Tim King Leadership

Command and Control management is all about establishing and maintaining power and control over people. On the surface it’s a great management tool and principle. But that is all. What we have to remember is it is a secular management process, the question we have to ask ourselves is does it work for congregations? Churches and the needs of congregations are a lot more complex than what they were 20 or even 50 years ago. Most Christian Leaders will tell me that their leadership style is one of developing, empowering and inspiring people into leadership. "Do as I do follow me just like Jesus asked us to follow him!"However while this is true in part I often find that the unspoken tag line is one "I do all this as long as people do as they are told and adhere to our churches cultural expectations". Let me give you an example; a member of a worship team who was and is very faithful and conscientious was late for a worship team practice before a Sunday night meet...

Christian Leaders and taking time off. Just got back from having had a few week’s vacation and   I am now feeling refreshed and ready for the next season that God has in store for me. While sitting in my chair absorbing the rays of the sun and getting my daily dose of Vitamin D, I mused about why it is so important for us to have time off. There are obvious reasons; like good stewardship and the fact that it’s good for your congregation to have a break from their senior pastor as well. (That may hit home at some egos) Some years ago a church leadership suggested to their senior pastor, that after 20 years of service to the church that he should take a fully paid sabbatical for six months. To go and refresh him and to relax and perhaps go hear other great Christian leaders and get ideas and new thoughts on taking the church forward into the next season. The pastor flatly refused, fired his leadership as he felt they were going to take over. For the next five years he nev...

Musings for young leaders.   A short while ago I was visiting church to discuss strategic planning with a young pastor and his team. While there I noticed that the pastor and his PA go into his office for a meeting and close the door. They weren’t there long, both came out and the PA went to her desk to carry out the tasks she had been given. Over the three days I was there I noticed that the assistant pastor had team meetings with his worship team and a one on one meeting with his chief vocalist. He would invite them into his office and close the door. His one on one was also behind closed doors. The vocalist was also female. Over lunch I brought it up in conversation with the senior pastor that perhaps it wasn’t a good idea to be seen going into a room alone with a person of the opposite sex. I quoted the 1Thess 5:22 where Paul tells us to avoid the appearance of evil. He felt that I was taking the scripture out of context as nothing evil was going on. He assured me that ...

This weeks ramblings. Last night I had a discussion with a church leader over why people of an older persuasion no longer wish to be involved in church.   However unlike some negative discussions I have had on the subject, this was in fact very positive in tone and attitude. The Christian leader was telling me how in recent months a number of people both old and young had come to his church. He told me how this group of people, of all different ages, had gelled together and become firm friends. The young couples, many of them new Christian, had been drawn to the older (middle aged) people who for the most part were more mature Christians. The results were fantastic and resulted in renewed enthusiasm on the part of the older Christians for life and their faith. For the young people it was building on the foundation that had be laid by Jesus and these people found Christianity meaningful, mystical and faith driven. Below are two blogs I have written about baby boomers that...

More and more in the media we are hearing about the damage we humans are doing to our environment, through our use of Single use plastics and our polluting habits in our oceans and wilderness areas. Our children are being bombarded with green and environmental issues at their schools. Many children bring those issues and concerns home and expect parents and even their peers in church to give a lead and have a view, which helps them understand what is going on. Do we as Christian Leaders have a responsibility to shoulder some of the ecological burden to look after our planet? When God told us to subdue and to rule over the earth in Genesis 1 verse 28, was he giving us an ecological responsibility to sustain our world? Please don’t get me wrong, I am not one of these enviro warriors or radical greenies. I also believe that there is some uncalled for hysteria about our use of plastics, not all plastic is bad. However I do feel that as Christians and especially as leaders, that we do...

This weeks ramblings. I was asked this week if it was OK for Christian employers to fire other Christian staff.  Firstly let me state that it is always important to follow the laws of the country that you live in, but the question should be; Do I as an employer have the right to fire other staff Christian or not. The short answer is YES! Let me give you two examples I have come across; Case Study 1; The CEO of medium sized Christian organisation dealing in books and other Christian Literature had a problem with one of their staff. The person concerned, let’s call him Pete, seemed to push everybody’s buttons. Pete had been with the company 2 years, his first six months were just great but after that everything went downhill. He always complained, he bad mouthed his managers. At company social gatherings, when sport was played, he never played with any great sportsmanship; it seemed that every decision was wrong or somebody had a beef with him. But, Pete went to the same c...

Today's rambling. Looking over some of my old school reports the other day and was amused at how some of the comments, that teachers made about me have shaped my life and in many respects made me who I am today. One teacher wrote that I didn’t play well with others, I was 5 at the time maybe I had an excuse. Another teacher in my high school years, the wood working teacher or wood shop teacher for my American friends wrote; “If you value your life you will keep him away from power tools and other dangerous equipment. I can’t remember why he wrote this, obviously I did something that made him fear for his life. Today as an adult I have to say that I don’t do well in committees, for most of my life I have been self- employed. I have steadfastly stayed away from power tools and other wood working equipment, basically anything that can cut something off and is a danger to life and limb. Over the last 10 years I have been looking at and teaching about Emotional Intelligence ...