LIBERTY UNIVERSITY
Leadership Audit Analysis II
Submitted to Dr. Daniel Paul Moosbrugger
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of
LEAD 510-D07 LUO
Biblical Foundation of Christian Leadership
by
PK
December 13, 2018
2
Contents
Introduction ......................................................................................................................................3
Relational Skills Inventory ............................................................................................................4
Task Skills Inventory .....................................................................................................................5
Leadership Style Inventory ..........................................................................................................6
Church Structure ...........................................................................................................................7
Circumstances Audit .....................................................................................................................8
Leader’s Core Values Audit ..........................................................................................................9
Pastor-Organization Fit ...............................................................................................................10
Conclusion .....................................................................................................................................11
Bibliography ..................................................................................................................................12
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Introduction
In his book, Aubrey Malphurs provides audits to gauge our Christian leadership.
1
The
audit helps new and season Christian leaders determine whether they are a strong leader and
weaknesses. I’ll cover the last seven audits that are covered in his book: Relational Skills, Task
Skills, Leadership Style, Structure, Values (leader’s / church’s), Circumstances (ideal / current)
and Fit.
You need to be honest and answer each audit truthfully. Only then can you gage how you
are as a Christian leader. The audits have help me determine areas that I’m strong and those who
need improving. Taking the audits are not enough. You must implement, ask for guidance from
mentors and friends. To continue learning and seek materials that can change your leadership
style in a positive way. Leadership is the hope of the church.
2
We are that hope! Jesus equipped His disciples to be effective leaders, that lead His
church in a hostile environment. We’ll face many challenges. We’ll find ourselves with
shortcomings that can be improve on by learning from others. Follow the following passage;
shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but
willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over
those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you
will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the
elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the
proud but gives grace to the humble. (1 Pet. 5:2-5).”
1
Aubrey Malphurs, Being Leaders: The Nature of Authentic Christian Leadership, (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker
Books:2003
2
Ibid. 12
4
Relational Skills Inventory
The “Relational Skills Inventory,” helps determine critical people skill-sets for leaders in
general and pastors.
3
I relate strongly in the following skills: listening, risk taking and
questioning. When I was young, most of my friends were 40-50 years older than me. Been a
good listening was extremely useful at AWANA. The best part was listening to the Sparkies,
what was going on in their lives, struggles and needs. In order to effectively pray for others, we
must be able to carefully listen to their needs.
I have always been a risk taker. When young I would go out and mountain bike in the
rainforest, at the age of 18 I got my pilots license and when in the Navy I did so much high-risk
stuff that I have tons of challenge coins. In ministry, I look for opportunities that no one wants to
do. Here are the areas were I’m above average: networking, conflict resolution, decision making,
problem solving, confronting, encouraging, trust building, inspiring / motivating, team building,
consensus building, conducting meetings, recognizing & rewarding, disagreeing, confronting,
counseling, mentoring, challenging, evaluating, managing / administering, discipling,
evangelizing and correcting. The areas were I’m below average are: trusting, empowering and
delegating. I recognize part of why I’m below average is due to how I was rise. I have also being
hurt by others and don’t delegate as I should because I’m a hard charger
All those areas allowed me to excel as a law enforcement officer and in the US Navy. I
had the honor to serve as field training officer, instructor, Deputy Chief and first Hispanic Chief
of Police in South Dakota. In the NAVY I was a 2nd Class Petty Officer, leading Petty Officer,
team leader and instructor. I also became the first Latino President of the South Dakota Peace
Officer Association. In ministry I had the opportunity to serve as Sparks Director and currently
as an adult Sunday school presenter. Relational skills are important, put them to use.
3
Ibid. 201
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Task Skills Inventory
The “Task Skills Inventory,” helps determine critical task skill-sets for leaders in general
and pastors.
4
After completing the inventory I scored strong in the following areas: research, use
of technology, making presentations, creating / creativity and advertising. I use all these skills in
a weekly basis. First, I do a lot of research. Working for an insurance company I seek for better
ways to promote customer service and ways to better provide coverage. Since I was young, I
embraced technology. In the 80’s I began to use 51/4-inch floppy disk. I continued to stay up to
date and I work with both Mac and PC. I also use a DJI Phantom 4 drone to survey properties
and claims.
I enjoy making presentations in Keynote, Final Cut, Photoshop and Adobe. I have always
been good on those areas and it helps me present during Sunday School, creating Facebook
advertising for non-profit organizations. In the other hand, I have more areas where I’m below
average: mission casting, vision casting, time & stress management, writing, monitoring and
praying. Out of those, time management and praying affect me the most.
