I hear the Spice Girls are at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto tonight. I hear but I don't care, except for this -- it got me thinking about the concept of the superstar.
In the church realm, we love our heroes as well. The leaders at the top of the food chain capture our attention. They have the moxy and the manpower to do so using their podcasts. Good for them!
My problem is that we must remember the realities. Few of us are superstars. And we must live in the zone God has fitted us for. That doesn't mean we dumb down our actions to mediocrity. It does mean we realize that in the grand scheme of things Google Page Rank doesn't count for much. It is the last that will be first in the end of the day. Surprises are coming.
My bigger problem as it relates to starting churches is that many have fallen into the trap of believing that the church starting leader thinks of himself as a star in waiting. Or at least those who are looking for church starting leaders are looking for stars in formation. Bad idea.
Bad idea because you cannot predict with certainty who will become the next Rick Warren or moving in on his heels the next Mark Driscoll or even the next James MacDonald. They all have some things in common. They started their churches. Their churches all got big over time. They are still in the churches they started. The list goes on. But if you were to go back in history before their fame you would find many of the people around them -- probably the majority -- would not have voted them the next in line for the superstar mantle. I wonder if any would have passed a church planter's assessment without being put on probation. I doubt it.
I believe that the quest for the next superstar is ill-advised --or more strongly stated -- stupid. It is a waste of hope and resources.
The far better thing to do is to create a seedbed in which all get the nourishment to grow to their potential. Time will tell who gets to the top. There is no sense in trying to pick and choose. Work with a coalition of the willing and the teachable. If the next superstar bolts and develops his own seedbed, so be it. That is a good thing. Since everyone learns more from failure than from success, if they fail in their quest for significance nothing is lost. Education is gained.
Creating a "franchiseable" superstar system has proven over and over again to be the best idea. This approach takes more ordinary people and gives them to the tools to put out the "fries" at the same quality every time. They don't have to be good cooks. They just need to know when to push the buttons. Granted, this isn't fulfilling if the dictums come from on high and micro-manage. But within a proven framework, it is very possible to create success that rhymes with other successes.
We need to get off of the hero worship and onto creating better systems so that more ordinary people can obtain more extraordinary results. We need an army of church starting leaders who more quietly grow new churches one at a time. If a few emerge and take over the Spice Girl slot at the ACC that is OK with me. Anyone want to buy my tickets? I will scalp them in advance.
In the church realm, we love our heroes as well. The leaders at the top of the food chain capture our attention. They have the moxy and the manpower to do so using their podcasts. Good for them!
My problem is that we must remember the realities. Few of us are superstars. And we must live in the zone God has fitted us for. That doesn't mean we dumb down our actions to mediocrity. It does mean we realize that in the grand scheme of things Google Page Rank doesn't count for much. It is the last that will be first in the end of the day. Surprises are coming.
My bigger problem as it relates to starting churches is that many have fallen into the trap of believing that the church starting leader thinks of himself as a star in waiting. Or at least those who are looking for church starting leaders are looking for stars in formation. Bad idea.
Bad idea because you cannot predict with certainty who will become the next Rick Warren or moving in on his heels the next Mark Driscoll or even the next James MacDonald. They all have some things in common. They started their churches. Their churches all got big over time. They are still in the churches they started. The list goes on. But if you were to go back in history before their fame you would find many of the people around them -- probably the majority -- would not have voted them the next in line for the superstar mantle. I wonder if any would have passed a church planter's assessment without being put on probation. I doubt it.
I believe that the quest for the next superstar is ill-advised --or more strongly stated -- stupid. It is a waste of hope and resources.
The far better thing to do is to create a seedbed in which all get the nourishment to grow to their potential. Time will tell who gets to the top. There is no sense in trying to pick and choose. Work with a coalition of the willing and the teachable. If the next superstar bolts and develops his own seedbed, so be it. That is a good thing. Since everyone learns more from failure than from success, if they fail in their quest for significance nothing is lost. Education is gained.
Creating a "franchiseable" superstar system has proven over and over again to be the best idea. This approach takes more ordinary people and gives them to the tools to put out the "fries" at the same quality every time. They don't have to be good cooks. They just need to know when to push the buttons. Granted, this isn't fulfilling if the dictums come from on high and micro-manage. But within a proven framework, it is very possible to create success that rhymes with other successes.
We need to get off of the hero worship and onto creating better systems so that more ordinary people can obtain more extraordinary results. We need an army of church starting leaders who more quietly grow new churches one at a time. If a few emerge and take over the Spice Girl slot at the ACC that is OK with me. Anyone want to buy my tickets? I will scalp them in advance.
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