Church Leadership

After finishing a four year stint as an elder in my church, with part of that time serving as the chairman of the elder board, this article really hit home. This is the first in a coming series of articles by John O'Keefe and it's a great start to the series. I especially like his description of what a church leader ought to be:

Visual: “Come and you will see” are the words Jesus shares.
Attractors: Andrew went and got his brother Simon Peter to bring to Jesus.
Connective: Jesus knew the lives of his disciples.
Chaotic: They do not know the absolute results, but they go anyway.
A Catalyst: A catalyst transforms things, without being changed in the process.
Be a Multiplier: Addition is not the way, and subtraction is unacceptable.
A Guide: They walk along side, and not push from behind
A Story Teller: They know the story, and they know the community
A Solver: conflict breeds conflict.

I've added the bold emphasis to make it easier to see/understand. His line "Addition is not the way, and subtraction is unacceptable" is sooooo true. O'Keefe makes some very good analyses of modern church leadership and these provide an excellent counter to the concerns that he raised earlier in the article. Check it out!