Constructing Blue Collar Leaders in a White Collar World

By LaMar Herndon

In Constructing Blue-Collar Leaders in a White-Collar World . . . "Dr. LaMar Herndon considers a group of leaders often overlooked and occasionally denigrated-the-bivocational pastor. Constructing Blue Collar Leaders in a White Collar World integrates important theoretical leadership concepts with spiritual and practical realities. Dr. Herndon explores important topics such as trends and issues facing the global church and its leaders, leadership models, values and ethics, character and integrity, cultural effects, creativity and innovation, reverse mentoring, and strategic planning. This book is a profoundly honest hands-on guide to what constitutes a true leader serving as a bivocational minister." -Dr. Gary Oster Regent University School of Business & Leadership, Virginia Beach, VA "Down through my thirty plus years of education, ministry, and leadership I have read many books on the subject of leadership. Some have challenged me and inspired me, but none have done so at the level of Constructing Blue Collar Leaders in a White Collar World. As a State Minister, I work with many bivocational and blue collar Pastors. I will be using Dr. Herndon's book as a primary resource to assist me in working with those Pastors in challenging and inspiring them in their leadership development." -Dr. Darryl Allen State Minister KY Church of God Ministries, Adjunct Professor at Nazarene Bible College & Mid-America Christian University "It [Constructing Blue-Collar Leaders in a White-Collar World] is an excellent presentation of leadership issues every pastor needs to understand to some degree. The chapter on "Values and Ethics" is worth the price of the book. Thanks for sharing the results of your many hours of study and hard work." -Ray Gilder National Coordinator Bivocational and Small Church Leadership Network, Bivocational Small Church Ministries Specialist Tennessee Baptist Convention "Dr. LaMar Herndon presents leadership from a very down to earth and practical approach. This book seeks to help the bivocational church leader be effective while balancing these two worlds. I believe this book needs to be in every pastor, minister, and leaders library; whether bivocational or not." -Rev. Jewel D. Williams, M.R.E. (Church of God, Anderson, IN Author of Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, Living our Theology, and the Path of a Preacher

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 6, 2018
• ISBN: 9781641401661

Book preview

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"Down through my thirty plus years of education, ministry, and leadership I have read many books on the subject of lead- ership. Some have challenged me and inspired me, but none have done so at the level of Constructing Blue Collar Leaders in a White Collar World. As I read through the manuscript, I was challenged to reflect on and re-evaluate my own leadership and inspired to renew my efforts in the continued development of my own leadership. As a State Minister, I with many bivocational and blue collar Pastors. I will be using Dr. Herndon’s book as a primary resource to assist me in working with those Pastors in challenging and inspiring them in their leadership development. I greatly appreciate Dr. Herndon’s work and development of this unique and focused resource."

—Dr. Darryl Allen, Advancement Director at Church of God Ministries, Anderson, IN, former State Minister KY Church of God Ministries, Adjunct Professor at Nazarene Bible College & Mid-America Christian University, former COG Anderson senior pastor

I am very impressed, not only with your research, but with your writing style. You’ve identified the real issues all leaders must consider, and your applications to bivocational pastors are right on target.

—Rick Lawrenson, Lead Pastor, Nags Head Church (SBC), Nags Head, NC

It [Constructing Blue Collar Leaders in a White Collar World] is an excellent presentation of leadership issues every pastor needs to understand to some degree. The chapter on Values and Ethics is worth the price of the book. Thanks for sharing the results of your many hours of study and hard work.

—Ray Gilder, Senior Pastor, FBC Gordansville (SBC), TN and former SBC National Coordinator Bivocational & Small Church Leadership Network, and former Bivocational/Small Church Ministries Specialist Tennessee Baptist Convention, SBC

"Dr. LaMar Herndon presents leadership from a very down to earth and practical approach. This book seeks to help the bivocational church leader be effective while balancing these two worlds. The theme of Dr. Herndon’s book resonates from this quote in his text, ‘People are not just pawns in a game.’ They are not expendable, acceptable collateral damage in the acceptable collateral damage in the bigger picture of individuals advancing themselves on our way up the denominational ladder. They are lives redeemed by our Savior and are of intrinsic value to him, and should be to us leaders.

