Christian Leadership and Tradition
The Christian world is full of managers who are doing nothing but managing what has been handed down to them by other managers. Interestingly, the real leaders in the faith – John the Baptist, Jesus (or course) Martin Luther – were all men who turned tradition on its head. What the world needs are Christian leaders who live by the Spirit and are willing to say no to the established traditions – which are typically built by committees on foundations of timidity.
Show me a religious manager of tradition today and I will show you a person hollow, empty of the Spirit, and almost void of love. Like the Pharisees of old, they honestly think of themselves as the children of Abraham, and think it is their job to police the body for heresy. What is more heretical than a Christian who fails to love?
To the Salieri’s of the world – we love you. You are needed, you are important, and your skills and knowledge are useful to the body of believers. Don’t feel sidelined. Don’t hate and seethe with envy for others who are heard and have the audience you believe should be yours. God is in charge and he is well aware of you and your value.
Leadership or Management
I said that week that we are going to be an open book about the digressions and progressions that we experience here on HOTM 2.0. I have made some bold assertions and there have been responses in kind. Hopefully, they are leading toward improvements and change. But if history tells us anything it’s that change is very difficult.
Understand that we are here calling for change. Real lasting change and not superficial placation. What is happening in response to our purpose is in all probability just resistances to change. That is the brass tacks of all that we are witnessing – my calls for change and the responses to resist it. It’s been happening since the beginning of time.
Leadership vs Management
The underlying principles at work are leadership vs management. Try and see what we are doing in those terms. They were the principles at work with Moses and Pharaoh – Moses was called to lead and Pharaoh wanted to manage the situation to his benefit. Not rock the boat. Keep things static. That’s what it was with John the Baptist and the Pharisees – John coming to prepare (lead the way) for the coming Messiah and the Pharisees resisting him. And of course that’s what it was with Jesus and the Sanhedrim – Jesus leading and the Sanherim attempting to manage what had been in place for 1500 years.
Of course, this was Luther leading a charge against the Roman Catholic empire and this cycle or tension is at the core of all major conflicts on earth – Leadership verses management, again with leaders seeking to lead people, places and things to a “better way” and management is striving to maintain the status quo.
Let’s touch on the drivers and motivations behind the players of management for a moment. From top level to the lowest ranks – managers are in place to protect the interests of “what has been, what is, and what they hope to see happen in the future.”
Up on North Temple here in Salt Lake City, there is a huge office building for the LDS church. The Mormon folk consider this the hub for a group they collectively call, the brethren (which sort of includes some women too – but not really). Anyway the brethren, though seen as “leaders” in Mormonism are really not leaders in the true sense of the word – they are just top-level management. And their job? To protect what has been, what is, and what the established goals are for the future.
Even Thomas S. Monson, king of the managers, is a manager, and has very little room to truly lead. The only official genuine leaders of Mormonism were Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. Beyond them, most men described as church leaders were only managing what had been established. Early in Mormonism, there was some ability to actually lead while managing but after David O McKay the age of the cleric took over and the faith was just a system to manage, protect, and promote.
When a true leader rises up from within the ranks of the LDS church.
Leadership vs. Management
– for instance someone like Denver Snuffer of late, the management will get to work snuffing them out through whatever means possible. John Dehlin is another leader that has sought for change in the LDS church. Not able to make it happen, he too was dealt with and is now running his own vision for the world of former Mormons.
But again, at the core of the tension is leadership verse management. Unlike managers, leaders do what they believe is best irrespective of what has been, what is, and what is planned out to be.
They say – “this is not optimal, or this is not good, or this is failing," and they may attempt to first work through management but will inevitably rebel when their insights are pushed aside.
Now understand, when I say true leadership I am talking about men and women who are NOT out for themselves. Those are the desires of most managers, who act to maintain what is because stability benefits them and their way of living.
