Andy Rowell

Category: Leadership

  • You should throw a party and have people over. The value of gatherings.

    I asked eight students in my worship class whether they were the kind of person who plans and hosts parties and celebrations (Super Bowl, Halloween, birthday, anniversary, graduation, Academy Awards, hockey playoffs) and family gatherings (Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter).

    Or were they more of a party pooper or kill joy or wet blanket.
    All eight men said they were not much of a planner. The one woman present said she was more of a party-planner.

    Martin Short Franck GIF

    "But," I asked, "what about Sunday morning church worship services, baptisms, the Lord's Supper, weddings, and funerals? Do you think those are valuable? Are you interested in planning those and getting people together for those?"
    "Oh, yes," they said, "*those* are important!"

    The question is how those other human celebratory gatherings relate to the explicitly Christian gatherings. Is it concerning that a seminary student sees the value in the latter but not so much in the former?

    It seems to me, after a year more isolated from big gatherings because of the pandemic, that people are asking about both secular and Christian events: "Why should we gather together for events and celebrations? Did we really miss them?"

    These face-to-face gatherings in groups jostle us out of our logical, self-centered, routine lives and inject some sort of unexpected conversations, interactions, and insights. They are messy emotionally and mess up the house and kitchen too but we are enriched emotionally.

    The logical "Spock" person says: "Why get together to eat? I have food to eat at home."
    Often the social person is not able to articulate why we should gather and gives poor explanations like "We should" or "We were invited" or "It's tradition."

    There is a better explanation but it is still somewhat mysterious. Human beings are social animals. We don't function at our best alone. Solitary confinement is among the worst punishments.

    In the Bible, Adam was lonely by himself until Eve was created. The Jewish people gathered in Jerusalem a few times year for festivals and feasts. The stories about Jesus have to do with his interactions with strangers and crowds and his time at meals with his 12 or so disciples.

    And numerous studies show that church attendance correlates with happiness and health.

    So, yes, Hebrews 10:25 says Christians should "not [be] giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing." But that is not because "it's tradition" but because it is good for us. It's healthy. And the gatherings can "spur one another on toward love and good deeds."

    I grant that some gatherings are more important than others.
    – "Dudes, let's go to the bar and get hammered!"
    – "Come to my baby's gender reveal party!"
    BUT, I still think the convener, the gatherer, the host, the partier is on the right track. It is good for people to gather.

    Originally tweeted by Andy Rowell (@AndyRowell) on June 1, 2021.

  • No, the key thing to being a church leader is not looking good.

    It has dawned on me lately that according to some "church leadership" experts, the #1 most important thing for a leader, is to have a great physical appearance. This is contrary to the message of the Bible. It is heresy. It is a toxic lie.

    This is described as being "fit" or "healthy" but it becomes clear how much time and money is spent on gyms, personal trainers, food, clothes, watches, jewelry, makeup, and cars.

    It should not need to be said for anyone who has read the Bible, but people with an obsession with outward appearance (1 Sam 16:7, 1 Tim 2:9), physical training (4:8), clothes (Matt 6:25), money (19:24), or asceticism with regard to food (Rom 14:20), are fools who destroy others.

    The person fixated on their appearance cannot live in proximity to the poor. And they have no time for hospitality, for reading, or for serving others. Eating and drinking with others challenges their diet discipline and is awkward so they eventually stop eating with others.

    Read the Bible and see if the emphasis is on being physically fit and disciplined or whether the Messiah "had no beauty to attract us to him" (Isa 53:2), Jesus was called a glutton (Matt 11:19; Luke 7:34), and Paul said to accept food when it is offered to you (1 Cor 10:25-27).

    Here is a similar thread by me from January:

    Originally tweeted by Andy Rowell (@AndyRowell) on June 1, 2021.

  • Thinking theologically about leadership

    It is interesting that at the end of his book, Leaders: Myth and Reality (2018), after profiling 13 leaders, Stanley McChrystal becomes at least somewhat disillusioned with the concept of leadership and he concludes it is somewhat random that some people are followed. šŸ§µ

    McChrystal thinks that leaders are followed and there is not much else we can say. Followers *think* the leader is meaningful so he/she is. šŸ¤·

    McChrystal says he tried to answer: How do leaders lead? But he found there was no answer. He couldn’t find common traits among them. The leaders got lucky. And then “great leaders” often lost their leadership touchā€”became unlucky. It was bewildering.

    I agree that “leadership” is an incoherent concept in terms of popular understanding. But his confusion is because he is trying to figure out how to live just based on observation. I think agency and choices matter but that is a presuppositionā€”for me based on Jesus saying so.

    I don’t really believe in the importance of leaders or leadership but I do think people’s decisions and actions matter. I’m not a fatalist or determinist because of a belief in human progress but because I have accepted the premise that God cares about human choices.

    With the assumption of a God, we are not left at sea trying to figure out what seems to work. Instead, we are trying to discern how God would want us to act (because God wishes our good and the thriving of others and has given us direction).

    With a grounded moral worldview, we have direction with regard to what traits to cultivate, how to work with others, and what goals to pursue. Without this, there is no way of evaluating how to live or how to lead.

    A leader with a comprehensive (religious) worldview knows the moral ideals that they are trying to adhere to, and then trusts the results to God’s timing and God’s judgement of all involved.
    Without that, a leader just says: “That didn’t seem to work. Did I mess up?”

    McChrystal ends with an attempt at affirming leaders and leadership but what they actually affirm is the need for the moral coherence and hope that leaders offer.
    A Christian leader gets that and intentionally points to God’s beautiful vision for the world.

    McChrystal is correct to sense that people who want to be effective in working with others need to do more than giving orders and speeches. Rather they need to listen to those “beneath them” (especially those used to the military or other hierarchical institutions).

    In conclusion, I was very surprised after listening to their 13 biographical portraits of leaders to find McChrystal and his co-authors try to make sense of what they had assembled and for them to admit their surprise that it is impossible to describe what effective leaders do.

    It is indeed futile to make judgements about human behavior without a moral standpoint from which to judge. (See Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry by Alasdair MacIntyre).

    It is fascinating to see General McChrystal admitting he did not know how to make sense of his own choices and failures. In all sincerity, I think he might find clarity about these questions and peace in listening to what Jesus had to say.

    As I teach leadership to Christians, I teach largely without angst. I teach students to live according to God’s priorities and to leave the results to God. And I show them how history, leadership literature, history, and organizational psychology unintentionally affirm this way.

    Our world struggles with violence, apathy, and lies. Human beings should be agents of good. That’s moral agency. And they should work well with others in this good cause. That is *good* leadership.

    Without a good (moral) direction, human agency and leadership seems unnecessary, meddling, interfering, and patronizing. But if it is for good and done in a good way, well then, nothing is needed more in a violent, apathetic, lying world.

    Originally tweeted by Andy Rowell (@AndyRowell) on May 28, 2021.