My history of Leadership slogans

What slogans have you adopted over the years?

As much as I say I hate slogans I have to chuckle at how often a slogan has stuck with me over the years. A number of slogans were not real ‘slogans’ per , as in no one designed them and said this is what we need to say from now on in this context. There are plenty of brand slogans out there, churches and christian marketing have been filled with buzzwords for a long time, and they are used for marketing. In-house slogans, statements that somehow embodied a value or a vision, are often in response to something and come about quite organically. Those are the ones I like. In my current time of reflection I had to giggle at a few I somehow created over the years.

Here is my non-definitive list of slogans I generated:

‘Schnetje conferences’ instead of meetings…

In a place where meetings had a negative connotation (OK, that has been most places in my experience) I came up with a term that reflected my background and gave a more relational feel to what we were trying to accomplish. Leadership is a relationship, so that would have been the underlying lesson. Schnetje is a type of biscuit, and this is the Low German name. In high school we called hanging out together to just visit a ‘schnetje conference’.

A few things well…

In a busy setting, a larger church, one of my first messages to the volunteer leaders was to ‘do a few things well’. Yes, this is not my own invention, but it felt fresh when I made it a theme for the year ahead. Don’t just be busy for the sake of being busy, or trying to do everything, instead concentrate on a few things, and do them well.

If we’re only as good as our last event…

This one was a negative; one of my less favourable mentions in a less than favourable moment. The group was excited with what we had done recently and I simply stated that we had missed the point of what we were there to do. Both views had some truth attached, but the timing and the sentiment on my part was bad. People are not earning their way into fulfilling purpose, and their presence is not based on your approval, so walk and grow together.

Intentional mingling…

In one setting there was a lot of attention to the scheduled time of our evenings but the actual intent of our time was lacking. I finally gave a name to our relationship building opening time and put it in the schedule each evening…intentional mingling.

#IYKYK

I have blogged about this one before, but it does bear repeating. This came about more recently during the observation stage of meeting with a church, and because it was a popular hashtag on social media, it was easy to use and remember. Many churches and groups fall into this pattern over time, developing an insular culture of those in the know, and those who are not on the ‘inside’. IYKYK… If You Know, You Know!

A safe place to fail…

This has been with me a very long time. Early on I realized that churches can easily fall into the trap of performative ministry, which separates the organic feel of people sharing and walking together in community, creating space for those who ‘do’ and those who ‘watch’. So, when someone starts using terms like ‘organic’ ‘relational’ and anything related to everyone being part of the ‘love one another’ in the community of God, it can feel like learning a whole new scary language. ‘A safe place to fail’ means creating a generous and humble culture, where vulnerability is normal, and trust is created. As I explained to one group: Making it a safe space to respond to God’s nudges in community.

Never flip off other leaders on your way out…

This one is not mine either and it came in my time of crisis as I left my last permanent role in a church. I have always struggled with this notion, especially when considering the number of stories of leadership fumbles over the past decade. The justice theme within me would ask, “Are we protecting troublesome individuals who consistently do harm in positions of power?” There is a history of protection, we’ve seen plenty of stories of it in the news. But the sentiment here is about the heart of the one on the way out. While the question was posed as a threat to future aspirations, “It depends, do you want to keep doing this (pastoring) in the future?” if I were to address bad behaviour, the intent was more caring. Don’t leave in a bad way. Don’t break relationships on your way out the door. It was, and still is, good food for thought.

There you have it, a smattering of slogans and statements for different times.

I enjoyed looking back over these words, even those from tough times, because they have numerous stories attached to them from many memorable faces. Do you have any slogans you would pass along to others to ruminate on? Maybe you said something in the moment that ended up sticking for an era?