The christian faith is full of these so called parts. They are all Jesus followers that have been given a spiritual gift. Each christian has been specially designed by God -- wonderfully and marvelously made by God (Psalm 139.13-16). Jesus followers are all children of God. This means we are a part of a family. We are part of a community and not just any community -- we are the Church.

Again, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The Church as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Its hard to argue that the Church stands as a whole right now. We are broken in the sense that we are divided, that we do not use are spiritual gifts proactively. This idea of "whole" versus "sum of parts" means that the whole is able to accomplish more than what just a "sum of parts" can.

I could put the most amazing team of athletes together but unless they function as a whole, they would eventually fall apart. They could exercise each of their skills individually and do okay but they could do great when the use their skills to compliment each other in whatever event they may be competing. It seems churches have gotten caught up in being individual churches instead of being capital-C Church. An individual church is not bad but when you forget or alienate yourself from big-C Church then something has gone wrong.

To often, all responsibility is diffused onto those with the spiritual gift of leadership. God created more than just leadership as a spiritual gift. These different spiritual gifts help to make up the body of Christ as a whole -- the Church. If a church were synergistic, the believers would be exercising their different spiritual gifts as a whole and some amazing things would be happening -- a healthy community of believers. We as leaders provide direction and a part of this direction is letting the communities that we lead know that they have spiritual gifts as important (if not more so) than our spiritual gift of leadership. We should be encouraging them to pursue and use them.

I can have a group of believers together in one spot. Unless they are using their God-given spiritual gifts, all we have is a "sum of parts". We strive for being "whole". To be a whole, we use these gifts that God has given us. Every believer is gifted. There are no spectators in the synergistic Church. As a leader, I will seek to pursue synergistic Church. Will you join me? The Church as a whole is greater than the the church as individual parts.

Knowing about different kinds of influence is as important as knowing where we direct our influence. There is influence that flows from us and as Christian leaders, there is influence that flow through us. It would be easy to focus on the different kinds of positional and personal influence (and good to know them) but I personally think it is more important to recognize the two sources of influence.

As a Christian leader I am empowered to use my mind and heart in conjunction with the spiritual gift of leadership God has given me to influence people. God has given me the ability to influence others. I can do all things through Christ who gives me srength -- Philippians 4:13 NLT. It is not a question of whether we have the ability to do something or not. We do and in a leaders situation you can influence others from passion within. The question is who gives us authority to do so. That authority is God.

It is easily recognized that we have the inner ability to influence and this ability is from God. Influence can flow from us. Even more important in the Christian leader's life is the discipline of allowing influence to flow through us. This is reflective of John 3:30 NLT - He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.

Early in my initial development as a Christian leader I thought that I had to get out of the way so that God could be seen. I have since come to learn that God does not want to push His people out of the way but that He wants to flow through them and be seen through and in them. It is amazing. The other source of influence is supernatural. It is God flowing through us as leaders. I believe the sole purpose of this influence is to direct people to God and His kingdom.

As a leader there is a difference in influence that flows from us and one that flows through us. I do not think that influence that flows from us is inferior to influence that flows through us. I even think it can be seen outside of faith (if it is possible for things to exist outside of faith.) Leaders of great organizations do some amazing things outside of faith-based organizations.

Take One.org for example. It is an amazing effort to fight poverty. Influence comes from these leaders no doubt but there is influence that flows through leaders as well. This influence and energy flowing through leaders comes from passion (an external force acting upon an agent). Some would credit this passion to human hope but I believe it is more than that. I believe it is the nature of God. This passion is what drives this organization and keeps it together.

Influence flows from and through. Do you readily recognize this in your life? Understanding the awesomeness of this is crucial. Leaders, understand that you have the ability to influence and that you have the ability to allow influence to flow through you. Influence is crucial to understand because leadership is influence.

The importance of a model like this and others is massive. People who have an unmet need are more likely to focus in on their needs that distract them than to pay attention to you as a leader. If they are starving they will want food. If they feel insecure they will want safety. If they feel lonely they will want acceptance. If they feel like they are nothing, they will want someone to make them feel like they are something and if they do not know whom they are, why would the waste their time chasing another's dream?

People can become enslaved to their unmet needs and this distracts from a leader offering direction. When something is out of balance it is hard to listen to someone else. Why would someone want to hear about Jesus when all they can hear is their stomach grumbling? Leaders listen -- if you want people to listen you have a responsibility in empowering people to meet their needs. When their needs are met, they will listen.

Leaders must be able to utilize resources and people to help meet different kinds of needs. Having knowledge of the different kind of needs can help us as leaders utilize proper resources and relationships to meet needs -- including our own. This is where Maslow's Hierarchy is such an important tool. It gives us a strong base in recognizing different needs.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

I am not going to go into what each need means because they are self explanatory. If you would like to know more follow this link on Maslow's Hierarchy. Knowing these needs are being met in the four spaces will help communities and organizations grow. All to often leaders fail to recognize these different kinds of needs and impoverishment invades the communities that they lead. Take this seriously so that you can avoid the impoverishment that has invaded so many organizations and communities.

"A leader must know where they are headed in life, both professionally and personally, with strength to persist even in the face of setbacks and failures." (Warren Bennis | On Becoming a Leader). Bennis also gives leaders very practical advice in On Becoming a Leader. - "If you don't know where you are going, you can't possibly get there." Bennis says that leaders have vision.

I agree, but from a strictly foundational point of view, leaders have and offer direction [I will discuss vision at a later date]. As leaders, we cannot offer direction if we do not know where we are headed. Verb-centric direction is vital to the health of community that you lead.

Leadership is a process that never fully ends so leadership must be verb-centric. Yes we achieve goals and such but then what? We generally move towards our next goal. Verb-centric is action oriented while noun-centric seeks to contain something into a definable box. Personally I desire for my leadership to be contagious and never contained. This helps to fuel the continual concept of leadership process and continual offering of direction.

In order for leaders to offer direction to others, they must know why they are pursing the course they have chosen. Leaders have the responsibility to cast direction. Followers and leaders together have the responsibility in engaging direction. John Maxwell says, "anyone can steer a ship, but it takes a leader to chart the course." Leaders have and must offer direction because they are the true course charters.

Chatper 9 Lanuage brings the entire book together if you can grasp what Myers is arguing for. His desire is to move from a noun-centric to verb-centric community. This causes us to stop limiting things like God and community when we stop referring to them as nouns. Nouns put boxes around concepts we wish to grasp. We can never fully grasp God. I think this is where Myers would suggest we approach God like a verb. Organic community is the same. There is organic order but not order in the sense of formulas and lists that restrict us from growing when the demands are not met.

Sometimes leaders put their faith in master plans because they have greater faith in master plans than they do people. D.M. McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y asserts that a leaders' view of the subordinate is conditioned by his/her world-view. Theory X assumes people are incapable of achieving goals and need to be heavily directed while Theory Y assumes people are capable of achieving goals individually.

Organic community needs Theory Y leaders. People are created in the image of God and are very capable of fulfilling the plans He has for them. Theory Y leaders guide through encouragement while theory X leaders guide by controlling. Leaders are not in place to control anything. They are in place to direct. There is a difference.

Community cannot exist without story. Stories enable leaders to form a better picture of the health of a community than numbers alone ever could. To often master planning relies on success by the numbers. Numbers really do not qualitatively capture growth. Stories do. If stories are spreading through the community then this means growth is evident. You could have a church of 10000 but if they only showed up on Sunday and that was it then does it even matter? Remember, a growing community needs growing leaders.