Les Ollila in conference at Colonial Hills Baptist Church: "Our schedule also includes what will no doubt be a very interesting Q&A. "
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Could that be called a sharper irony?
Based on the titles of the topics Dr. Ollila will be covering it almost appears he is trying to separate himself from the current happenings at NIU.
I had a face to face conversation with someone who had a face to face conversation with Dr. Olila. I was told Dr. O said he is “no longer connected to NIU.”
I have also had indirect info (firsthand to the person that told me) that Doc O. has not been involved in NIU for about 2 months and has been grieved with what has been taking place..
Dr. Ollila decided to retire sometime at the beginning of the ‘12-‘13 school year, according to the people I spoke with at NIU.
"Our task today is to tell people — who no longer know what sin is...no longer see themselves as sinners, and no longer have room for these categories — that Christ died for sins of which they do not think they’re guilty." - David Wells
I once heard that someone said to the friend of a neighbor of my cousin’s co-worker something different.
Donn R Arms
A very interesting Q&A. :)
Hey! I can go to this conference. Will this give me the opportunity to meet some of you personally?
[jimfrank]Hey! I can go to this conference. Will this give me the opportunity to meet some of you personally?
No! but you might meet someone who knows someone who knows some of us personally!
CanJAmerican - my blog
CanJAmerican - my twitter
whitejumaycan - my youtube
[JohnBrian][jimfrank]Hey! I can go to this conference. Will this give me the opportunity to meet some of you personally?
No! but you might meet someone who knows someone who knows some of us personally!
Actually, many of us have separated from that someone. Our level of fellowship might keep us on the other side of the room, lest we “share a row”, so it may be difficult to meet that someone personally. Rest assured though that everyone will be with that someone at the conference. So I am confident that we will bump into an individual who may have met that someone personally while at the conference.
It’s a bit late now, but please don’t post reports of what somebody said to somebody you talked to etc…. especially when we’re talking about people and their employment status. That’s the sort of thing to wait for official announcements for. And since SI doesn’t have a news reporting staff, we can’t really investigate these things.
(I’m pretty sure we’ve got something about it in the Comment Policy… if not, we’ll add it)
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
How can we properly ‘separate’ from that someone? I mean, they might wind up in the same building as that someone - but not even know which someone they’re supposed to avoid!
Help!
"Our task today is to tell people — who no longer know what sin is...no longer see themselves as sinners, and no longer have room for these categories — that Christ died for sins of which they do not think they’re guilty." - David Wells
Excellent admonition for all of us who lead a church or Christian organization by Dr. Doran
“For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things to Him be the glory forever.” Romans 11:36
Glory & Grace: Leadership Is A Stewardship
Posted by DMD on May 22, 2013
The leadership of an institution is a stewardship entrusted by both God and men. I followed a man who shepherded this congregation for forty years. The same man was the founding president of DBTS. I serve a congregation with a clear set of doctrines and by-laws which govern it, and they called me to serve because I affirmed my agreement with those. Yes, I think God directed my life to this place of service, but He did so by the means of human agency–a pastor, a pulpit committee, and a congregation.
I fully acknowledge that this is one of the great challenges of leadership in ministry contexts. The leaders are not free to pursue all of the paths available to him. They must work within the boundaries of their defining documents. They must work under the authority of whomever invested them with the stewardship of leadership. That means that beliefs of the leaders are not the de facto beliefs of the organization. If I changed, for example, my view of end times, it does not mean that Inter-City Baptist Church has changed its view. I don’t get to make that the call. The congregation does.
When the leader’s beliefs shift away from the organization’s stated beliefs, there are two options which involve integrity and one which does not. Integrity would lead the leader to either resign because he no longer can affirm his agreement or to put the question of changing the organization’s position before whomever has the authority to make the decision. For the leader, however, to take actions which are contrary to the organization’s beliefs and governing documents is a serious breach of integrity. Dress it up in whatever pious language you want, but it is deceptive and destructive.
For a pastor to chart a new course which effectively empties the church until the only ones remaining agree with him is unethical. For the leader of a service organization to pursue a new direction that leaves the organization vulnerable to collapse unless people go along with his choices is simply wrong. This is not servant leadership. Really it is not leadership at all; it is coercion. The congregation or organization is not allowed to make a free, informed choice about its new course or direction. The leader has imposed his will, not served.
I want to make sure I’m not misunderstood here. I’m not referring to interpretive calls about what fits within the church or organization’s governing documents. I’m talking about contradicting and circumventing them. It is the mindset that treats a leader as if he has some direct pipeline from God that gives him the right to ignore the boundaries properly held in place by the by-laws and articles of faith. It is the evidence that no matter how much lip-service we pay to being God-centered, too many of our churches and parachurch organizations are really built around men.
A genuine servant leader lives within the stewardship boundaries outlined for him in the governing documents of his church or ministry. If he finds himself in conflict with those, he either removes himself or calls for the church or ministry to reconsider its position. If he does the latter, he does that first, not after positioning things so that saying no will lead to catastrophic consequences. Leaving people no choice but to bend to your will is the antithesis of servant leadership.
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Pastor Mike Harding
I suspect Dr. Doran is obliquely referring to the NIU mess, so let me pose this question:
What do you do when the Board tells you that you’re “within the stewardship boundaries” and others - on the Board, on staff underneath you, from the alumni, or from those “outside of the realm” - suddenly decide that you actually aren’t within the boundaries and demand changes to suit their vision of the “boundaries”? Then what? You can’t just fire all of them.
The big issue at NIU seems to be that the Board didn’t cast a clear vision and was pitted against itself. But that’s just my .02 on the matter, and I really have no desire to get back into another NIU discussion. I have a really, really, really hard time believing that Dr. Olson just decided to jump headlong into their current position without getting some kind of Board backing.
"Our task today is to tell people — who no longer know what sin is...no longer see themselves as sinners, and no longer have room for these categories — that Christ died for sins of which they do not think they’re guilty." - David Wells
Discussion