Characteristics of True Leaders
But true leaders – like the Baptist, like Jesus, like Paul, like Luther, will do whatever is necessary to invoke change (LISTEN) as a means to help introduce needed change for all involved – and not just their own needs and wants. This is how to tell a true leader verses a manager of any level – will the individual do, say, suffer, and face – anything and everything – in an effort to see changes occur that will benefit the people as a whole.
Every year for the past 100 years the members of XYZ Affiliated take a 1000 mile hike from the coast of California to Casper Wyoming. They follow the same route, and do the same things at every overnight stop. There is a committee in place to ensure that the long hike goes off without a hitch. And every year there is a guide elected to lead.
This last year the guide, Monica, after taking the group most of the way, believes from the presence of several indicators that the group should eliminate taking the traditional stop at the fresh water spring and just get to the final destination as soon as possible. Well, the highlight of the trip has always been the visit to the freshwater springs before finishing the hike the next day and when she explains that they need to pass it over, the group, and all the committee members, go ballistic. Monica, a true leader sticks to her guns.
“But we are out of water and we’re thirst,” many cry to her. Monica is thirsty too. But as a real leader she maintains her course having studied the potential dangers. “But we have visited the springs every years for over 100 years comes the next level of resistance. But being a true leader she does not care. The clouds and wind tell her to get everyone as soon as possible to their final destination.
Challenges Faced by Leaders
The managers call the home office and the president of XYZ commands her to take the people to the springs – or she will be fired from her lucrative job. But again, Monica sticks to her guns. She ignores tradition, she ignores what has been, she ignores the crowds, she ignores the managers, she ignores the CEO – and forges ahead to the destination – with only a handful following her lead.
This is what John the Baptist, Jesus, and other leaders have done. Because this is true leadership. Which is almost always in opposition to management. And between these two we find most of the historical friction in almost every walk of life.
And so here in Utah, which is being used by me as a template for all the rest of the world, we have some players in religious leadership and religious management. Let me introduce them – there are four:
Denver Snuffer
John Dehlin
as hard as it is to say, myself,
and the churches as a whole.
What defines us as leaders is we are driven by the sold-out goal to invoke change for the betterment of the people we love – LDS and ex-LDS people alike who are seeking for truth. As true leaders with ambitions for the betterment of LDS, ex-LDS people, and all others we do not agree with each other’s visions. I have no respect for Denver’s views as he insists on keeping Joseph Smith the man in the picture. He has the right, and I love him and respect him as a leader (and those who agree with His views) but I
Examining Different Leadership Models
do not believe his model holds up to biblical scrutiny and is therefore as liberating as it could be. I have less respect for John Dehlin’s ambitions. I do love John truly (and those he leads) but feel he has a disregard of God and His only Son that cannot be justified in my mind. I also think he proposes a freedom that is severely limited to their world and the flesh. Then we have the churches as a whole who too are attempting to lead seeking people to emancipation but have consistently failed miserably and wind up being only managers.
So, there is the real Utah leadership and I humbly but unabashedly include myself, my proposals, and am able to easily prove that we have done and said what is best for the liberation of people over our own wants and needs. I do NOT take any credit as the only thing good coming out of me comes from the vine who is Jesus Christ, my authority and head.
In managerial opposition to me and my views we have several factions. We’re going to go to our board of direction to discuss them now.
Addressing Different Factions
First, we have the mindless masses. They’re managers but of their own lives and information. I label them mindless not because they are not smart but because they give no real “mind” to the situation at hand and only echo what they hear from their pastors and social media.
Next, we have a group I call the Salieri’s. You might call them the Robert Ford’s or the Peter Keatings of the world. Up to you. I have dealt with them my entire life. And even though my description of them will be easily misunderstood and used against me (as will my including myself as a true leader in Utah) let me tell you about them. They have education, they are articulate, they are prepared, they have done most things right, and they really, really feel that they should be heard. But no one listens to them. Like Salieri in relation to Mozart, they are filled with envy – even hatred – for guys like me who don’t get their facts perfect, have typos in the books, and sort of do and say what they want but worst of all – have an audience.