Dr. Herndon uses creative stories to express his thoughts on preparing the right foundation and how to build upon for great and how to build upon for great leadership. While this book is expressly geared toward the bivocational church leader, its truths and sound strategies can be utilized by any leader desiring to lead God’s people God’s way.Having known Dr. Herndon for some years, this book shows his heart. He has the heart of a pastor seeking to grow others into their greatest ‘self.’ This is evident on the pages of his book. Each section shares the truth that each leader should focus on the needs of those they have charge over; nor for their gain or accolades, but to give God glory. I believe this book needs to be in every pastor, minister, and leaders library; whether bivocational or not."

—Rev. Jewel D. Williams, M.R.E., (Church of God, Anderson, IN), Williams Innovative Network

(W.I.N.) Ministries, author of Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, Living our Theology, and The Path of a Preacher.

Whether God’s leading in your life has involved you in leadership in the church, industry, healthcare, or another field vocationally; each man is directed by the Word to be the leader in his home and family. Being a leader in anyone of these areas presents significant challenges. Dr. Herndon’s book is a useful resource on contemporary thought, leadership theory, with insightful applications for implementation for anyone in a leadership position.

—J. Michael Williams, Ph.D. Organizational Leadership - Medical Missionary to the Philippines, Instructor-Baptist Bible College & Seminary of PA, CEO of Northern Kentucky Rehabilitation Hospital, Twin City Hospital, Dennison, OH, and Greenfield Area Medical Center, Greenfield, OH, Exec. VP & COO Adcare Health Systems, COO The Ohio Masonic Home, retired mentor and leader

For those God has led into vocations that require leadership, this book should be included in your professional library. Constructing Blue Collar Leaders in a White Collar World is an encouraging read for anyone, no matter their vocation. LaMar continually reminds his readers that what they are doing has purpose, whether it is at a secular job or in the church. His style is relatable and enjoyable.

—Dr. Becca Janiak, Teacher Charlotte County Florida Public Schools, Leadership Conference Developer & Facilitator in Uganda, Speech Writer & Correspondence Analyst in Presidential Correspondence at the White House 2007–2008

ISBN 978-1-64140-165-4 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64140-166-1 (digital)

Copyright © 2017 by LaMar Herndon

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Editor: Hugh Herndon

Cover Design: Jason and LaMar Herndon

Images used in this book, except where otherwise noted, were purchased with copyright permission from Bigstock Photo (www.bigstockphoto.com).

Printed in the United States of America

Constructing

Blue-Collar Leaders

in a White-Collar World

A Biblical Perspective on Assisting

Bivocational and Full Time Pastors, Church and Marketplace Leaders Become

21st Century Global Leaders

LaMar Herndon

Doctor of Strategic Leadership Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

Additional Reading Sources

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Leadership—Getting the Foundation Right: What Leadership Is, What It Is Not

Chapter 1 Addendum

Leadership Values and Ethics: Remember When Business Was Done on a Handshake

Chapter 2 Addendum

Leadership Redefined: Announcing Twenty-First Century Leadership Models Now Arriving

Chapter 3 Addendum

Leadership and Followership: the Forgotten Alignment

Leadership: The Dark Side

Leadership: Why Your Church, Community, and World Culture Matters

Leadership: Creating a Learning Organization through Creativity and Innovation

Chapter 7 Addendum

Leadership and R-Mentoring/Reverse Mentoring: When Reverse Is Really Forward!

