A few posts ago, I complained that the typical “church planter profile” is based only on the big and successful churches which have “Type A” personalities at the helm. I questioned the idea that “mega-church” status should be the goal for all churches, and therefore, that only “Type A” people should plant churches.
Someone once told me that “It takes all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people, and all kinds of churches require all kinds of planters.” I agree. So what is it about the Type-A person that attracts crowds and convinces so many people that their way is the right way?
One answer may be that such leaders are louder.
A recent Time article revealed that these loud leadership types are wrong more often than the quiet types, but people will often follow and agree with them, for the simple reason that they speak up first and loudest. Here are a few quotes:
Repeatedly, the ones who emerged as leaders and were rated the highest in competence were not the ones who offered the greatest number of correct answers. Nor were they the ones whose SAT scores suggested they’d even be able to. What they did do was offer the most answers — period.
“Dominant individuals behaved in ways that made them appear competent,” the researchers write, “above and beyond their actual competence.” Troublingly, group members seemed only too willing to follow these underqualified bosses. An overwhelming 94% of the time, the teams used the first answer anyone shouted out — often giving only perfunctory consideration to others that were offered.
And more recently, I saw this great Tweet from Mark Sweeney:
“Don’t raise your voice, improve your argument.” – Desmond Tutu
— Mark Sweeney (@WonderBread07) April 21, 2013
Jeremy,
I’m with you on this. I’m capable of public speaking (a hard-won skill, that), but I’m not a type A and never will be. Nor, for that matter, did I have any particular desire to be a church planter — yet here I am, through a chain of providential circumstances I would not have chosen. (In fact, I often advised my students against choosing the sort of situation that God chose to put me in.)
But I’m skeptical of the Time article’s perspective on these supposedly under-competent leaders. People value certainty and ready answers for a reason. Low-key guys like me like to think that it’s because people are weak, lazy, stupid, easily gulled, unwilling to do the work themselves — whatever, as long as it’s an intrinsic flaw in them.
But I’ve learned to question that. The wrong answer, swiftly and confidently executed, very often produces better results than the right answer, too late and too tentatively carried out. Naturally some course corrections are required, but a fixable solution today is often better than a perfect solution next month. People know this, instinctively. They perform badly in a climate of uncertainty, and are at their best when they trust that matters are in hand, and life makes sense. It naturally follows that they gravitate toward leaders with the ability to inspire those beliefs.
Of course God is the primary source of such certainty, and the primary one to trust. A good shepherd had better be pointing people to the Lord rather than himself for their certainty, otherwise he’s training them into idolatry. But when someone images that certainty-producing quality of God to people, they respond to it, and should — one of the hardest lessons of the pastorate for me, thus far.
His forever,
Tim Nichols
Tim,
You are right. Sometimes it’s better to act quickly than to not act at all, even if the quick response is not exactly perfect.
Someone once told me (was it you?) that if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing poorly.
Jeremy,
I don’t think it was me, but I like it.
His,
Tim