CLP Unscripted: Vulnerability, Culture, and Anger

Episode Summary

Braun Brown (Director of the Watermark Institute) joins John and Adam in an episode of CLP Unscripted. Instead of having a pre-planned agenda, the three of them each bring a leadership principle to share. Listen in for insights about how church leaders should think about vulnerability, culture, and anger.

• Vulnerability Is Your Friend With Leading Others. (2:15)
• Great Leaders Are Angry. (12:14)
• Organizational Culture Is Overrated (20:58)

Vulnerability Is Your Friend (2:15)

"Vulnerability is your friend with leading others." - Braun Brown

Refusing to be vulnerable and talk about our struggles is a mistake in ministry. In reality, vulnerability will always help promote authenticity and honesty. It lessens the temptation to hide sin. Vulnerability also draws people in. Fostering a culture of vulnerability is crucial for health in ministry.

When someone is being authentic, it will often look like that person being vulnerable. This can be a powerful tool. But it can also be scary. We often think that being vulnerable means that we are opening up ourselves to be hurt and rejected. We think that being vulnerable means loosing influence or position. However, it is actually the opposite that occurs. The Lord is calling us to be real and honest regardless of what happens afterward.

"Vulnerability is what authenticity looks like in action." - John McGee

It is important to remember that the Lord also calls us to be obedient. Authenticity and vulnerability should not be the end goal. Being a growing, maturing disciple of Jesus should be the end goal. If you are a church leader, call people both to authenticity and obedience. You do not have to pick and choose. Vulnerability and confession should move you to repentance and action.

When being vulnerable, make sure to not just highlight failures and doubts in the distance past. Be transparent about what you are currently struggling with.

Great Leaders Are Angry (12:14)

"Great leaders—people who turn the tide and change the direction of events—have been angry at injustice and abuse that dishonors God and enslaves the weak. William Wilberforce moved heaven and earth to emancipate slaves in England and eliminate the slave trade—and he was angry!" - J. Oswald Sanders (Spiritual Leadership, 1967)

This does not mean that great leaders are mean or are constantly yelling. It does not mean being angry at particular people. However, great leaders should be angry about something. Leaders should have something that they are more than just interested in. There needs to be some injustice in life that stirs a leader's heart to be zealously angry. Don't give up on fights that matter. What causes you to pound the table and say, "this shouldn't be this way!"? Are you angry about anything? If not, perhaps you should be.

Find something of eternal value and ask the Lord to stir in you a passion to see that thing made right.

Organizational Culture is Overrated (20:58)

"Culture is always talked about at the organizational level, but it is experienced at the individual level." - Adam Tarnow

If organizational culture truly worked effectively, then everyone's experience in the organization would be essentially the same. However, because we do not see this to be true, in reality localized culture is far more important. Teams are what matter because teams are the level in which people will actually experience culture.

Just because you have an organizational culture, doesn't mean people will hop on board. Leaders can do the work to set a culture. However, while the leaders high up in an organization may cast the vision, it is the local team leaders that implement that vision. That culture must then be contextualized for each individual team. The strength of the culture will often determine the degree to which it is implemented on the local level.

If you have a singular team that is struggling with culture, that does not mean there is a problem with the organizational culture. It may just mean there is a problem in that team's experience with that culture. Leaders should model the culture in a way that inspires teams to change.