Chapter 8 Addendum

Leadership Development and Millennial Generational Leadership Challenges

Leadership Analysis: Strategic Planning and Analysis Tools for Organizational Success

Leadership: A Twenty-First Century Perspective on Trends and Issues Facing the Global Church and Leader

Footnotes/Notes

Foreword

In our dynamic modern world, organizations of every type recognize the significant need for leadership with intelligence, experience, integrity, and initiative. Astute observers of exceptional leaders note that they are not born, but instead require years of training and practice in preparation for guiding others through the difficult environment in which we live, work, and worship.

In Constructing Blue-Collar Leaders in a White-Collar World, Dr. LaMar Herndon considers a group of leaders often overlooked and occasionally denigrated—the bivocational pastor. Bivocational typically refers to those pastors also requiring a full- or part-time job other than the ministry to make ends meet. Dr. Herndon goes much further, defining those who simply do ministry versus those who are ministers.

Constructing Blue-Collar Leaders in a White-Collar World is not a dense academic treatise, nor is it an aw-shucks autobiography. Instead, the book is a profoundly honest hands-on guide to what constitutes a true leader, serving as a bivocational minister. Extending research from Christian and secular leadership experts, Constructing Blue-Collar Leaders in a White-Collar World integrates important theoretical leadership concepts with spiritual and practical realities.

Using examples of remarkable (good and bad) leaders from the Scriptures and the contemporary workplace, Dr. Herndon explores important topics such as trends and issues facing the global church and its leaders, leadership models, values and ethics, character and integrity, cultural effects, creativity and innovation, reverse mentoring, and strategic planning. The text is well footnoted and also recommends additional readings and websites.

Because they live each day where the tires meet the road, bivocational pastors are personally and intimately acquainted with the joys, frustrations, and sorrows of church members. Like the bivocational missionaries Paul (tentmaker) and Peter (fisherman), the thousands of bivocational pastors around the world are critical to speed God’s message to all who will listen. Constructing Blue-Collar Leaders in a White-Collar World is a valuable guide to hasten that life-changing process.

—Dr. Gary W. Oster

Regent University School of Business & Leadership Virginia Beach, VA

Preface

LaMar with his Dad at five months

"I think the title of ‘pastor’ is much truer in most small churches, where the primary leader ends up spending more relational time with the whole church."¹

—Dan Kimball

Why write a leadership book with its focus or target audience the bivocational minister and leader? One might ask. Before answering this important question, let’s define the term bivocational, which simply refers to a minister working a second job in addition to their service to the church.² Most often, this person earns more from their second or main job than they do from the church.

A former bivocational pastor himself, Dennis Bickers, The Bivocational Pastor, views the term bivocational as one who serves in a paid ministry position with income from another source whether it is full-time, part-time, or pension but does not include income from a working spouse. Bickers also notes that the term fully funded is a term used currently in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) to replace the term full-time.

He notes that many bivocational ministers prefer using bivocational and fully funded when referring to ministry. A fully funded pastor is one who receives all his or her income from the church he or she serves.³

Now, the answer to the question of why write a leadership book with the focus on today’s bivocational minister or leader is simple and can be found in these three reasons.

The first reason is that bivocational ministry is a growing practice across North America. Church growth consultant Lyle E. Schaller predicts that by 2018, many of the 225,000 churches now averaging fewer than 120 in worship will be pastored by bivocational ministers.⁴ Factors leading to the growth of bivocational ministry are (1) the lack of stewardship training in our churches, (2) rising cost of living in North America, and (3) the current economic situation or downturn, recession we have been experiencing these past years.

