The Way Love Leads

By Mike Glenn

The big news in business over the last few weeks was Starbucks hired a new CEO. The CEO of Chipotle, Brian Niccol, is the new CEO of Starbucks. According to several of the articles written about his hiring, Niccol was instrumental in turning around Chipotle by cutting costs, simplifying the menu and focusing on customer service. The shareholders of Starbucks are hoping Niccol can do the same thing for the baristas of your local coffee shop. 

Photo by Jan Kopřiva on Unsplash

Strange, but one restaurant features a southwest menu while the other is a specialty coffee shop. I don’t know what salsa and chips have in common with a double latte, but the board members of Starbuck were excited to land their prime choice for CEO. They wanted him to work for Starbucks so much they didn’t require that he relocate to Seattle where the headquarters of Starbucks is located. He gets to fly to work on the corporate jet from his home in California to Seattle.   

If you pay attention to the business world, you’ll quickly see there are a handful of CEOs who have success in several different businesses. The skills needed for success in one business seem to be transferable across corporate platforms. A good CEO can work at a lot of different types of companies. The basic business principles and practices are the same. Managing supply lines and cash flow works pretty much the same in the coffee business and the restaurant business. 

Because most of our congregation works in this business world they assume the same is true across the board. A good leader in one place would be a good leader anywhere. Therefore it follows that a good pastor of one church would be a good pastor of any church. 

Maybe. Maybe not. 

In church leadership, context matters. Rural churches aren’t like urban churches and the church on this side of the street will be completely different from the church on the other side of the street. It’s just no one will tell you this. If you are the pastor of one church, you’re expected to be as successful as any church your membership compares you to – and success is always measured in terms of more members and bigger budgets. In reality, a church that is growing at 10% a year in a neighborhood that is growing 25% a year is actually getting smaller when it comes to community impact. The more successful pastor is the leader of the church which has declined by 5% when the neighborhood has declined 20%. 

Go to any church leadership conference and you'll hear about visions statements, strategies, priorities and budgets. All of this is well and good. Churches should use best business practices. The church financial structure should be squeaky clean without a shadow of a doubt as to how God’s money is handled. All truth is God's truth and we want to use the best practices in every area of our ministry.

But every church is different like every child is different. One size doesn’t fit all and just like some parents are better for some children, some pastors are better for some churches. There are some churches I could not lead. My life experience has nothing in common with their experience. My personality wouldn’t fit. 

And that’s OK. 

The foundation of church leadership is love. Not strategies or vision statements, but love is what gives a true pastor their authority. You can lead a church without a vision statement. There are lots of churches without structure, but there isn’t a single church without love. In John 10, Jesus talks about being a good shepherd. He talks about knowing his sheep. He talks about laying down his life for his sheep.I can't ever remember hearing these questions in a conversation with a pulpit committee.  No one asked me if I was willing to die for this church I was being asked to serve. No one asked me if I would seek to understand the different personalities of our members.

I have a friend who was a terrible preacher. He broke every rule of effective communication. Yet, his church hung on every word. As I studied him and his ministry, I finally understood the reason why. My friend loved his church fiercely. Because he loved his church intensely and because his congregation knew this, he could say whatever he needed to say to his church – and they would listen! His love for his church made him a very good preacher. 

There's a different requirement to lead a church. It’s not skill – although that helps – it’s love. You can’t lead without love. And before you tell me that kind of leadership won't work in the real world I will remind you we’re not talking about the real world. We’re talking about the kingdom of God. This is the leadership of the redeemed. This is kingdom leadership and in the kingdom, our best leaders are known by the scars of their love.