Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory

by Tod Bolsinger

My client—a strong leader—is also an insatiable learner. (Why else would he insist on having a leadership coach when his church is so successful?) He recognizes that not only does learning keep leaders relevant but expert expectation is a form of collusion between an organization that doesn’t want to change (“Our expert leader will fix the problems!”) and a leader who wants the security, in Jim Collins’s poignant distinction, of being the “time-teller” instead of a “clock builder.”23 Exploration challenges the expert expectation and indeed even offers us the escape. To publicly acknowledge that we are now in uncharted territory, where there are no maps and few answers, allows us the freedom to innovate through experimentation, to encourage humility and inquisitiveness, to ask questions, and to invite those with us into an adventure of learning.