An excerpt from Kris Vallotton's upcoming book, Heavy Rain. Watch for more news about the January 2011 release!
There are lots of leaders who think they are empowering their people when they are actually just absent. Being absent and being empowering are not the same thing! A father who rarely comes home would never be mistaken for being empowering. A leader that hardly ever comes out of his office or seldom interacts with his team is like a father who never comes home. He may think he is being empowering by removing the negative element of control from the culture. But people don’t necessarily feel powerful just because nobody is resisting them. More often than not, this leaves them feeling lost, abandoned, and unsure of what they are supposed to be doing. Empowering leaders have a proactive, not inactive, ability. They do not simply remove the controlling dynamics; they establish positive elements of communication, encouragement, direction, praise, and cooperation.
Incidentally, absent leaders can be just as controlling as the ones who are in everybody’s business. We most often think of controlling leaders as micromanagers or angry people who rule through fear and intimidation. But actually, one of the most common ways to control people is to withdraw and withhold information. Jesus put it this way: “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15). Jesus equated slavery with withholding information. Empowering leaders make decisions with people, not just for people. When we withhold information from our people or tell them just what they need to know to get their job done, we produce slave camps where one person does all the thinking. This is religion on steroids. Religion wants to tame people, to domesticate the masses, and get them to keep the rules. But new ideas are never discovered behind the iron bars of the zoo. It's only in the uncharted jungle of life that new realities and opportunities are revealed. If we are going to become a house of heroes, we need fresh ideas, untried solutions, innovation, and bold, courageous thoughts delivered by risk takers, not zookeepers.
In His friendship with His disciples, Jesus did not tell them what to think; He taught them how to think through conversations and interactions. He didn’t keep them on the sidelines watching Him do everything. They had permission to ask questions, to try to do what He was doing, and to get feedback from Him. More than that, Jesus told them do even greater things than He did! True Kingdom-minded fathers and mothers want their sons and daughters to succeed them and exceed them.
