the trust bank

In our church’s worship service last Sunday, our pastor observed that this had been the most divisive period of church life that he can remember.  The issues around public worship and re-gathering together, when there are both vaccinated and unvaccinated people present, have been difficult.  
This division, even polarization in some settings, follows on from the months of discussions around the The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast, which itself follows on from the rise and fall of Ravi Zacharias — among a flurry of other, less prominent leaders.  Abusive leaders, with controlling leadership styles, have garnered a lot of attention recently, especially across in the US and the UK. 
When I first stepped into pastoral leadership, we used a bank called the Trust Bank.  At the time it felt like it was a metaphor sent from heaven, designed to give me a push and a prod in the right direction.  ‘Paul, if you don’t have trust, you don’t have much’.  As I reflected, in my simple way with images, it seemed that trust worked a bit like a bank account.  You need to make deposits because one day you will need to make withdrawals.  Things will become difficult and it is the build-up of trust, under God’s good hand, that will help find the pathway forward.
I am not that close to the action at our church as we’ve been overseas for almost a decade, but as I listened to our pastor explain the situation and what our church’s practice will be, I was transported back to the Trust Bank metaphor.  I thought to myself, “I reckon he and the other leaders in the church must have been making a few deposits over the years” — in contrast to listening to the Mars Hill podcast and thinking to myself, “He just didn’t take time and care with making enough deposits”.
One of the prompts for this post was a newsletter received with these two attachments…

Aren’t they helpful? 
So wise, with so many insights into the behaviour that makes deposits in the trust bank.
[Sure, don’t live in the metaphor for too long because it will make leadership a bit transactional and calculating if you do.  Exegete it more as proverb, than as epistle.  Feel the impact and move on…]
I wonder what else you might add to this list? 
Ever since those Trust Bank days, I’ve been adding to a list as I’ve watched leaders in action and as I’ve experienced leadership, with its ups and downs.  Here are some that are not mentioned above:
  • ‘Listening to understand, rather than to respond’ — and, at times, even having wide, formal and structured listening processes 
  • Affirming continuities with a previous era, rather than rushing into discontinuity
  • ‘Leading without Power’ (Max duPree), in the sense of displays of power
  • Keeping promises, especially the little ones
  • Absorbing criticism inaudibly and spreading credit audibly
  • Being truthful, in speech and life
  • Targeting consensus, even if it takes more time
  • Empathizing with others, especially with the ‘suffering-with’ brand of compassion
  • Attending to the marginal voice, dismantling hierarchies and patterns of exclusivity
  • Information really is power — sharing it early, fully and in writing (a disempowering act)
  • Avoid hiding behind ‘confidentiality’, if it is not absolutely necessary
  • Inverting top-down organisational structures, on paper and in reality
  • Focusing more on growing the people in the organisation, rather than the organisation itself
  • Facilitating vision in others, working to make other peoples’ dreams happen
  • ‘The first task of leadership is to say thank-you’ — so doing it frequently, creatively, meaningfully
What else? 
As I linger with these lists, making deposits and withdrawals as leaders in a Covid era does create challenges, doesn’t it?  For example, it is almost three years since I’ve met in-person with the team of people for whom I am responsible — and so, as I reflect, ‘inflation rates’ and ‘interest rates’ also have relevance alongside deposits and withdrawals.
nice chatting
Paul

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About Me

paul06.16

the art of unpacking

After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.

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