The Leadership Lid

A friend of mine just gave me a book that millions of others have already read: John C. Maxwell's The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. In it, the first law is known as "The Law of the Lid", in which Maxwell asserts that a person's leadership ability determines a person's level of effectiveness. I wonder how that applies not just to individuals, but to churches and ministries? I don't think our churches are called to manage the disciples, but to lead the world to Jesus, and to lead the people into discipleship as Jesus leads the church into the kingdom. So the church's ability and willingness to lead will, under Maxwell's assertion, determine the effectiveness of the church. Now, the effectiveness of the church is different than the effectiveness of God, who will find a way to save the world even if the church is not effective (even the rocks will cry out, after all). That said, God's way is to work through the church, so it's time to blow the lid off. And we as a church will blow the lid off only when we increase our ability to lead.