This is where young leaders miss the boat in their first leadership assignment. They haven’t built enough “influence capital” with others through respect, trust, listening, valuing others and collaboration. Positional influence is the weakest level of leadership. Instead of whispering, those without influence have to roar–they have to flex their muscles, they have to make themselves stand out as if screaming, “Do what I tell you to do, I’m the boss!” When you influence from a place of relationship and respect you can go a whole lot further faster. You can whisper, but it will be received as a ROAR that makes things happen.

What are you doing to build your influence capital with your team so that your whisper can be received as a roar?

Technorati Tags: leadership

1. The pastor doesn’t go on a vacation for any significant length of time. And, when he does, it isn’t announced.
2. When the pastor doesn’t preach, the attendance drops.
3. Unspoken fear that if something happened to the pastor, the church would be in trouble.
4. The pastor is unwilling to listen to and consult other team members. The staff and volunteers are there to carry out the directions of the pastor.
5. There’s no succession plan in place; therefore, leadership development isn’t happening.

Here are some that I would add to that list:

• Only the senior pastor’s books and products are for sale in the church bookstore
• The senior pastor’s name must be on the marquee in big, bold letters
• His/Her picture must be plastered on everything; website, bulletins, all promotion
• All ministry revolves around the preference of the lead guy
• Church takes out massive key-man insurance policy in case the senior pastor drops dead or has an affair to ensure that the church’s massive mortgage on the building is paid off for fear that there will be a mass exodus of tithing people
• Lead pastor is treated like a rock star and every whim he has is catered to.
• Small army of bodyguards and entourage surround the senior pastor

I think some would add that multi-site has taken this cult of personality to another level, however, I would disagree with that assessment. Many of the prominent names in the multi-site movement do not appear to have over-inflated personalities. Certainly not like the personalities in the distinctive I have been a part of.

Having said all that, as a lead pastor now, I do understand that your personality is wrapped up in the work and the church by nature of the fact that you are the most visible persona. You set the vision, chart the course and give direction. You and the church you lead are inseparable in the minds of people. I don’t know any way around that. That in and of itself is not a terrible thing, however, like anything else, can play to the selfish motives that are hidden and lurk deep within our hearts. Our hearts are capable of unspeakable evil when they are not surrendered fully to Jesus.

Where are the men and women who follow the example of Christ as mentioned in Philippians 2:3-11? When we are the celebrity and not Jesus we are in a very dangerous place. Everything the lead pastor does must point to Jesus as being the Head of the Church. Jesus is the Chief Shepherd, Senior Pastor and Apostle of the Church. The sheep belong to Him, not to us. Last I checked, I haven’t read of any pastor that shed his own blood, and gave his own life as a ransom for many. Any time we seek to elevate our name and personality above that of Jesus, well, I think that is referred to as idolatry.

“The human heart is a factory of idols…Everyone of us is, from his mother’s womb, expert in inventing idols.” –John Calvin

Your thoughts?

]]> http://www.danmastrapa.com/2009/09/29/the-cult-of-personality-in-the-church/feed/ 0 http://www.danmastrapa.com/2009/09/25/lord-save-us-from-your-followers/ http://www.danmastrapa.com/2009/09/25/lord-save-us-from-your-followers/#comments Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:26:20 +0000 admin http://www.danmastrapa.com/?p=459 Lord Save Us From Your Followers, Dan Merchant’s much anticipated documentary about Christianity’s PR problem, opens today in select theaters. It will no doubt spark tremendous controversy and hopefully, much conversation. Go to the website and watch some of the clips and follow the story.
Here’s the movie trailer:





]]> http://www.danmastrapa.com/2009/09/25/lord-save-us-from-your-followers/feed/ 0 http://www.danmastrapa.com/2009/09/19/amazing-absolutely-incredible/ http://www.danmastrapa.com/2009/09/19/amazing-absolutely-incredible/#comments Sat, 19 Sep 2009 18:05:59 +0000 admin http://www.danmastrapa.com/?p=452 Did that get your attention? ChurchCrunch had a post yesterday on how we oversell things in ministry by the big words we use and how that has spilled over into the technological front. He showed a mashup of Apple’s keynote and their excessive use of these words.

