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I could have kicked myself. There I stood in front of our garden looking at a completely bare-naked area, just dirt and withered remnants of last season’s beauty. Then I looked at my neighbor’s garden, profuse with luscious blooms artfully arranged. Frustrated, I scolded myself: Why didn’t I plant my tulip bulbs last fall? I purchased the most wonderful array of bulbs over the summer and stored them in the basement. But during the fall I forgot all about those bulbs and their Eastertide glory as I scurried from task to task. Busy with daily routines and juggling many tasks, church leaders often forget to plan ahead and prepare for a faithful future. In at least three respects, church leadership is a lot like gardening. First, gardeners have to know their particular spot of earth well enough to know what can grow and what cannot. Over the six years since we moved to Kansas City, I learned through trial and much error which plants grow in this crazy Midwest weather and impermeable clay soil. |
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Leadership Vignette I like words. I think of them and our ability to communicate as a gift from God. They are like little gifts that are a source of strength. I like the expression “fruitful leadership.” It still has an edge of accomplishment about it, but the notion of bearing fruit adds God’s mystery to it. I can plant and I can till, but the growth and the bearing of fruit is God’s work. |
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| The Right Question | ||||||||||||||
Tom Frank, in his book The Soul of the Congregation (Abingdon, 2000), offers some good questions to understand how persons experience a congregation.
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Editors: Lovett H. Weems, Jr. and Ann A. Michel Copyright © 2006 by the G. Douglass Lewis Center for Church Leadership. Leading Ideas material may be freely distributed with attribution (exclusive of material protected by separate copyright). |
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