Another important factor is that younger generation members in today’s churches contribute less financially to the church budget than those of prior generations. Fewer small churches today have parsonages. Health insurance costs have skyrocketed, all adding to the small-church dilemma of not being able to offer the minister a salary package, enabling him or her to serve in a full-time capacity.⁵ A recent survey indicated a Southern Baptist bivocational pastor’s average salary to be $18,971, their pay package totaling $20,667.⁶

Additional research indicates that one-fourth to one-third of Nazarene pastors say they are bivocational.7 The bivocational Small Church Leadership Network estimating there are 37,000 smaller-church pastors, most of whom are bivocational, within the Southern Baptist Convention.⁸ In the state of North Carolina, where I lived from 2010–2014, there were approximately 4,200 SBC churches⁹ with some 1,400 of these with bivocational ministers on staff. In some of our NC state association churches, 90 percent of the church staff in bivocational.¹⁰ If this trend continues in North America, the salary, housing, and health insurance implications for pastors of bivocational churches, given our current economic downturn, are not promising.

Despite the challenges of being bivocational ministers, these ministers should take comfort in their profession from the ultimate example of a bivocational minister in the apostle Paul. Acts 18:2–4 states, Paul came to them [Aquila and Priscilla], and being of the same occupation, stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. He reasoned with them in the synagogue every Sabbath and tried to persuade both Jews and Greeks (Holman).

The Tentmakers organizational purpose statement is this sentence: . . . Encouraging the missionary to support himself [herself] in part or whole in the foundational part of his [her] ministry.¹¹ This begs the question, could this concept not be applicable to the local church minister or leader? The obvious answer is yes, it has been and will continue to be a growing trend whether by necessity or by choice.

The second reason for writing this book is that I grew up in the home of an Independent Baptist and now retired Southern Baptist (SBC) minister who spent the vast majority of his adult years pastoring small bivocational churches. Many of those years, my dad worked in the asphalt-paving business he and his stepfather Leondas Sees Wilson started in the early 1950s. This same company, L. S. Wilson Asphalt Paving, now owned and run by Dad’s brother and namesake, was where I spent a number of years, working alongside of my father after graduating high school.

As a young man of twenty-two, I married the daughter of a Southern Baptist minister who also spent a great majority of his life pastoring small bivocational churches himself until his retirement. When I met my future wife June, my future father-in-law was working at a local lumberyard full-time while serving a local church as a bivocational pastor. Growing up in the home of a bivocational minister, I saw and experienced the difficulties that arose from my father—attempting to balance his family, a full time job, along with pastoral duties. These difficulties included hard physical work and long hours, limited finances, no health or retirement benefits, pastoral demands as well as being a husband and father of seven. Marrying a daughter of a bivocational minister and seeing him struggle in much the same manner as my father reinforced the demands placed against ministers such as my dad and father-in-law. In addition, their lack of formal education provided them with limited church and market place opportunities to provide a better standard of living for their families.

Finally, the third reason for writing this book is that I am also a Southern Baptist minister who has spent the majority of his life in blue-collar jobs before, in-between, and even after pastoring small churches. All these churches are bivocational from a budget and salary package perspective. The only difference between my father and father-in-law’s pastorates and countless other ministers and their pastorates is that I deliberately chose to make mine full-time. This would have never been possible without my wife June who has worked outside the home providing that much needed second income. The goal here was to turn around churches that either had plateaued or were dying spiritually and numerically.

For the bivocational minister, the number of hours left over in your week after working full-time (and after family responsibilities) to devote to pastoral duties are limited. Having spent much of my adult life working in market place jobs, with years spent in construction, I am familiar with long hours in mentally and physically demanding jobs and too small a paycheck in many instances.

Jesus, in his story on The Two Foundations, in Matthew 7:24–28, says, Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of Mine and doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded the house, and it collapsed. And its collapse was great.¹²

Whether we are a bivocational or fully funded/full-time minister, as a Christ follower and leader our personal and spiritual leadership foundation is to be built on the Rock, Jesus Christ. The years of working in our family’s asphalt-paving company, the building construction industry, and eventually owning my own landscape and design company have only served to reinforce the importance of building on a solid foundation.

