Dorsett has been a pastor, church planter, denominational leader and author in New England for more than 20 years. He is a happy husband, a proud father and adoring grandfather. He is a cancer survivor and believes that God works powerfully through times of suffering. He writes extensively and you can find all of his books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Dr.-Terry-W.-Dorsett/e/B00405U4NY

Blinded By Our Own Racism

My son and I spent a week on a bus tour of Central and Eastern Europe last month. It was truly a remarkable experience and helped us learn a lot about history and also a lot about the European perspective on life.

One thing we learned was that liberal Europeans tend to think of America as still being a racist nation while thinking of themselves as more enlightened and accepting of various races. Europeans like to point out their acceptance of immigrants during the Syrian crisis as one proof of their enlightened views. Sounds cut and dry, and easy to understand. That is, until you bring up Gypsies. Gypsies, or more properly called “Roma,” are spread across Europe. They are especially common in Eastern Europe. Though Europeans pride themselves on having outgrown racism, we heard over and over again on our trip how we need to be cautious around the Gypsies. They were described to us as “lazy and dishonest” and also frequently called “pickpockets and thieves.” Europeans do not consider this to be a racist statement, they just consider it to be factual because “everyone knows Gypsies are bad.” WOW! All my American emotional triggers were going off! And rightly so. To condemn an entire category of people just because a handful might be pickpockets is the very definition of racism.

But the point of my post is not to argue about crime statistics for Gypsies in Europe. The point of my post is to illustrate how cultural blind spots exist in every culture.  For many Europeans, being racist toward gypsies is an “acceptable” viewpoint even though Europeans work hard not to be racist. Though it is clearly a racist opinion, they cannot see their own hypocrisy on the issue. They condemn Americans for our racist views (and perhaps rightly so!) but miss seeing their own.

I think this is a great teaching moment for anyone who will take time to reflect on it. I think all of us, Americans and Europeans, regardless of our race, have certain cultural blind spots in how we view others. We tend to lump large groups together and make broad negative statements about them. This is always a bad idea. Yet most of us do it. We may think we have moved beyond it, but others see our inconsistency far more than we can see it in ourselves. This is something we must continue to work on as individuals and as a nation. But it is worth the effort and worth the struggle. Imagine how it must be for a Gypsy child walking down the street watching everyone grab their pocket books in fear that the child will steal their money. That is no way for a child to grow up. Replace the word “gypsy” for any other group, and we begin to see how dangerous this viewpoint is.

We may not be nearly as enlightened as we think we are. But thankfully, we can reflect on this reality and grow in our worldview concerning those who are different from us. This is something we can, and must, do.

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Dr. Terry W. Dorsett has been a pastor, church planter, denominational leader and author in New England for more than 20 years. He is a happy husband, a proud father and adoring grandfather. He is a cancer survivor and believes that God works powerfully through times of suffering. He writes extensively and you can find all of his books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Dr.-Terry-W.-Dorsett/e/B00405U4NY

Will The Church Be There When We Need It?

Last month I spent a week traveling across Europe. This was a trip I had wanted to take for many years but for a variety of reasons had never been able to do it. Finally, several doors opened at once and the trip became possible. One of my sons and I spent a week on a bus with a group touring the historical sites of a number of cities in Central and Eastern Europe. It was truly a remarkable experience and helped me learn a lot about history and also a lot about the European perspective on life.

We visited a lot of cathedrals. The architecture of those cathedrals left us in awe. One German city we visited had 109 such glorious buildings. When we asked how many people in that city attend church on a regular basis, we found out it was less than 20%. The tour guide said that “though liberal Europeans don't go to church often; they want the church to be there when they need it.” She went on to explain that because of this desire to have the church there when one needs it, most Germans are willing to designate 10% of their income tax to maintain Catholic and Lutheran churches. She pointed out that no other denomination gets that tax benefit, just those two. 

That is a truth we American would find hard to accept. We are so accustomed to hearing about the separation of church and state that the idea that individuals could designate a portion of their income tax to maintain church buildings and that only certain denominations would quality for that designation would cause an uproar across America. But in liberal Europe, it is a common and widely accepted practice.

But the point of my blog is not to debate the differences in how Europeans and Americans view the separation of church and state. The point I want to make is the commonality of how in both Europe and America, fewer people go to church than in previous generations but people still tend to want the church to be there when they need it. At least in Europe, they have figured out a practical way to make that possible, even if only for the two largest denominations. Since that system will not work in America, it is up to each of us as individuals to decide how much we value the church. If we want the church to be there when we need it, we might need to show up a little more often, donate a little more to the church’s offering, and volunteer more frequently to help in the ministries and programs of the church. No government agency is going to pay the bill for us, we have to do it ourselves. Are we willing?

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Dr. Terry W. Dorsett has been a pastor, church planter, denominational leader and author in New England for more than 20 years. He is a happy husband, a proud father and adoring grandfather. He is a cancer survivor and believes that God works powerfully through times of suffering. He writes extensively and you can find all of his books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Dr.-Terry-W.-Dorsett/e/B00405U4NY