I’m not great at writing or praying. I’m a visual person which helps me in creating
presentations and I can present by speaking. When it comes to writing, I struggle. It’s hard to
write down my thoughts and get the message across. I also didn’t grow up praying. Prayer in
public is steamily hard. An effective Christian leader needs to be able to express themselves and
speak to God. I also fail at spending time in prayer.
I want a relationship with God as Moses did. To be able to speak with Him no matter if
I’m in public or private in a honest way. God wants to hear from us, to rejoice always, pray
without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God (1 Thess. 5:16-18).
4
Ibid. 203
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Leadership Style Inventory
To complete the “Leadership Style Inventory,” one must be honest and answer on the
bases of what you believe is true of you, not based on what you desire, or hope is true.
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My first
primary style is director and secondary style is analytical. I’m a task-oriented person, love a
challenge, proactive, risk taker and hard charging.
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Because of it, I excelled in the military and
law enforcement.
Now, I am using those skills in overseas ministry. Next April, a group of us will be
traveling to remote villages in Guatemala to equip pastors. By God’s grace, I have been able to
coordinate the logistics of transportation, training material and equipment needed. As an
analytical person, I tribe in a teaching environment such as Sunday school. I enjoy going into in-
dept teaching. I seek opportunities that require problem solving. When I preach, I prefer to cover
the Bible in depth, using lots of facts and detailed support.
As an analytical leader, I struggle in vision casting and don’t do well when there is
dissatisfaction and conflict. I’m not diplomatic and I struggle at the relational aspects of ministry.
One professor said, “ministry would be great if we could remove people from it.” There are
times that I feel that way. I struggle when others don’t do the research and criticize your work.
Others feel I do too much research. I like facts, statistics and brain storming. Other times I make
decisions to quickly.
I’m grateful to have two mentors who are helping me on these areas. Helping me
understand how to better work with others by been more diplomatic. My goal is not to become a
wicked messenger that gets in trouble, but a faithful ambassador that brings health to the Body
and ministry (Prov. 13:17).
5
Ibid. 205
6
Ibid. 95
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Church Structure
Our local church has a centralized ministry structure. Malphurs describes it as a “top-
down leadership where power is in the form of a chain of command.”
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The congregation is older,
power is not share and its highly control by the elders and deacons. They also make the
decisions, don’t want change. Are highly critical of new ideas, slow to change and responding to
concerns, and weak at building relations.
From conversations that our senior pastor, he feels like walking on egg shells with both
the deacon and elder board. I have a problem with him, because he is not good at organization,
communication and following throw with commitments. I understand the importance of
structure, but I also believe in order to have a healthy church, we should treat each other as
family.
A few of us are courageously trying to move the church towards a combination of
centralized and decentralized ministry structure. The top leadership should delegate more and be
open to new suggestions or ideas. They need to be open to listen to those who are working in
certain areas of ministry. The should visit and participate in those areas instead of looking at it
from the outside without getting their hands dirty.
I believe if we start to be more transparent and share what we are feeling or thinking, we
in turn can accomplish more. The leadership needs to more like Jesus. Jesus was not self-
promoting (Mark 1:11). Jesus also cast a vision with simplicity and clarity (Mark 1:15). Jesus
also build up His disciples and building relationships (Mark 1:19). If the elders and deacon
begging to promote others, equip them, cast a clear vision towards the future and build others,
we can come together as one Body and a large family.
7
Ibid. 113
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Circumstances Audit
There are two circumstances audits, one on ideal and current circumstances in which you
feel that you would be most effective as a leader and describes the actual circumstances of your
church or ministry.
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The church I attend has about 350 members, with four of us who are
minorities. The church has been around for over 40 years and most of the members are older.
The senior pastor has been around for over 8 years and the youth pastor about 5. They are
the only two paid full-time staff. The rest of the leadership volunteers. The church supports many
overseas ministries, including the upcoming trip to Guatemala. There are a few areas that I feel
I’m best effective as a leader.
First, is to share my experiences and struggles. Attending Liberty has help me to be more
effective as a presenter and facilitating training. It took me several years to understand the
environment. Presenting in the church is very different from LEO or military. In those areas
training has a more of a hands-on experience, where in the church I need to educate and engage
on a personal base. I believe ministry programs where the congregation can use their gifts and
talents will help the overall health of the Body and its culture.
We can’t change some of the circumstances, but we can show love for each other, listen
to concerns and feeling, encourage others to learn and to start implementing methods that work
and discontinue those that don’t. Change is hard, ministry circumstances will change, and we
must be flexible to deal with them. For meeting trials of various kinds, testing of your faith
produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may ne perfect and
complete lacking in nothing (Jam. 1:2-4).
