There are no guarantees as a Christian leader. Often our Biblical stances are unpopular and cause dissention with the world and other governing bodies. Keep in mind however that the results are up to God. Our responsibility is simply for us to be obedient in exalting God and keeping His standards. As Christian Leaders, Armando has articulated something that we all need to be reminded of as a result of being a godly leader in a sinful world. Steve Brown's article has reminded us of what we are as Chaplains. May you be challenged and encouraged by these two articles. God bless.
Points on Leadership: The Inevitability of Conflict
by Armando Torralva,
Retired Navy Chaplain
Throughout the years I have collected material on
leadership; books, articles, sermon notes, seminar notes, etc. Recently I came across an eloquent quote that
summarizes a challenging, unpleasant, but necessary dimension of effective
leadership. The quote is noting new in
principle. Other students of leadership
have described it in more eloquent terms.
The philosophically pregnant primer (how about that for three “Ps”!) is
the following:
“Being responsible sometimes
means pissing people off.”[1]
Good leadership involves responsibility to the welfare of the group, which
means that some people will get angry at your
actions and decisions. It’s
inevitable, if you’re
honorable. Trying to get everyone to
like you is a sign of mediocrity: you’ll avoid the tough decisions, you’ll avoid
confronting the people who need to be confronted, and you’ll avoid offering
differential rewards based on differential performance because some people
might get upset. Ironically, by
procrastinating on the difficult choices, by trying not to get anyone mad, and
by treating everyone equally “nicely” regardless of their contributions, you’ll
simply ensure that the only people you’ll wind up angering are the most
creative and productive people in the organization.
I
agree with Colin Powell in this matter.
Being a leader may appear glamorous and glorious, but it is more often
lonely and thankless. Part of the reason
is that leadership inevitably meets with opposition and misunderstanding. Those we lead will not always agree with our
leadership and the result is conflict.
Conflict and disagreement should not discourage us. Though unpleasant, it is normal and
necessary. James M. Burns’ definition of
leadership includes conflict:
Leadership is the reciprocal process of mobilizing,
by persons with certain motives and values, various economic, political, and
other resources, in a context of
competition and conflict, (emphasis mine) in order to realize goals
independently or mutually held by both leaders and followers.[2]
According
to Janis, the more cohesive a group is the more likely it is to make bad
decisions as a result of “groupthink” which results from a lack of real
disagreement and conflict. In order to
avoid “groupthink”, Janis recommends assigning someone the role of critical
evaluator to each member, inviting in outside experts or assigning a “devil’s
advocate.”[3] With this in mind, I offer the following four
brief leadership points…
LEADERSHIP POINT NUMBER ONE:
Effective Leaders must build an atmosphere of trust
Proverbs
11:14 states that “where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.” The effective leader must build an atmosphere
of trust where others can disagree in safety and without open personal
hostility or retribution.
The
knowledge that we can disagree agreeably brings on a sense of relief and
openness among team members.
LEADERSHIP POINT NUMBER TWO:
Effective leaders are effective managers of conflict.
A
classic example of this thesis is found in Acts 15:36-40. The Apostle Paul and Barnabas were two of
the godliest men in the New Testament.
Yet even they disagreed on personnel issues. Barnabas wanted to take John Mark with him on
their second missionary trip; Paul did not.
In fact, Paul did not want John Mark because he had deserted Paul during
the first missionary journey. According
to the account in Acts 15:39, Paul and Barnabas “had a sharp disagreement.” They resolved the conflict by dividing their
energies. Barnabas took Mark with him
and Paul found a new partner in Silas.
Apparently, the arrangement work very well. Years later, while imprisoned in Rome, Paul
wrote to Timothy: “Get Mark and bring
him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry.” (II Timothy
4:11). The point is that Paul overcame
the differences caused by their earlier separation. Perhaps the friendship of Barnabas motivated
John Mark to regain his self-respect and become valuable to Paul. If you need help in this area, there are
various sources you can refer to in print or online. Do your homework, know your environment, know
your people and learn to be an effective manager of conflict.
LEADERSHIP POINT NUMBER
THREE:
Effective leadership will occasionally cause functional conflict while
incompetent
leadership will cause dysfunctional conflict.
The
XO on my first ship assignment had a saying that went like this: “the stupid
will be punish!” The first time I heard
him say it I laughed. Later I discovered
that his statement could be backed up with Scripture. “A prudent man foresees
the evil, and hides himself; but the
simple pass on, and are punished.” (Proverbs 27:12). Unfortunately, we had a few officers on my
ship that were “simple.” Their
incompetent leadership style cause unnecessary (dysfunctional) conflict among
crewmembers. Eventually, the officers
were “punished.” The Command Master
Chief (also on my first ship assignment) was the most “Navy Focused” individual
I met in the Navy. He lived for the Navy.
His character was impeccable (so was his uniform!). He was a no-none sense leader who cared for
his Sailors. Whenever one of his Sailors
got in trouble, he would literally get within inches of a Sailor’s face and loudly
ask the question: “What are you doing?” The question was loaded with profound
implications designed to be a wake up call.
The crusty Command Master Chief turned many an average Sailor into
exemplary sea warriors. Proverbs 28:23 states: “He that rebukes a man
afterwards shall find more favor than he that flatters with the tongue.”
LEADERSHIP POINT NUMBER
FOUR:
Effective
Leaders are individuals of integrity.