I am a personal living reproach to these types. They KNOW they have more to give than me, that they are smarter than me, that they deserve a larger audience than me but God has not given them a platform to really be heard. When they see and hear me, they just seethe with this sort of jealous disdain. Jason Wallace is the poster-boy for the Salieri category. So is this online guy named Sam Richardson. Wallace, the poor guy, actually makes public claims that he wins people over every time he speaks at CAMPUS! He’s created a pejorative term called, McCraneyism, and he and the other couple Salieri’s out there do all they can to try and sway people – not to Christ, but away from ME.
For the actual Salieri the obsession was not music, it was Mozart. Same with my Salieri’s – Jesus isn’t the focus, I am! As I’ve said, these have been part of my life since I was a kid because I have never cared about most of what they care deeply about – and it drives the Salieri’s stark raving mad.
Understanding Pseudo-Leaders
Our next level is what I am calling upper middle managers but perhaps the best term for them would be Pseudo-leader/Upper Management. In this state there are a couple – Sandra Tanner was one I mentioned last week. Greg Johnson has been trying for years to lead but really he is just managing his own survival.
For instance, this past week, and in the wake of the unfortunate church shooting in Texas, every news channel in the State of Utah ran a story with Johnson standing in front of his preferred group of pastors. What was the story about? How (under the leadership of Johnson) many Utah churches are coming together as a means to prepare themselves on how to kill intruders.
Fut the Wuk?
Riding in on the coattails of a single shooting in Texas, Johnson rallies the participating pastors on how to “kill intruders?”
Spiritual Leadership and Management in Churches
Is the spiritual leadership he provides to the churches in Utah? How, as a trainer Johnson has retained said, to “put a bullet in the head” of another? What would the Christians in the early church say to this leadership? How about the Anabaptists?
I just called myself a leader in the state. You wanna know the best measure to keep a church from getting shot up? Deconstruct your visible empires. Keep your churches small and unassuming. Love all people. Lesson your material footprint and humbly nestle yourselves in the community – not as glowing megawatt invitations for your church to become a ginormous shooting gallery for the insane who love big numbers.
And then walk in faith, trusting your entire lives over to God – rather than the arm of the flesh. But no. Let’s not infringe upon the machine – let’s just arm everyone and teach them how to put bullets in the heads of intruders.
Leaders Versus Managers
Can you see how Johnson’s “leadership” is just management? How he merely perpetuates himself to be SEEN in good favor so he can survive? Imagine Johnson telling the pastor in the state that they ought to trust God, deconstruct, and lesson their material footprint. Won’t happen. Cause he’s no leader. He’s a manager – of his own interests. By the way, Standing Together is Supported by Pastors and their churches – so how could Johnson EVER truly lead them. He can’t. He only SERVES their interests in the end. As he serves His own.
And of course, there was my Sandra Tanner comments last week. Which caused more managers to come out of the woodwork to stand with Sandra. Why? Because they know what side their bread is buttered on. They know who to side with when managing your own interests. So feigning bravery they step in and write public missives about how wrongly Sandra has been treated, forgetting that for four years Sandra has been publicly speaking against me but more importantly, that Sandra needs to really lead rather than just manage her interests.
A real leader, a real friend, would seek to help not only Sandra but people – trapped in religion – even if it means telling Sandra her ways need to change. A real leader would step up as someone who loves Sandra and explain to her that my assessments have merit, that she needs to also inform people coming out of Mormonism what to expect in the world of Evangelicalism so as to avoid sending them into the waiting arms of Snuffer, or Dehlin, or some church that not only fails to teach them truth but strips their liberties in Christ. But that’s not what is happening. No, the managers just circle more wagons, offer up more justifications, preparing each other to shoot every intruder in the head who says otherwise.
