Sally Morganthaler on Leadership

Just came back from two day workshop with Sally Morganthaler on leadership for our emerging times, culture, church, etc. She wisely moved what they wanted her to originally focus on, worship (and the worship "wars" I suspect), and chose instead to follow her own bliss and passion now and focus on leadership. Perfect. Why try to spin wheels on programming choices when it will only wind up reproducing same old thing and same old stunted leadership? Focus on cultivating leaders and that naturally transforms everything leaders touch.

A few questions to focus on, according to Sally....and I will post again when I have my notes with me :).


What is the bravest thing you have done in the past year? What are three things your community needs? What is one thing your church needs to focus on? What is your biggest dream for your vision (not the mission, but the specific and contextual vision)? Now double, now triple that dream? What stands in the way of you being able to lead toward that dream? More to come...Mostly what stands in the way is the fear of being collaborative, but more on that too.

Most important part I think is her four part "this-isn't-a-model-model". Leaders are called to see reality, to interpret reality, to help change in reality, and release people into the new realities. Kept coming back again and again in different ways to the importance of knowing what is driving your default mode and how it presents a different reality than is really there. (There is a kind of addiction-kicking thing underneath all this I think, how we become addicted to false realities, and try to fill up our lives, our church lives too, with them instead of the real God thing. I know Tom Bandy has picked up on this in a few of his older books like Kicking Habits but I think there could be a real connect here from her and maybe there will be in her new book that is coming out next year...www.trueconversations.com). Anyway I am reminded of William Ellery Channing, 19th century preacher, advice to ordinands that the job of the minister is "to teach them how to see."

Lots of good resources mentioned, like Liquid Church by Pete Ward, and The Art of Innovation by Tom Kelley and Margaret Wheatley's leadership books.

Anyway, if Sally presents a workshop near you, don't miss it. It just felt good to hear the organic/emergent/ancient-future, et al, etc. being spoken.