By Mark A. Taylor
Big ideas. Bold initiatives. Novel thoughts and new approaches. Replacement strategies and structures and processes to eliminate the out-of-date. Change. Growth.
These are the fruits produced by all good leaders, right?
Maybe. It”s certainly true we hear all of these described in leadership seminars and discussed among many ministers and their advisers.
But lately it has dawned on me that what some see as leadership is really entrepreneurship. And they are not the same.
The entrepreneur is, at least at first, a lone ranger. He (or she) pushes forward compelled by a new idea or a captivating vision, and accountable for little other than to see it realized. Later there will be a board and employees and maybe even stockholders. But today it”s just the entrepreneur and his dream and all the hard work he can pour into it. Who does an entrepreneur lead? Himself. He may negotiate with others. He may contract or even employ others. But they exist to make him happy and to fulfill his vision for what must happen.
If these partners don”t cooperate, they can easily be replaced. And if the venture doesn”t succeed, the entrepreneur can walk away and try something new. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs try many ventures before they find the one that works. They have demonstrated creativity and persistence and sometimes even brilliance. But not leadership.
In the church world, this is sometimes the situation with church planters. They start with nothing except, perhaps, the funding and coaching of a church-planting organization. The new church flourishes because of the planter”s grit and good instincts. For quite awhile, it”s on his back alone.
This is a far different situation than that of the minister who walks into a decades-old church with traditions and leaders and dozens of stakeholders. The minister of an established church (or the head of an established parachurch ministry) must have the skills to move entrenched constituents toward new worlds beyond the next horizon. He may share vision. He may advocate what”s new. He may seek change. But he doesn”t have the freedom to call all the shots or always to get his own way. He must lead. And, as difficult as it is to create something new from nothing, it is even more difficult to move a slow or stalled or misguided enterprise onto new paths.
Leadership is more than knowing what”s right and being able to describe it. Leadership is getting people to follow. As simple as that sounds, it”s more difficult than some entrepreneurs can master.
Author: Mark A. Taylor
Mark A. Taylor, who served as Christian Standard editor from 2003 to 2017, retired in June 2017 after almost 41 years with Standard Publishing (Christian Standard Media).