8
Ibid. 219, 222
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Leader’s Core Values Audit
After completing the audit, I circle the following areas as important: fairness, family,
world mission, community, encouragement, giving, leadership, cultural relevance, prayer,
excellence, team ministry, creativity, cooperation, lost people, mobilized laity, obedience and
initiative. I found most important the following: Bible knowledge, evangelism, worship and
innovation.
I demonstrated fairness as a law enforcement officer. I didn’t care who you were and
treated everyone impartially. I seek opportunities to encourage others such as our senior pastor. I
meet with him on a regular basis. I also have a willingness to take the first step in a ministry
situation. As I mentioned before, I took initiative in preparing for the Guatemala missions’ trip.
I began prayer and research three years in advance. I slowly brought it to the leadership
and began to recruit others who can bring experience, knowledge and value. No overseas
ministry has reached those villages in over 30 years. Out of the five of us, only two can speak
Spanish. The pastors have not had the opportunity to attend formal theological or seminary
training.
When it comes to the values, I find most important, Bible knowledge and evangelism are
the top two. Having biblical knowledge helps us maintain a connection with God through Hus
Word. Knowing Scripture helps us staying true and help understand its message. If Christians
don’t spend time studying, it would be hard to apply the message of a sermon. Without biblical
knowledge we are unbale to defend our faith and share the Good News with others. We can’t
answer important questions that can make an impact of someone’s salvation.
Scripture tells us how we can become a member of God’s family. Without knowledge is
hard to understand why Jesus was born, die and resurrected. We can’t understand the plan of
salvation that began when Adam and Eve fell in sin and disobedience.
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Pastor-Organization Fit
I scored a 16 on this final assessment. As I mentioned before, there are some issues that I
see with the current leadership at the church. The church demographics also has a factor.
Malphurs describe demographics as, “general information about people, such as where they live,
their education, marital status, generation, location, income, and other factors.”
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The majority of
the congregation is older, German descendant and grew up in this area and church. In the past I
was perceived as radical due to the topics that I want to cover during Sunday school. Even as I
was trying to share topics learned at Liberty University.
Having a senior pastor who is also a Liberty University Alumni has help. The church is
Mennonite, but it’s my opinion that’s slowly moving away. I have face challenges. I believe part
of it is due to my world view and being an outsider. The youth pastor and I are trying to bring
new ideas, training and views that we believe will benefit the body with theology and philosophy
that fits with the younger members.
The youth pastor is also an outsider, who grow up in Montana and is a Moody Bible
Institute alumnus. There has been some push back from members on his and my ideas. I
constantly encourage him, and we are both presenting a Sunday school class. We want to move
the leadership to begging to work with us in order to lead effectively. We are also working on
presenting a series from Peter Scazzero. One of the elders have join in and we’ll start in January
with, “Emotionally Healthy Spirituality.”
10
Scazzero said; “It’s impossible to be spiritually
mature while remaining emotionally immature.” Slowly, we’ll move the organization by
improving the emotions of the Body.
9
Ibid. 143
10
Scazzero, Peter, and Geri Scazzero. Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: Workbook for Individual or Group Study.
Singapore: Imprint Edition, 2008
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Conclusion
Malphurs said, “A Christian leader is a servant with the credibility and capabilities to
influence people in a particular context to pursue their God-given direction.”
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In order to
achieve the credibility and capabilities to influence others, we must seek God. For blessed are
those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with their whole hearts (Ps. 119:2). The audits on
Malphurs book shows you your strengths and shortcomings.
Your actions and words must demonstrate your credibility. Credible leaders are
consistent in their words. You also need to be honest and your capabilities are demonstrated by
personal contact and communications. The audits have shown me two specific areas that I most
improve. First, be more diplomatic. In order to achieve it I must be more respectful of others,
when I’m honest, do it in such a way that isn’t offensive. Diplomacy will help me be more
approachable. If others don’t feel comfortable around me, I will never be able to present and
make a difference in others live.
Second, I must continue my education. If it was not for working on my education, I
would had never come to the realization of my shortcomings. Another wat to improve is to share
the audits with others and let them rate me on all the areas. Others will promote my spiritual
growth and provide accountability. I face many challenges that have made learning difficult. If it
was not by seeking the Lord and for those who pray and invest in me, I would not be able to
become the Christian leader God intend for me. God Bless!
11
Ibid. 157
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Bibliography
Malphurs, Aubrey. Being Leaders: The Nature of Authentic Christian Leadership. Grand Rapids:
Baker Book House Co., 2003. ISBN: 9780801091438.
Scazzero, Peter, and Geri Scazzero. Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: Workbook for Individual
or Group Study. Singapore: Imprint Edition, 2008