People
of integrity will run into conflict. A person of
integrity is “someone we can trust to do right, to play by the rules, to keep
commitments. Perhaps it is because we
all sense the capacity for integrity within ourselves that we are able to
notice and admire it even in people with whom, on many issues, we sharply
disagree.”[4]
“Integrity,”
as the Bible presents it, is comprised of two important elements: First, a
person of integrity must accept the moral principles which God endorses.
Second, a person of integrity must live a life guided and shaped by those same
moral principles.
“It
is far easier to know what one believes – to know, in effect, right from wrong
– than it is to do something about it. To live with integrity, it is sometimes
necessary to take that difficult step – to get involved – to fight openly for
what one believes to be true and right and good, even when there is risk to
oneself.”[5]
No
risk of loss, no risk of integrity. “A person
of integrity is willing to bear the consequences of their convictions, even
when this is difficult, that is, when the consequences are unpleasant. And if
we are never tested, we never really know how deeply we believe: Where there is no possibility of its loss,
integrity cannot exist.”[6] I had my share of conflicts in the Navy
and occasionally I have them now in the pastorate. Sometimes I win and sometimes I don’t. But, I
can honestly say, that I tried to maintain my integrity. I know what Scripture says about integrity
and I know that I must act
accordingly. Win or lose, conflict is
never pleasant. I never seek conflicts,
but they come anyway.
Conclusion: Conflict is inevitable. Conflict is part of
leadership and the effective leader will recognize that fact and learn to deal
with it. In a politically charged
environment such as the military, it is easy to compromise principles and seek
the path of least resistance. But the
end result will be the loss of integrity.
“Better to be poor and walk in integrity than to be crooked in one’s
ways even though rich.” (Proverbs 28:6).
[1] http://www.slideshare.net/guesta3e206/colin-powells-leadership-presentation
[2] James M. Burns, Leadership (New York: Harper and Row, 1978), p.425.
[3] Irving L. Janis, Victims of Groupthink (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1972), p.66.
[4] Stephen L. Carter, Integrity, Harper Perennial (New York) 1St Edition, 1996, p.7
[5] Ibid, pp. 10-11.
[6] Lynne McFall, “Integrity,” Ethics 98 (Oct ’87):5, 9 in Carter, p. 23.
Point #3: The Definition of a Chaplain
by
AGC President Steve Brown
Background: Well over 100
Endorsing Agencies send "Chaplains" to serve in the Military
Services, Hospitals, Prisons, and Public Safety Departments. The
"Religious Requirements" to be endorsed as a Chaplain vary with each
Endorsing Agency. Some Endorsing Agencies do not require ordination (the
military services do not require this either). Some Agencies endorse
women. Some view serving as a chaplain as a lesser ministry than that of
a Pastor, and so they place a lesser requirement on their Chaplains. A
Pastor once said of a Chaplain Candidate, he does not meet the Biblical
standard to be a Pastor, but I would recommend him to be a Military Chaplain.
Every AGC Chaplain is first
a God-called Pastor who has been ordained (set apart) for the Gospel ministry.
You are a Pastor in Uniform. We pray that you will excel in
this calling as a Pastor (serving now for a time as a Chaplain). While not
every tour of duty will require the traditional and repetitive
Preaching/Teaching responsibilities of a local church Pastor, you are always a
Pastor. It is God who called you into the Gospel ministry whether you
serve in uniform or in civilian garb. His calling is what really matters.
It is that calling that will sustain you when (not if) the going gets tough!
AGC Endorsement requires Ordination,
and Ordination is the work of a Local Church. While "the AGC"
has the capability to "ordain," we will use this capability only as a
last resort and always in support of a local church we represent.
Ordination is a local church's prerogative to recognize and celebrate
God's call on the life of a man, culminating in his public "setting
apart" to the Gospel Ministry.
Biblically, a candidate for ordination
must not only be doctrinally sounds, but according to the apostle Paul, a
person desiring the office of "bishop" and/or seeking the pastorate
must meet the following qualifications (drawn from I Timothy 3 and Titus 1):
A desire to serve
- Blameless
- Husband of one wife
- Temperate - self-disciplined
- Sober-minded - contemplative and not given to irrational or irresponsible thinking / behavior
- Good behavior
- Hospitable - friendly, compassionate, and welcoming
- Able to teach
- Not given to wine
- Not violent - should not be abusive
- Not greedy for money
- Gentle and not quarrelsome
- Not covetous
- One who rules his own house well
- Not a "novice" - the pastor should be spiritually and emotionally mature
- Solid testimony and reputation
An AGC Chaplain is not a second class,
throttled-back, version of a Pastor, a sort of "Pastor-Lite."
He is a Pastor in Uniform, on loan from a local church,
accountable to that church even though he is represented by the AGC to the
Military, a hospital, a prison, or a Public Safety Department.
BLUF: Every AGC Chaplain is a Pastor
who meets a local church's biblical requirements to be ordained to serve as a
Pastor, Elder, or Bishop (all three are used interchangeably). The
Pastoral Standard while variously interpreted is intentionally high, placed
there by God Himself in the inspired Text.
May we be empowered by His grace to
serve in such a way that others cannot help but see the difference (Titus
2:10-15) and desire the One we serve.
Be wise as a Serpent and Harmless as a
Dove!