Without a solid, properly prepared foundation, our roads will crumble, walls will fall down, and planted landscape will not take root and grow. Bivocational ministers and leaders already face enough challenges without having a solid spiritual leadership foundation in place to lead their congregations. My construction, blue-collar background, emphasizing the importance of a good foundation, is at the heart of this book on leadership. The goal here is to provide a one-stop-shop leadership book covering a variety of leadership topics to assist the bivocational church pastor and leader grow, mature, and develop their leadership skills.

Why focus and develop this book on leadership primarily for the bivocational pastor and leader beyond these stated reasons? The truth is that deep down you may already know the answer. One bivocational pastor in Virginia stated he works ten hours a day on his engineering job, another fifteen to twenty hours a week as pastor, with an additional one to two hours a day studying in preparation for his Sunday messages. Another bivocational pastor stated he spends thirty hours a week on his job, thirty hours a week for his church, and thirty hours for with his family.¹³ Adding to time demands is the fact that many bivocational ministers have limited resources. Expense is one of the biggest obstacles as many pastors and leaders cannot afford the necessary fees for websites (and often-expensive commentaries) with all the bells and whistles¹⁴ or the latest book out of developing your leadership competency, provided you have the time and energy to read the book.

This leadership book exposes a pastor and leader in an introductory manner to a number of important leadership topics not often addressed in one book. Each chapter and topic will briefly introduce the reader to subject material that is not, by any stretch of the imagination, all that there is on that particular topic. Each chapter will have its set of footnotes located in the reference section at the back of the book. Many chapters will have an addendum containing additional insights for those desiring a deeper knowledge base. Each addendum will contain its own set of footnotes. At times, we will recommend additional books and websites for leadership growth.

Finally, remember President Harry S. Truman’s quote, All leaders are readers, but not all readers are leaders.¹⁵ This begs the question here, which one are you? Whether you read this book from front to back or select from its chapters, depending on your interests or leadership circumstances, our goal here is simple. May God strengthen and encourage you as a pastor leader, and our prayer is may you find the reading of this book beneficial to your leadership development.

Remember

Additional Reading Sources

From Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA Business & Leadership program and e-publications, check out their Inner Resources for Leaders publication with scholarly articles at www.regent.edu/acad/global/ publications/innerresources/home.htm

From Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA Business & Leadership program and e-publications, check out their International Journal of Leadership Studies at www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/ijls/ new/home.htm

From Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA Business & Leadership program and e-publications, check out their Journal of Biblical Perspectives in Leadership at www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/jbpl/

Acknowledgments

As a three-year-old with my brother Dan in front of asphalt paving equipment

Thanks, Dad (LaMar Herndon Jr.) for the good time I had going to work with you through the years. Thanks for the lessons I observed much later as a grown adult working by your side in our family’s asphalt paving business; I appreciated your work ethic—how being a Christian was lived out constantly in the marketplace. Thanks, Mom (Lawana Herndon) for believing in me and your sense of humor which I have inherited and which has aided me in the completion of this project.

I want to thank our two sons for their involvement and support for this project, especially to our oldest son Hugh, his editing skills, and the many hours he put into proofreading the text. Hugh was an English major in college and currently teaches high school English honors. Jason, our youngest son, is responsible for taking my design thoughts, expanding and enhancing them, and then designing our book cover. He has the software, instructional program design, and website developer background skill set—all needed for the fantastic book cover design.

A special word of thanks to my friend Dr. Gary Oster, Regent University; head of our Doctor of Strategic Leadership program during the years 2010–2013. Thank you for providing the foreword to our book. Dr. Oster has been a source of wise counsel and an encourager and challenger where our writing endeavors were concerned. Thank you to my friend and former professor Dr. Darryl Allen and to Rev. Jewell Williams from our Mid-America Christian University days for your continued support and kind words of endorsement. Thanks to my NC pastor friend Rick Lawrenson for your endorsement, and thank you Ray Gilder for also endorsing this book. These people, along with Dr. Becca Janiak, all spent time reading, perusing our book, taking time out of their busy schedules in order to provide us with these gracious endorsements. May God bless you; each is our prayer for your gracious comments.

