4 timeless experts on leadership and change

Jim Farrer June 19, 2019

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Each year a myriad of experts produce books touting the latest leadership advice. What follows is timeless wisdom gleaned throughout history.

The future—are you ready?

“The trouble with the future is, it usually arrives before we are ready for it.” -The Anonymous Genius [pull quote]

At certain points in time there occurs what author Malcolm Gladwell termed “a tipping point” or what Phyllis Tickle called a “great emergence” when everything we have learned suddenly seems to be abandoned by society.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring? However, what almost never changes in the culture or in the church is a desire for choices, quality, authenticity, creativity and love. . . especially agape, God’s covenant love.

Planning for 100 years?

Leaders have often been advised to follow various long-range planning models to give their organizations greater direction.

A quote attributed to C.S. Lewis produces needed balance: “The greatest thing is to be found at one’s post as a child of God, living each day as though it were our last, but planning as though our world might last a hundred years.”

What can no one else do?

Peter Drucker, who in 2018 was named the world’s most influential business thinker, wrote in the Spring 1989 issue of Leadership journal: “The key question for a leader is: ‘What can I do in this organization that nobody else can do?’” 

Drucker followed with several corollaries: “What did the good Lord ordain me for? What are my strengths?” The great teachers and leaders recognize strengths and focus on them.

Often leaders do not know their true strengths. Taking personality inventories and spiritual gift assessments and asking colleagues and friends for feedback on one’s strengths and talents can lead to deeper understanding.

Lifelong learning and urgency

In the 1300s Geoffrey Chaucer wrote in The Parlement of Foules: “The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.”

Gaining a knowledge base or skill is not instantaneous, leading most institutions of higher education to include a department called Lifelong Learning. Will one ever be able to say: “I now know everything I’ll ever need to know about my profession”?

And, indeed, life is short. Psalm 90:12 reads: “Teach us to number our days.” The New Testament agrees: “Now is the accepted time. Behold now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2 KJV).

Photo source: istock 

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Jim Farrer is the founder of Vital Signs Church Consulting and a member of the Society for Church Consulting. A broadly-trained church consultant, Jim is also a veteran of ministry positions in Canada and the U.S., he has trained leaders from 18 denominations and led seminars and coaching sessions nationwide. His articles have been published in the Journal of Evangelism and Missions and the Great Commission Research Journal. You can reach him by e-mailing revup1@yahoo.com or calling 814 629-5211. Learn More »

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