Context and Content
Healthy Leaders | Issue 49
Welcome to Issue 49 of Healthy Leaders. In this issue, context trumps content.
Hello friends,
Welcome back to our ongoing conversation on healthy Christian leadership and leader development.1
When it comes to building leaders, context often trumps content! Consequently, we should give at least as much attention to designing context (the relational web and the spiritual and experiential environment of those we are building) as we do to designing the instructional content for them.
It has been said that “good seed can’t make up for bad soil.” In this metaphor, the seed is like the content, and the soil is like the context. A wise gardener will put a lot of energy into cultivating his soil. He knows that it takes more than good seed (curriculum) to raise a crop. So, he intentionally cultivates the soil (the spiritual, relational, experiential context) before he plants the seed (starts teaching).
So often, in our rush to get to the content we don’t give much thought to cultivating the soil and we become like the man in Jesus’ parable who just scatters seed (Matthew 13:1-23). It should be no surprise that we so frequently have the three poor results mentioned in the parable.
Here’s Malcolm with more:
When we use a purely instructional method of building leaders, we miss out on so much! We may be building up people in their minds, but without connection to God, a strong and trustworthy relational web, and opportunity to apply what they’ve learned in real life, our efforts will always be half-measures.
Furthermore, a holistic context such as this not only builds the whole leader, it offers a more transparent view into their life with God and their character. In this atmosphere of accountability and trust, abusive leadership cannot flourish.
One of our recent trainings in India was with a group of church leaders who had suffered, in one way or another, under abusive leadership in the past. They were eager to break the cycle, and creating a rich, holistic context for their leaders was the very starting point they needed.
“We have been trying to build leaders in our church, but today’s training uncovered the missing links. People were not growing into healthy leaders because we never built strong relationships with them; we were only trying to teach them from the Scripture. This is the right content, but we have been missing the context. Hence, after going from here I want to be intentional about supporting the content with context. I expect that this will lead to true leader development in our church.” (Sister S)
What about you?
Jesus built His own disciples in a holistic context, as they experienced life together. And you can do it too!
Think about the context of the current leader development opportunities in your life, church, or ministry. Are these opportunities purely instructional, or do they take advantage of spiritual, relational, or experiential context?
If your current methods of building leaders are only instructional, how can you add that context to them in practical ways?
We’d love to hear what you come up with in the comments. Until next time, we’re with you!
— Chris
Recommended Resources
Core Model Brief: Summary of the Principles of Healthy Leader Development
Book: Building Leaders
For more resources, visit our website.
Thanks to our friends at Fifty-Four Collective for putting together a comprehensive set of video courses for growing healthy organizations, starting with this series of courses on leadership by Malcolm. We’ll be using some of their videos and some of our own. Be sure to check out what they’re doing!