The Leadership Institute’s focus for twenty years now has been “integrating spiritual formation and leadership development.” Sometimes the inner life is separated from the outer life, emphasizing one at the cost of the other. But a healthy tree has both deep roots and broad branches.
One simple way we have communicated the need for deep formation in the context of our leadership structures is a little guideline we call “The One-Third Rule.” By this, we mean that whenever we plan a seminary course, a retreat, a training event, a board or staff meeting, or any scheduled event, we are intentional to see that one-third of those hours are actually engaged in spiritual practices of intimacy with God or ministry practices of community and mission. Chuck Miller has said, “We must be the people of God before we do the work of God.” We do not count talking about or teaching about disciplines in that one-third.
As one example, we would argue that a perfunctory ten-minute devotional at the beginning of a three-hour board meeting is insufficient. It represents only about five percent of the time. Everyone intuitively knows that it makes little difference in the tone or focus of the gathering. When a board member says, “Why are we wasting time praying?” (I don’t know if you’ve heard that one before, but I have), we are communicating that expressing our practical dependence on God is of little importance. Instead, our business experience and decision-making prowess matters more. In our board and staff gatherings, we set aside about one hour in a three-hour gathering to share in the scriptures together, to share with one another how we are needing prayer and then actually praying for each other.
Such a practice knits our hearts together in Christ. Disagreements aren’t taken as personally because we know our commitment to one another runs deeper than ideas and opinions. I wonder how many conflicts in a leadership gathering are not at all about the agenda, but an expression of inner struggle, pain, emptiness, pride, anxiety or frustration that has gone unaddressed. Or, how many times do we take disagreement personally and react, rather than feeling secure enough in Christ to engage creatively and boldly in our shared work in Christ?
Some might think we get a great deal less done by investing so much time to something other than the agenda. Actually, we have found that practicing such a priority causes us to be much more likeminded and less likely to have deep disagreements. Where there are differences, they can be discussed in a spirit of shared deference to Christ and openness to whatever He might want (even if it ends up different than my current conviction).
A one-third rule. What is one meeting or event you’ll have some planning responsibility for in the next week or two. How might you creatively expand the actual time given to practices of spiritual formation, community and mission (rather than just talking about them)?
An excellent idea! Thanks for this very practical tool for “injecting” the values of spiritual formation into our daily life of leadership that is often very “business like”. I think doing something like this will also help us to slow down and get better in tune with what the Spirit may want to say or do.
Thanks for the feedback, Paul. One of the things we’ve learned is that a leadership culture is formed not by what we say we believe about spirituality, but what we actually practice, in solitude and in community. Grace to you…
[...] Read more of “Spirituality-Based Leadership“ [...]