World Vision & Weekly Reading

Depending on the circles you swim in, you either were bombarded with information regarding World Vision's historic decisions last week, or your didn't hear a peep.  To sum of the debacle, World Vision announced Monday it would hire members of the LGBT community.  World Vision went out of their way, as you will see from my selected quotes, to proclaim it was not under "pressure" or threat of a lawsuit, but rather sought to unify the divided church through their mission to serve the poorest of the poor in the name of Christ.  This announcement was followed by a reversal of the entire decision.  They cited their reversal for reasons suck as "longstanding conduct police" built upon the "Biblical covenant of marriage between a man and a woman" and their commitment to "traditional understanding of Biblical marriage.  They apologized for failing "to seek enough counsel" from their "Christian partners."  To summarize World Vision's week as a perplexing public relations nightmare would be an understatement.

I have a strong penchant for desiring to discuss the implicit and explicit theological implications of the indecision's decision.  However, my new found interest in leadership has me leaning another way.  As an outsider, with limited knowledge of what is required to lead a church or small business, and no experience running a non-for-profit, I can't help in asking who is leading World Vision?

I don't know if the experience of serving on a board of an international billion dollar organization removes the leadership so far from the leadership basics, but it would appear so.  What kind of board making a highly controversial decision would enter into that decision not knowing they would receive such significant push back?  What kind of board does not have an attack plan, or at least address the expected push back/concerns in their initial announcement?  What kind of board does not know how their conduct policies?  What kind of board does not see how their mission intersects with the culture and environment of the institution?  What kind of board does not know about long standing traditional institutional positions and what it might mean to upend those?  What kind of board announces a highly controversial decision by proclaiming the leadership team "was not unanimous?"  What kind of leadership team fails to seek counsel, run numbers, interview their Christian partners/giving units?  The list of "what were you thinking about" questions are never ending.

My hope is that you can read their initial decision and their reversal, and think about how your leadership team might have a proclivity to fall into some of the same failures.  Be wise and learn from others failures, so one day you won't be a case study yourself.

Weekly reading...

1. The key to consistent victory, Loyalty
2. Why you should stop brainstorming
3. Sleep
4. How do quiet leaders succeed? By earning respect
5. What's your blindside?
6. Leadership is lonely?
7. 10 most common ways CEOs fail
8. 4 difficult sentences for leaders
9. Do you like the internet?  What if you lose it?
10. Historic day? NCAA unions

In light of World Vision having a rough week, some times it isn't your day...