Why Aspirational Leadership is not Enough

That is true, but only for the very small minority of local church leaders who can afford to broadcast each week. And if you study the relationship between broadcast preaching and the shape of its audience, you find that any influence it produces tends to be thin and shallow.

That is especially true where the TV preacher has little or no relationship with the community into which he or she is speaking - and is making no attempt to listen to and respond to its particular needs.

As every local pastor knows, it is in the local community of believers that faith really grows. Faith needs to be applied in the service of and with the support of other people, in a localised community of believers.

Strategic leadership does not produce the same levels of reliance on the charismatic leader - which may be why some leaders avoid it.

It provides large groups of people with tools to produce change in their own worlds, consistently over long periods of time. It puts the emphasis not just on feelings of motivation but on pragmatic, measurable action.

Aspirational leadership, based as it is on 'current revelation', tends to shift its focus quite regularly. Again, this is especially true today as people access a multiplicity of teaching points, via media, simultaneously.

This is very frustrating for many a pastor - rightly so - because it exposes people to many (often competing) 'revelations' at one time.

Strategic leadership takes a more pragmatic approach. It measures revelation not simply by how current it sounds when presented from a pulpit, but on how much change it produces over a period of time.

In this respect strategic leadership is much more closely aligned with the challenge laid out for us by the biblical prophets - to appeal not just to people's self-interest, or to emotion, but to their social conscience and action.

Revelation is the core of all great preaching and teaching. However, true revelation usually takes time to unpack, as the leader comes to terms with all that it means and requires and patiently builds that into the people.

Revelation may be widely applicable - it usually is - but it is often most fruitful when it is developed within a specific local church or network of churches. That's because revelation received and developed within a particular local church will immediately align with the unique God-given mandate or focus of that church.

When the local church begins to truly live out its revelation, over time, the church then becomes a model for other groups to follow.

Aspirational leadership does not have the foresight or longevity that is needed to produce change over a long period of time. It doesn't provide a leadership legacy, so that the impact of our leadership is felt long after we are gone.

Strategic leadership sets up a future legacy of influence, both for the leader and for each person within the church. It teaches people the skills needed to bring lasting change in their specific areas of work. Each individual learns to see their role within the wider context of the church's impact on the city.