Leadership and gardening

Leadership and Gardening
By Dan Reiland

My brother Lan is the one in the family with a green thumb. He and his wife Stacey live in Southern California, and their yard is a registered wildlife habitat. When he first told me, I thought, that's no big deal. We may not be registered, but my house is a wildlife habitat with teenagers of all shapes and sizes running loose. Seriously, it's quite an effort to be registered. He had to have certain plants, in certain places that provide very specific food or cover for defined wildlife species. Lan recently told me that when the basil in his garden goes to seed his yard fills with beautiful "lesser Goldfinches." Cool.

As for me, if you can plant it, I can kill it. Nonetheless, I do invest time and energy to a nice looking yard. Actually, I'm sort of an existential gardener. I've hired a landscaper, consequently, "I pay therefore I am."

When we talk Lan loves to talk gardening and I love to talk leadership. And believe it or not there is a connection. Below are four insights I believe will be helpful to you from a slightly creative angle.

· You cannot make mechanical or synthetic what was meant to be natural, and obtain the same results.

There is something divinely creative about life producing life, and there is something patently synthetic about that which is man made. I'm not remotely qualified to use genetic engineering even for the sake of illustration. So let's stick to something less complicated, like tomatoes or apples. There is an undisputable difference between the taste, texture, and touch of a tomato you grow in your own garden and one that is grown (engineered) in a hot house. The difference between pesticides, super-fertilizers, and artificial lighting; and how you garden using natural methods is undeniable. My wife Patti buys organic apples. They don't look perfeme things in life that cannot be rushed. Not naturally.

When my brother plants tomatoes, they take a certain number of weeks to sprout, mature, and bear fruit. There is no amount of gardening that will make them grow faster. There are no cliff-notes, and there is no book or botanical conference to attend that speeds things up.

Young leader, I encourage you to work hard, work smart, and be patient. Stay steady and diligent. Pray much. Do the right things each day, and you will find that the journey is more central than the destination. How you get there matters. Kingdom work is never done, and will continue on after you are gone. Don't rush to the goal, be a good student and enjoy the journey.

· Be aware of the potential to over-lead and under-lead.

We talk at times about the lack of leadership. But did you know that you can over-lead?

When it comes to gardening, the vast majority of amateurs over-water their plants and lawns. They water too often and too much, drowning plants and lawns. Others water too often with too little water, causing the root systems to become shallow and thus weakening the plants or lawn. The least common is watering too seldom and too little, because the results are dramatic and obvious - dead plants.

Organic leadership is about being real. You must be honest with yourself, with God, and, with those you serve. Organic leadership is also about your leadership being connected to the vine. John 15:5 says: 5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

Churches can be built in the flesh, but churches that have eternal redeeming value must be built by the power of the Spirit. This happens only when we are connected to the true source. You can lead without God's help, but not well and not for long. Take the time you need to hear from God. Fight for the margin needed to remain in the vine.

· Growth comes from intentional pruning.

When I prune our bushes I get out the clippers and start hacking way. My brother told me about something called "natural target pruning." This is where you carefully find the next point of growth on a branch, usually at a joint, and make the cut at that spot. When you merely hack at whatever sticks out the furthest, apparently this confuses the plant. This is not how nature handles pruning. When nature prunes, the whole branch or a complete section dies off, making way for new growth. When you cut a live branch in half you "confuse" the plant!

A wise church leader knows that pruning, though painful, is needed to grow a healthy church. We don't like to cut popular ministries, but in order to allocate limited resources more strategically and gain better results; we must lean out our ministry options. A more difficult example is cutting a staff member, or removing a volunteer from their ministry so the church as a whole can move forward.

There are less drastic forms of pruning that are also health and growth oriented. For example, let's look at pruning not be a gardener by choice, but if you are a good leader, you will naturally know some things about gardening. I pray that all the seeds you plant produce a tremendous harvest.

This article is used by permission from Dr. Dan Reiland's free monthly e-newsletter 'The Pastor's Coach' available at www.INJOY.com.