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From the Bible to the Boardroom: Business Takes Note of Church Leaders

Orginally published on Wednesday, January 09, 2008 at 9:00 AM
by Todd Rhoades

Here's an interesting piece from Forbes Magazine about how businesses are starting to take notice of church leaders and Biblical concepts for leadership: "There are a lot of similarities between growing and running a megachurch and a business," says Timothy Hoeksema, CEO of Milwaukee's Midwest Airlines--and a megachurch member. "We can all apply a lot of the same principles." And anyway, many CEOs try to improve their leadership through precepts that ultimately have a biblical basis. "In the past, the church would go to secular leaders for leadership lessons, but now, it's vice versa," says Doug Schmidt, senior pastor of Woodside Bible Church in Troy, Mich., one of the nation's fastest-growing congregations, where attendance is more than 4,000 each Sunday. "The secular books I'm reading on this sound a whole lot more like the Bible."

To be sure, the idea of significant commonalities between directing big companies and big churches runs into some complications. For one thing, Christians are supposed to be wary of “mammon,” and it takes a lot of that to operate any megachurch; this is one reason the financial dealings of six major televangelists--some of whom also head megachurches--have been under investigation by the U.S. Senate. And, of course, corporate CEOs are ultimately beholden to a non-divine, but nevertheless, “higher power”: shareholders.

But the Bible calls Christians to be good stewards of their resources: The New Testament talks of money more than just about any other topic, and the scriptures warn the church’s earthly authorities to be scrupulous. So actually, successful megapastors must be ethical executives, skillful managers, inspirational leaders and competent speakers.

Ray Johnston illustrated the relevance while at lunch with a leading CEO who was also a member of his megachurch. “He told me, ‘Running my company requires everything I’ve got, but I could run a church with one hand tied behind my back,’” recalls Rev. Johnston, who heads the 10,000-member Bayside Church in Granite Bay, Calif.

“Then I told him: ‘Imagine what it would be like if, on Tuesday, you had to meet with everyone in your company and tell them that you had to stop paying them--and yet, you had to be so motivational that you could attract them to work for free. And you could get thousands of them to your campus once a week to sing songs and give you money.’ We have to attract and motivate people without financial reward being the ultimate ‘carrot.’”

Here are eight lessons CEOs could learn from the pastors who manage the healthiest big churches in America:

Casting A Vision
Compared with CEOs, megapastors have the advantage of promoting better lives and eternal salvation instead of mere appeals to help build profits or market share. “They mobilize members to become ‘brand ambassadors,’” says Jordan Rubin, founder and CEO of Garden of Life, a West Palm Beach, Fla., nutrition supplement company. “They can connect with and motivate their employees and volunteers better than any corporate CEOs.”

But CEOs can learn from megapastors how to cast a motivating vision. “They need to learn that employees aren’t just financially driven--that they like to serve a greater good,” says Jonathan Walton, an assistant professor of religious studies at the University of California-Riverside, who has studied megachurches. “There are principles and values and belief systems that companies can embrace, and for them, maybe the greater good has to do with humanitarian efforts--or the environment.”

Some megapastors suggest CEOs also could tap into dormant employee motivation by allowing them to import more spiritual values to their jobs. “If I’m in a corporate environment and feel I can only bring part of me there, then you’re missing half of me,” says Claude Alexander, senior pastor of Park Ministries, a Charlotte, N.C., church of about 10,000 members. Change this “not by creating an environment where people can proselytize, but just by recognizing that people have values, some of which are undergirded by religion.”

Modeling “Servant Leadership”
“Jesus Christ has given us a direction for the church,” says Doug Schmidt, senior pastor of Woodside Bible Church, in Troy, Mich.

“That helps create a culture for expectations. People come with a thousand different expectations, most of them unrealistic--and we try to create a culture to meet them.”

Megachurch member Jordan Rubin says he learns from megapastors how to “sew into the lives” of his employees. “In that way, I need to be the pastor of my company--not a priest, but a shepherd.”

Practicing Gratitude
CEOs should note how megapastors who are good leaders continually deflect praise from themselves to God and others.

Andy Stanley, for example, makes a point of publicly thanking and encouraging his staff at Northpoint Church, an Atlanta-area megachurch. “He’s taught me to become a ‘Chief Encouragement Officer,’ not just a CEO,” says Joel Manby, a Northpoint member and CEO of Herschend Family Entertainment, a Norcross, Ga.-based company that operates theme parks and other attractions in seven states. Partly as a result, Manby often spends the first 15 or 20 minutes of each day writing thank-you notes to employees.

You can read more here at Forbes.com...

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