What Navy Seals Can Teach Us About Church Leadership - Part 1: Extreme ownership
Introductory Premise of this Leadership Series:
I recently read a fantastic book on leadership titled, "Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win" (2015) Written by Jocko Willink, and Leif Babin, two Navy SEALs. This book outlines a series of leadership principles culled from the challenges, intensity, and combat of the Iraq war; namely, the most intense environment – Ramadi. For the Navy SEALs, leadership requires ownership from the top down, and an unyielding perseverance to achieve victory, particularly when many around question whether victory is even possible. Willink and Babin realized that the principles critical to SEAL success on the battlefield are directly applicable to success in any group, organization, corporation, and business.
While their battlefield was flesh and blood, a pastor's battlefield is against principalities and powers in the spiritual world. As I read through these gripping, thought provoking and applicable pages, I wondered how SEAL leadership might translate into the spiritual and practical world of pastoring. In this leadership series I will provide a brief definition on each Navy SEAL leadership principle, and then apply it to the battle pastors face everyday. All credit for these principles go to Willink and Babin.
LAW #1: Extreme Ownership - Own Every Decision and Consequence
"The only meaningful measure for a leader is whether the team succeeds or fails" (p. 8).
As a leader it is easy to deflect questions of ineffectiveness toward organizational deficiencies, misunderstood volunteers, or "it will get better" kinds of reasoning. This is not Extreme Ownership. The Navy SEAL philosophy of Extreme Ownership challenges any and all notions that ineffective teams, or organizations, are anything but the full and complete responsibility of the leader at the top. For a church of any size, that leader is the pastor -- period.
Scripture points to fruit as evidence of an effective life and ministry (Matthew 7:15-20). If there is no fruit in the church, the pastor must take 100% responsibility. "For leaders, the humility to admit and own mistakes and develop a plan to overcome them is essential to success" (p. 8).
If there is no fruit in the church, the pastor must take 100% responsibility.
As the pastor of a small church, I was tempted to blame ineffectiveness on the fact that we had a small pool of qualified people to draw leaders and volunteers from. It was easy to blame seasons of little fruit on the lack of financial resources, or facility constraints. Often times I would swing on the following pendulum of congregational expectations: On one hand, I would feel the pressure to be more organized and communicate better. This was the pendulum of administration. After all, good administration provides for a clear structure for ministry to thrive, right? So, I would step back from personal ministry to tighten up our organizational structure. On the other side of the pendulum was hands-on ministry; the stuff I loved. Members would criticize the felt lack of one-on-one, or in-home ministry, and I would swing from the energy of administrative details to the energy of ministry. This kind of ministry was more fulfilling anyway, so I would let administrative details waiver.
The obvious answer was to delegate and train others to do administrative tasks, and as the pastor focus on the hands on stuff. But in a small church, this is easier said then done. The fact is, it needed to be done, and over the years I became better at delegating both administrative tasks and ministry tasks. By delegating, training leadership, and building better teams we became much more effective. I had to take complete ownership of these needs.
Extreme Ownership -- the core conviction that the leader is truly and ultimately responsible for everything -- is the fundamental core of what constitutes an effective leader in the SEAL teams.
If, at any level, you are observing ineffective ministry, it's time to look inward, take Extreme Ownership of where your church is, set ego aside, identify the issues and explore solutions.
LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE:
You are the leader. You bear full responsibility for explaining the God-given vision for your church, leading the strategic plan, falling on your knees and hearing clearly from God, securing resources, and developing tactics that unleash the transformative power of the Kingdom of God in your community. Yes you can delegate, but ultimately the performance of the team rests on you. How are you doing?
Gut check -- do you blame others for a lack of effectiveness in any area of ministry? Do you blame circumstances, like the lack of quality leaders (you need to build them)? Do you challenge lack of fruit toward a better future or fresh vision, but then never really make a plan to pursue it (time to hear from God and get planning)?
If, at any level, you are observing ineffective ministry, it's time to look inward, take Extreme Ownership of where your church is, set ego aside, and get to work identifying the issues and explore solutions. I understand the time constraints on bi-vocational pastors; I was one for 7 years. Even so, because this calling has eternal consequence, you must carve out the precious time it will take to understand why a ministry is ineffective, why you lack quality leaders, and why the church may not really understand your vision. Wherever effectiveness and fruit is thin -- take responsibility, bring it before God, and make a plan. Don't plan alone; plan with other leaders, even if it is only one other leader. There can be no leadership where there is no team.
Consider the necessity of Extreme Ownership in your ministry.