Vineet Nayar in a Harvard Business publication says It’s Time to Invert the Management Pyramid, which Ryan Bolger follows up by saying We Must Invert the Pastor Pyramid. I’m not really very big on chasing down business strategies to apply to the church, but it’s always striking to notice how all the really good organizational ideas that the churches adopt are ones which the business realm has had a grasp on for a decade or more. With this in mind, whether one takes the result as a prescription or not, it is instructive to take note when the business realm begins to find fault with their old organizational method and begins imagining or suggesting an alternative structure. The Harvard article states,

I know I already quoted from the book, but it’s a good one. Page 27:

Senator Bill Bradley defines a movement as having three elements:

1. A narrative that tells a story about who we are and the future we’re trying to build
2. A connection between and among the leader and the tribe
3. Something to do–the fewer limits, the better

Too often organizations fail to do anything but the third.

I recently finished Scot McKnight’s latest release, The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible. I have a habit of noticing ideas and examples that may be tangental to the author’s point but which I still make a point of applying in a slightly different context — as I did yesterday. And here comes another one, on authority.

Last summer, I asked if Jesus was a failure as a visionary Leader. I think I mostly made my point, but there will remain some who are unconvinced, I’m sure. To suggest anything wrong with the way our Lord did things is a serious breach of Christian etiquette, perhaps enough to get one run out of town on a rail. But there it is. I left it alone for a while, thinking maybe I’d write further on it at some point, but never did. This spring, Ruth Tucker posted a “provocative” piece on Acknowledging Jesus as a Failed Leader, which received a fair bit of blogosphere linkage. I had hoped to resume this dialogue sooner, but Tucker’s post disappeared for some time, reappearing online just recently. She may be even more provocative than I was:

I’ve actually been meaning to post this for quite some time now, but I’ve been reminded of it again and am finally getting around to it. I have in my 20-year-old NIV Study Bible on page 1599 a 3″x4″ Post-it Note affixed overtop of the notes on the bottom of the page. It contains three bullet-points referring to a text on that page, with a few brief notes about each one. The note represents advice at-the-ready that I could share with a group for anywhere from 5 minutes perhaps up to full sermon length. It always seemed a good idea to have something at the ready, and it is a bit of advice that I shared with leaders and leaders-in-training and people in ministry training or prophetic ministry. And now here it is on the blog. I say there are three lessons, but really it’s a single lesson in three points, designed to remind us who we are and put us in our place.

Brad “futuristguy” Sargent is on a tear with his series on spiritual abuse recovery. His latest is no exception to the quality of the series. He writes,

I’m in the process of figuring out a new church fellowship/home these days. Unless God clearly leads otherwise, I expect it will be more of a connection point where all participants already engage in some kind of ministry outside the time of gathering, or are exploring while they receive mentoring to help them find a fit. And so the getting together focuses on mutual sharing and worship, and support and fellowship and learning for the journey. Not pragmatic and programmatic, nor weekly performance by The Few, nor holding to an appearance of discipleship but that denies the necessary relationships thereof.

BusinessPundit asks What Role Do Peers Play In Entrepreneurship?:

An interesting new research paper examines the role of peer influences on entrepreneurship. Since most entrepreneurs are employed in corporations before they go out on their own, the study examines how peers at those corporations effect perceptions of entrepreneurship and the likelihood of starting a business. It turns out that entrepreneurial attitudes build through feedback loops. The more entrepreneurs that come out of a place, the more likely the other employees are to become socialized to the idea, and to be more keen to market opportunities. This could explain why some businesses spin off many other startups, while others don’t.

I’m inspired this morning by Ted Gossard on slowing down. He talks about “the Word of the Lord” (a phrase for you fellow post-charismatics) to most of us being, “whoa” or some variation of “slow down.” Our tendency is to run ahead, set our strategies, and work them relentlessly (though perhaps not tirelessly). Perhaps in the process, even when we’ve not lost our way completely, when we’re just a bit disoriented, we still tend to plod along without further evaluation. Transparently, Ted writes,

This might look a bit like an early edition of my weekly links post, but that’s not what I was going to say. I’ve had many thoughts swirling lately, and have noticed some recurring themes in the blogosphere that I wanted to weigh in on, but I’ve just been busy with other matters. *sigh.* Anyway, I was going to offer thoughts of mustered profundity on many issues…. which have been touched on in several posts I”ve been keeping open in my browser thinking (naievely) that I would get to them. I’ve read some or most of these, but not all… and I’ve lost track of a few related posts on these recurring subjects.