Senior Management of Churches
Finally, here at the top of the managerial pyramid there are the Pastors – who are the real senior management in the state. As I mentioned I’ve heard from Dave Nelson at K2, and from Nathaniel Taylor at Hidden Valley Presbyterian, who I am meeting for lunch tomorrow. Then this past week Paul Robie from South Mountain contacted me – I am meeting with him on Wednesday totally unsure of what our meeting together will accomplish but at least these guys were willing to open up the discussion. We will let you know the results of our meetings as they are to happen this week. My hope is for real change.
Additionally, and in the name of transparency (and to perhaps show you how I work, many weeks before we launched HOTM 2.0 I sent an anonymous letter to twelve church pastors in the state. Nobody in our ministry knew or knows that I sent these letters out – only Mary – until now.
They were all the same and they all looked like this: (SHOW LETTER) And this is what they said (READ LETTER):
In the name and cause of Christian freedom we, Freedom Fighters for Christ, declare war against the errant teachings that this church is heaping upon unsuspecting people through its misuse of the Bible, specifically:
In the name and cause of Christian freedom we, Freedom Fighters for Christ, declare war against the errant teachings that this church is heaping upon unsuspecting people through its misuse of the Bible, specifically:
OFFICIAL NOTICE!
OFFICIAL NOTICE!
Imposition of Tithes
The imposition of tithes, claiming an authority to speak for God, and teaching an approaching end of the world are practices that bind people in financial, emotional, and spiritual bondage. The people of Utah need freedom from religion, not more of it, and this church is guilty of preying upon individuals who, seeking God, do not know any better. Shame on you.
Failure to repent of these religious crimes against the people of Utah will most assuredly result in your church closing its doors forever. This we guarantee.
Religious Practices in Utah Churches
FFCSLCUT FFCSLCUT These are the non-negotiables. The imposition of tithes, collections, and appeals for money. The claim to have any authority from God and the teaching of an approaching end of the world. Why?
Because the imposition of these are errant, are in opposition to the honest simple message of the New Testament, and serve to put people in bondage to the churches that promote them. Financial bondage. Bondage to Men Bondage to fear.
You will note that we do not make Five point Calvinism or Arminianism a non-negotiable. We do not make their approach to worship services a non-negotiable. Neither the Bible translations that they may mandate or the spiritual gifts they refuse or accept, or even the insistence of pushing the Trinity or non-trinity, or insisting that hell is literal and eternal.
Individual Beliefs and Freedom
Also know that if an individual (in their respective congregations) believe in tithes or church authority or a coming of Jesus, they are free to maintain such views. I mean our dear sister Heidi, who recently passed away, loved to taunt me when she donated to the ministry by referring to her donations as tithes – knowing it drove me nuts. She’d even write it on the check and her giving was often to the penny just to prove the point. We’d have a friendly debate almost every month – but as an individual – where all freedoms in Christ lie – she had the right. So I could only love her heart.
But my obligation as a pastor was to liberate her as much as humanly possible from the traps of religion, and of the practices of the Nicolatanes. And so the pastors of the churches in Utah, being held to a higher standard, ought to do all they can to keep the people free from misappropriated practices and teachings – with these three being at the top.
Oh, I know – believe me, I know – the plethora of man-made views that cause us to suggest that no body really knows whether tithes can be used, or if men have spiritual authority today, or if there will be a second comingChrist’s return, fulfilled in 70 A.D., ending the old covenant—not the world. in the future. This is NOT so. And I will relentlessly defend the Biblical /historical view that proves Jesus has returned. Tithes/collections are an abuse and there is not a person on earth with any true religious authority over another.
So just for your information, these are the things we are seeking to change in the Utah Churches – and then in the churches of the world. I may get laughed out of every coffee house along the Wasatch front but with God as my witness there will not be an Evangelical church left standing in the state who continues to place any human being in the bondage of such things – this I promise, and without any fear I invoke God’s name in accomplishing this.
Let’s open the phone lines up:
(801) 590-8413
While the operators are clearing your calls, let’s consider some emails:
