Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory

by Tod Bolsinger

When on the map, leaders could assume that once an affirmative vote was made, the challenge of bringing change was finished. In uncharted territory, where changes occur so rapidly, leaders cannot assume success until after they have weathered the sabotage that naturally follows.

be. Remember, all change, even necessary change, brings loss.

embrace sabotage as a normal part of an organizational life.

The art of leadership is helping the system override the instinct to self-preservation and replace it with a new organizational instinct to be curious about and open to the terrifying discomfort of asking, Could God be up to something here?

Only as individual people in the system change, will the system change.

Third, don’t take it personally. The people following you may be shooting you in the back, but it’s really not you that they are sabotaging, it’s your role as leader.

are bringing. And to be clear, they would do this to any leader. By not taking it personally, we can keep monitoring ourselves and keep from reacting in...

focus your attention on the emotionally strong, not the saboteurs.

Keep building healthy alliances with those who are emotionally mature and share your convictions, and they will join you in the needed change.

mission trumps

Stick with it. Be dogged and determined. If you stumble onto the Great Falls of Montana, find a way to go around them, even if it takes you thirty times longer than expected.8 If you find yourself facing the Rocky Mountains instead of a river running downstream, ditch the canoes and find horses. And if someone starts to sabotage what you have already been doing, consider it confirmation that you are exactly in the right path.

Leading change is a process not accomplished quickly, and the moments of sabotage are the most crucial times in the change process.

At this moment everyone in the system sees the leader’s true colors. Sabotage is not only a test of the leader’s resolve but also a test of the system’s resilience. If you as a leader can stay calm and connected, you get the opportunity to help others in the system work through their own sabotaging instincts so the system c...

The key skill for staying the course amidst sabotage is to make Blue Zone decisions—no matter what. In chapter twelve we explored Osterhaus, Jurkowski and Hahn’s Red Zone–Blue Zone decision making. The Red Zone is “all about me”; the Blue Zone is “all about the mission.” Blue Zone decisions are made as an expression of the core values and healthy principles, and further the discerned, shared mission conviction of the group.

If we look closely at the ministry of Jesus, everything he did was for one purpose: to proclaim and demonstrate the good news: “The kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15 nasb). And as much as he ministered to people as an expression of that mission, he also disappointed people constantly. He left towns while there were still crowds waiting to be healed (Mark 1:38). After a miraculous feeding of one large crowd, he refused to feed another, and some of his disciples left him (John 6:30-66). He disappointed his mother and brothers who wanted him to return home (Mark 3:31-35), he initially refused to heal the Syrophoenician woman because his mission was to the “lost sheep of . . . Israel” (Matthew 15:21-28), and he constantly disappointed ministry leaders because he hung out with the wrong sorts (Mark 2:16-17) and did the wrong things, like healing on the Sabbath (Luke 13:10-17). Every parable Jesus taught that challenged the status quo (the prodigal son, the woman with the coin, the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to get the one sheep) did not describe his desire to care for and comfort people but, in effect, “I do this because God is like this” (Luke 15) or “I am doing these things because the kingdom of heaven is like this” (Matthew 13). Jesus’ mission was to reveal the presence and nature of God’s reign and rule. That was his purpose. That was his principle. When Jesus challenged the Pharisees, it wasn’t that they were concerned with religious principles and he was con...