I have grown tired by the over promotion, hyped up marketing, that many pastors and churches use to promote their next series, program, worship or whatever it is. “Don’t miss my next series it will change your life.” “Hear never before heard revelation that not even God knows!” “Our worship is the best on the planet and even the angels stop their worship to hear ours!” “This word I’m going to deliver is going to blow your mind!”

It seems that in order to keep people coming back they have to one-up their previous message as if the Gospel isn’t enough to keep people coming back. When everything is amazing, incredible, the best, wonderful, stellar, will blow your mind, knock your socks off and awesome — well then, nothing is!

I’m for marketing but we had better make sure we are delivering on our hype. This over use of powerful adjectives has desensitized a whole host of people to what is truly amazing, incredible, life changing, majestic, glorious, awesome — Jesus, transformed lives, maturing Christ followers, a community growing in love and good deeds and people coming to Christ. Now that’s amazing!

Psalm 12:3 May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts”

What do you think?

]]> http://www.danmastrapa.com/2009/09/19/amazing-absolutely-incredible/feed/ 4 http://www.danmastrapa.com/2009/08/17/choose-your-words-carefully/ http://www.danmastrapa.com/2009/08/17/choose-your-words-carefully/#comments Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:22:56 +0000 Dan http://www.danmastrapa.com/?p=428 I just started to read Bill Hybel’s book Axiom — Powerful Leadership Proverbs. It’s a compendium of leadership nuggets from one of the most well known pastors in America and lead pastor of Willow Creek. It will take me a while to go through this book as I am finding each proverb extremely applicable to my current experience. I’ll be going through it like a devotional and share my thoughts periodically.

In the proverb, Language Matters, Hybels shares how the best leaders wrestle with words in order to communicate their big ideas in a way that captures the imagination, catalyzes action and lifts spirits. This is something I have been wrestling with myself in articulating the vision of SentChurch. I know deep in my heart what I desire to see but I am finding it challenging to draw out the words that convey what can call people to action. Much prayer is being focused in this direction.

It’s not just about creating catchy slogans or meaningless jargon to be hip, trendy and cool. Too many churches do that in an endless stream of cheap copycats and cheesy campaigns that don’t rally anyone around the cause. A quick viewing of Christian television, if you can stomach it, reflects how little effort is put in to choosing the right words. They all sound as if they hired the same dated, campy marketing agency. Consequently, they sound the same and fewer people are listening to them.

Choosing the right words is about crafting a story that excites the heart, appeals to the mind and causes the spirit to soar to new heights of possibility. Carefully and prayerfully chosen words that are inspired by the Spirit, elevate a group of common people to do uncommon things, make the ordinary extraordinary and move people from the mundane to the realm of the miraculous. That’s how powerful words are.

What words excite you and catalyze you to take action? I would love to hear some of those. Have you given careful thought to how you communicate your dream and vision?

]]> http://www.danmastrapa.com/2009/08/17/choose-your-words-carefully/feed/ 0 http://www.danmastrapa.com/2009/07/27/surfing-the-edge-of-chaos/ http://www.danmastrapa.com/2009/07/27/surfing-the-edge-of-chaos/#comments Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:38:49 +0000 Dan http://www.danmastrapa.com/?p=417 Yesterday was one of those bittersweet moments in life as it concluded a chapter for my family and I. It was my last Sunday on staff at The Gathering Place. A place I have worked at and served for the past ten years. A place where my family and I received healing, new life, new relationships, new direction and vision. I don’t think I have fully absorbed the moment but I am sure it will hit me fully in the coming days.

This new chapter of my life following Jesus involves great adventure, risk, danger, chaos, uncertainty — and I am really excited about that! Starting a business in this economy when many established business are failing and a new church when many are shuttering their doors, sounds like lunacy. I would tend to agree if I hadn’t heard clearly from the Lord to move in this direction.

Some of my favorite church bloggers have taken a leap in to the unknown at this time. Ben Arment, Carlos Whittaker and Tony Morgan have all left secure positions with amazing organizations to follow Jesus’ call and their passion. The beat of God’s kingdom doesn’t march to the same beat as the one of this world. Jesus beckons us out of comfort, safety, security and our sanitized environments to follow him.


