Anticipatory Leadership

“A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.” --Wayne Gretzky

At the recent Global Leadership Summit, pastor Craig Groeschel addressed the idea of anticipatory leadership. He said, “Good leaders react. Great leaders anticipate.” This reflects the Wayne Gretzky quote above. As leaders, we may be where the action is now, but the action may not be there for long.

In our volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous culture, what works today may not work tomorrow and the church often plays catch-up and misses opportunities. There is a time for doing due diligence and allowing the process to work, but our present context requires us to exercise creativity and imagination, becoming early innovators in ministry.

Groeschel suggested that there are three D's of anticipatory leadership: Develop, Discern, and Disrupt. Here is my take on each.

First, develop. We need to be seeking out and encouraging new leaders and new ministries. As leaders, we should be doing two things: surrounding ourselves with people smarter than we are and preparing someone to take our place. We develop new leaders not through delegation but by giving them responsibility.

When it comes to new ministries, if someone came to you tomorrow with great enthusiasm for a new way to reach your community, how long would it take to work through your church’s process to make it happen? There are advantages to taking a risk by trying something small and learning from success or failure quickly. Perhaps we should be doing more “holy experiments” in our churches.

Second, discern. We have to avoid becoming insulated and learn to “read the signs of the times” (1 Chronicles 12:32). This requires dialogue with newcomers in our churches about their experiences, listening to people in our larger community, and developing new networks. As we listen to other voices, the Spirit often speaks to us.

Third, disrupt. We have to be willing not only to think outside the box but to do away with the box. Bill Easum wrote a book titled Sacred Cows Make Gourmet Burgers. Sometimes we have to kill some sacred cows (accepted ways of doing things) and harvest what is left to create something new. By so doing, we honor the old.

Anticipatory leadership is risky, but it can provide the opportunity to be in front of change rather than being left behind.

(Go here for Craig Groeschel’s podcasts on Anticipatory Leadership.)

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