Agenda-Driven People

Orginally published on Wednesday, March 14, 2007 at 8:03 AM
by Todd Rhoades

Every pastor and leader has to deal with a certain personality type whose aim it is to promote their own agendas. These people seem aloof from others and at times oblivious to reality, and therefore they can be detrimental to your leading. Here are some practical tips on dealing with Agenda Driven People. My wife was reading a magazine for pastors’ wives the other day, when all of a sudden she pulled the periodical from her gaze and said, “What? I can’t believe it.” She was miffed to read a letter to the editor from an irate person who was contesting something in the magazine. What bugged her was that this was the same person who’d written in to Rev! Magazine and complained about the same thing. She said, “Why was this person able to get so much attention? He obviously has an agenda.”

Perhaps because magazine editors, like pastors, are hungry for feedback, any feedback, we sometimes publish rants and raves that probably should go unnoticed. But this person obviously had an axe to grind in general, so he picked at least two magazines, designed for different audiences, to convey his frustrations.

In graduate school I took a class from a professor who had an overt bias toward Eastern religion. It bugged me that his teaching didn’t seem to fit the college catalog description of his course. Unknowingly I signed up for another class that he taught, but when he began teaching the very same spiritual agenda, I dropped the class. He paid little attention to the course material, preferring to teach his agenda instead.

Once in our church we had a multi-level salesperson who was continually trying to get congregants to become a part of his “down line.” Many times after a sermon, he’d come up to me and tell me how the message had inspired him to work harder and to persevere in his career. How he got some of his ideas from the text of the morning beat me. The time came to speak the truth in love to this well-meaning parishioner.

Agenda Driven People pop up in our churches and ministry teams. This person wears tainted glasses and tends to see the world in distorted tones. The problem is that in faith communities and ministry teams, such people can distract us from our mission by selling those around them on their mission. Here are four things to do as a leader when you find Agenda Driven People in your midst:

1) Identify the Personality: Putting a label on this type of person is helpful because far too often we wrestle with attitudes that disparage, and we’re not sure what to do. Charateristics of Agenda Driven People include: frequently talk about the same subject, hijack meetings to focus on their issues, seem out of touch with reality, and tend to alienate themselves from other group members, whether or not people verbalize it.

2) Set Realistic Expectations: Chances are slim that you’re going to change these people. Agenda Driven People reflect more of a psychological pattern than one that’s spiritual, passion-motivated, or logical. Many of us in ministry have a tendency to be enablers, putting up with people out of grace, in hopes that they’ll change, when in fact emotional wiring is not apt to morph much.

3) Establish Clear Boundaries: You may need to take this conversation offline, but when you pull the person aside, look him in the eyes, and say something to this effect, “Dave, I know this is a passion of yours, but I’m going to ask you not to bring up this topic again in our meeting. It’s not helpful to our team. Do you understand me?” Obviously, earning the right to say this is best, but as a leader, you can’t let an emotional terrorist create fear and frustration on the team.

4) Disarm Agenda Driven People: The best way to do this is to avoid asking them to serve on ministry teams and to avoid placing them in situations where they’ll have a podium, a place to influence others. As editors, we won’t publish another letter or email that this person sends. In a church, you may need to take a name off a ballot or not allow the person to attend a planning meeting. You’ll not convert people to your way of thinking or to healthiness. Your best hope is to love them appropriately and disarm them from doing harm.

We all have agendas, things that are important to us. Sometimes Agenda Driven People become historical change agents, whose conniving brings them media attention and undue privilege with influencers. But for most of us, Agenda Driven People will simply diminish our effectiveness and dilute teamwork. Be wary of these people as leaders and savvy about their MO (modus operandi).

About the Author… Alan Nelson is the executive editor of Rev! Magazine (http://www.rev.org), the author of a dozen books, and has been a pastor for 20 years. You can reach him at .

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