Originally posted on 3/13/2009
Thread #5 New Testament Christian Church pastors are some of the worse leaders that I have ever known. The reason I can say this is because I have spent enough time in the Army and I have attended enough leadership schools to be able to tell the good from the bad.
There are three basic types of leaders. Delegative, Participative, and Authoritarian. At different times, all good leaders possess any one of the three leadership styles or all three put together. A breakdown in effective leadership occurs when an individual in authority primarily uses only one of the three types of leadership styles on a regular basis.
I could give examples of, and discuss all three leadership styles, but for the purpose of this thread I am only going to focus on one. The worst one of the three for a leader to use "exclusively" is the authoritarian style.
Unfortunately the regular, exclusive use of the authoritarian style within the NTCC always results in poor moral and the development of subordinates who never learn to consistently make sound decisions on their own. Authoritarian NTCC leaders regularly abuse their church members and subordinate ministers and this practice is degrading, extremely harmful and destructive.
New Testament Christian Church pastors from the bottom all the way up to RWD use the authoritarian style of leadership almost exclusively. I've witnessed this occurrence from numerous NTCC pastors. The authoritarian says, "it's my way or the highway." What makes an authoritarian even worse is that almost all are extremely insecure individuals. A person who feels "secure" in their position of authority does not feel the need to remind you of their title or rank and they realize that the decisions they consider making are not always the best or even good at all. They know that you know that they are in charge and they don’t have to remind you of that fact. Someone who is an "insecure", authoritarian leader, always feels the need to remind his subordinates of his or her title. Examples: "I'm the pastor", "I was here first", "I started this church", "I was here when you got here and I'll be here when you leave, if you don't like it, there is the door", "I'm in charge of this Platoon", "I run this Battalion".
No kidding Einstein.
I person who feels secure in their position of authority welcomes suggestions from his or her subordinates and often puts the suggestions into practical use. An insecure authoritarian leader resents suggestions from subordinates and generally won’t even consider what has been suggested and in the process feels the need to remind you that he is the pastor or Sergeant or whatever is applicable. Often what is the result? Authoritarians make decisions that are bad because they won't consult their people and they suck at effective leadership.
Examples: Adolph Hitler would not listen to his Generals. Bad decision. First Gulf War; Saddam Hussein would not listen to his Generals. Bad decision. RWD would not listen to his proverbial Generals when they tried to warn him about Denis. THE SPLIT. I know for a fact that some did try and tell RWD about Denis. That is an insecure authoritarian and a bad decision maker from a leadership standpoint. Pastors who will not even consider listening to advise offered by church members are insecure, authoritarians who constantly make bad decisions, destroy moral, create much hurt, and destroy folks lives at least temporarily and sometimes permanently.
Does any of this sound familiar?
Jeff