Creative Leadership

I just went back and read through a book that I had read a long time ago titled “The Creative Leader” written by Ed Young.In this book I was reminded by my notes in the book that i took wile reading it on how he makes a case for the need of “creative Leaders”. Some nuggets from my notes that I want to post here are:

* Status-quo leaders experience little growth because they are content to call upon their old education, old experiences, and old methods to address new problems. Sooner or later, the dynamic culture will pass them by and their effectiveness will completely dissolve. Their commitment to tradition and ritual, rather than innovation and excitement, will lead to a cold, dispassionate life and ministry.

How often I have seen pastors who file their sermons and just keep recalling them year after year and each time they preach them they just change the name of the church (For the record, that is in no way my pastor as he continues to find new ways and new nuggets to preach to a church he has been senior pastor at for 24 years ow). And we wonder why we see churches staying the same or hear of declines in church attendance. I have heard of a time when churches led the way but now we often hear of when people come into our churches they feel as though they may have walked through a time machine back to the past with the music, preaching, colors, well actually everything.

We in the church have to always remember that the moment we stop learning to be creative is the moment we stop being effective in this ever changing wonderful world that we get the opportunity to be a light for Christ in. We must also remember that the church must remain consistently inconsistent to be truly effective in the midst of a rapidly changing culture. Summary of this means that the church has to be committed to change and willing to take risks.

* It takes time on our knees and time getting our fingernails dirty. Great leaders not only spend time in prayer coming up with what to do and how to do it but, they are also responsible for putting the plan in motion. Without working out the plan to completion, all we have is an idea. The world is full of good ideas. Leaders are those who are willing to put in the time it takes to make the ideas a reality.

I remember being at a friends house while on a trip for a children’s pastor conference that was being done in Williamsburg, Virginia when he showed me a newspaper article of a teenager who made the news by creating a million dollar web page. Yes this teen sold spots on this web page a $1.00 per pixel. Within 4 months he had made over a million dollars. As the newspaper said, “…it was one of those ideas that you would say to yourself, why didn’t I think of that?” That is exactly what I was thinking and my friend had also thought the same thing. I say all this because here was a teen who took an idea and created an action plan to carry it out and he took responsibility to put the action plan in motion. How many times, ideas, opportunities have we had that if we would of just started on the execution of the plan could we of made major changes, taken the lead, created our Blue Ocean, or one for our churches?

* Creativity takes labor. In fact, the creative cycle is similar to the birthing cylce: There is the conception, the pregnancy, the labor, and the delivery. Some leaders conceive these fabulous ideas and then it just ends. They don’t want to go through the pregnancy, that difficult labor, or the uncertainty of the birth. But ideas are only as good as the results they yield.

Only a constant commitment to the creative process will yield the results that God desires for our ministries, churches, and our lives.