Alan Hirsch recently unpacked a series of posts dealing with Living Systems Theory, change and chaos theory and its correlations to the church and spiritual movements. He cited this on living systems:

Nature is at its innovative best near the edge of chaos. The edge of chaos is a condition, not a location. It is a permeable, intermediate state through which order and disorder flow, not a finite line of demarcation. Moving to the edge of chaos creates upheaval but not dissolution; that’s why being on the edge is so important. The edge is not the abyss. It’s the sweet spot for productive change. And when productive agitation runs high, innovation often thrives and startling breakthroughs can come about. This elusive, much sought after, sweet spot is sometimes called ‘a burning platform.’ The living sciences call it the edge of chaos.”

Surf the edge of chaos, follow Jesus wherever he leads you — that is the sweet spot! When we stay in our safe zones, we lose that which makes us most like God, our creativity. He is the Creator, and out of chaos he created inexpressible beauty.


I would ask my friends to pray for us for the following:

• My wife and daughter who are on this journey as much as I am. Pray for wisdom and guidance during this time of shifting and transitioning.
• Our business, SafetyFactorUSA. We deal primarily in the construction safety arena and will be bidding on some upcoming projects in our state. Would love to have a few of those!
• The church we will be starting a few months down the road. I’ll be sharing more about that in the coming weeks.
  
  Surfin’ the edge of chaos!
  ]]> http://www.danmastrapa.com/2009/07/27/surfing-the-edge-of-chaos/feed/ 3 http://www.danmastrapa.com/2009/07/03/the-age-of-immediacy-and-the-loss-of-mystery/ http://www.danmastrapa.com/2009/07/03/the-age-of-immediacy-and-the-loss-of-mystery/#comments Sat, 04 Jul 2009 03:25:13 +0000 Dan http://www.danmastrapa.com/?p=360 J.J. Abrams, mastermind behind the hit TV series Lost, Alias and Fringe and the reboot of the Star Trek empire, wrote a fabulous essay in the May issue of Wired magazine on the Magic of Mystery. You can read the article in its entirety here.

  J.J. writes that we are in the middle of the “age of immediacy” where wonder and mystery are lost because of the instant access to information that will, at best, give us a satisfying understanding. Because information is ubiquitous, knowledge a mouse click away, true understanding has become bothersome. As he puts it, “an unnecessary headache that impedes our ability to get on with our lives (and most likely skip to something else).”

  Kids don’t want to discover for themselves the hidden “easter eggs” in video games so they go online and get video game “cheats” and “hacks” that enable them to leap frog the experience of discovering those on their own. Want to know absolutely anything about anything, “google” it! The question is though, have we lost something in this “age of immediacy”?

  This got me thinking a lot about God and spirituality and my role as a communicator of what I believe to be “truth.” In our quest to instruct, teach, impart wisdom and knowledge, communicate the deep truths about God, inform about doctrine and theology, have we inadvertently stripped away people’s desire for the mystery which is God? Have we robbed people of the experience of mining these deep truths for themselves? Have we eschewed the insatiable desires for easy answers and inspired people to explore, unearth, probe and uncover life changing revelation for themselves?

  We live in an age where if you have a desire to learn about Jesus, a simple search will yield 223,000,000 results. However,knowing about Jesus is not the same as experiencing Jesus. That can only come through a careful examination of his teachings, embracing his way of life as our own, wrestling with the hard issues he confronts us with, dealing with our fallen nature in light of his resurrected one and living our lives with him at the center of our existence. A total experience! No easy answers, no “7 steps to knowing Jesus”, no shortcuts, no hacks and no cheat sheets.

  I have been challenged to not strip away mystery by self-serving easy answers and savor the experience of discovery. Information is cheap these days. We must go through the process and not underestimate it.

  J.J. closes his essay with this thought. “Perhaps that’s why mystery, now more than ever, has special meaning. Because it’s the anomaly, the glaring affirmation that the Age of Immediacy has a meaningful downside. Mystery demands that you stop and consider—or, at the very least, slow down and discover. It’s a challenge to get there yourself, on its terms, not yours.”

  Savor the process, enjoy the journey, embrace the mystery! That’s life!

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