Logan Leadership

“Effective leaders, in my observation, do not start with their tasks. They start with their time. And they do not start out with planning. They start by finding out where their time actually goes. Then they attempt to manage their time and to cut back unproductive demands on their time. Finally they consolidate their ‘discretionary’ time into the largest possible continuing units. This three step process– recording time, managing time, and consolidating time– is the foundation of leader effectiveness.” — Peter Drucker  

“A leader’s focus on contribution by itself is a powerful force in developing people. People adjust to the level of the demands made on them. The leader who sets his/her sights on contribution, raises the sights and standards of everyone with whom he/she works.”  — Peter Drucker

“An organization which just perpetuates today’s level of vision, excellence, and accomplishment has lost the capacity to adapt. And since the one and only thing certain in human affairs is change, it will not be capable of survival in a changed tomorrow.” — Peter Drucker

Ministry organizations or churches that are doing something really well can inadvertently be sowing the seeds of their own destruction– unless they have a plan to grow beyond that.

“An organization that is not capable of perpetuating itself has failed. An organization therefore has to provide today the people who can run it tomorrow. It has to renew its human capital. It should steadily upgrade its human resources.”  — Peter Drucker

The future of any ministry is in its next generation of leaders. How is your church investing in people development? Where are tomorrow’s leaders of your church? Many are not currently in your pews. How can you reach them where they are? What type of development would they need to be effective?

“…any organization also needs a commitment to values and their constant reaffirmation, as a human body needs vitamins and minerals. There has to be something ‘this organization stands for,’ or else it degenerates into disorganization, confusion, and paralysis.” — Peter Drucker

What does your organization stand for? There’s your vision and mission statements of course, but if you asked a few random people within your organization what you stand for, what might they say? Family values? Bible knowledge? Experiences of the Holy Spirit? What really fires people up and gets them excited? What do they care about? What are they willing to work toward? The answers people give you to these tell you a lot about what your ministry organization really stands for.

“Direct results always come first. In the care of feeding of an organization, they play the role calories pay in the nutrition of the human body.”  — Peter Drucker

One of the critical issues that we don’t recognize in church leadership is that it’s not the activities that matter, but the fruit that those activities yield. Attendance or participation is one thing to measure, but far more important is measuring the outcome created by that attendance or participation. For example, are we measuring church service attendance or life change?  Just because something is easier to measure doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right thing to be measuring.