Thanks to my friend and fellow regent colleague Dr. Becca Janiak for her encouragement and prayer support for this project.

A special word of thanks to the great team of professionals at Christian Faith Publishing; Kasey Coffey my literary agent for getting the process started, Erica Meabon my publication specialist who worked with me throughout the entire reprinting of my book process. Her timely response time in getting back to me and assisting me in this process was much appreciated and I couldn’t have done it without her. Thanks to the editing, page layout and cover design teams. It has been a real pleasure to work with Christian Faith Publishing and I have and will continue to recommend them to other authors.

Finally, I owe a special word of thanks to my wife and BFF, June, who has served as an encourager, proofreader, and positive critic throughout all the stages of this book’s development. Without her prayers, encouragement, and support, the writing of this book would have been a daunting task at best. Most of all, I thank her for making the publication of this book possible, enabled by the legacy of her wonderful parents William G. Mahaffey Sr. (preacher) and Doris Mahaffey. Love you, Sport.

Introduction

I came across this article in the process of researching this book. May it provide the bivocational pastor and leader some much-needed encouragement as to God’s call upon your life and the demands that come with answering that call. Terry Dorsett, in a 2011 Baptist Press article, provided these eight benefits to being a bivocational minister, which you may or may not agree with:

1. Bivocational pastors are not as dependent on the church for their financial support as fully funded pastor, which removes the stress related to the occasional forced terminations some pastors have experienced.

2. Bivocational pastors often find more opportunities to witness to the unchurched, those who are not faith followers, than fully funded/full-time pastors because of working in the marketplace.

3. Bivocational pastors seldom live in a bubble insulated from the non-Christ follower as many do who serve churches in a fully funded or full-time capacity.

4. Bivocational pastors have the ability to serve a larger number of churches because they can serve churches that cannot fully fund pastors, with the emphasis here being what budgetary funds are available directed into other areas of ministry and missions.

5. Bivocational pastors feel they are better able to encourage the churches they serve to create a culture where fellow Christ followers use their spiritual gifts, helping to avoid the church mentality of the staff being paid to do the work of the church.

6. Bivocational pastors often feel it is easier to teach about financial stewardship and or to solicit contributions from church members since the pastor’s salary package may not be a major portion of their annual budget.

7. Bivocational pastors frequently express that they feel more dependent on the Holy Spirit in their sermon preparation and less dependent on their formal theological training or on their elocution or research skills.

8. Bivocational pastors sometimes feel being bivocational provides them with valid excuses not to attend denominational meetings perceived as irrelevant, uninteresting, or promoting things that are not helpful to their own ministry.¹⁶

Be encouraged that your ministry and leadership is not in vain, and you provide a tremendous service to the advancement of the kingdom’s work. And God in heaven sees, appreciates, and will ultimately reward your faithfulness to his church. At the heart of this book is the desire for you to continue being that life-long learner, ever growing and developing in your relationship with Christ and as a pastor, minister, and organizational leader in your professional leadership skills.

1

Leadership—Getting the Foundation Right: What Leadership Is, What It Is Not

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."¹⁷

—Alvin Toffler

As a small child and later as a teenager in high school, I would go to work with my father every chance I could. Eventually, after high school, I would spend the next five years working side by side with my father in the family’s asphalt-paving business. It was during those school years, however, that the value of hard work and attention to detail were instilled in me. Dad ran the road grader in the asphalt-paving company he and his stepfather started in the early 1950s. Over the years of going to work with him, he emphasized the importance of properly preparing the road’s subgrade and base materials before applying the asphalt surface. If you wanted a road to last for years under all kinds of traffic and weather conditions, prepare and build the roads foundation properly. Through these work experiences with Dad, valuable and foundational life lessons were acquired at a young age that would serve me well in future leadership positions.

If we are to lead successfully as ministers and leaders in our churches, our leadership foundation must be properly prepared. This chapter examines what a proper leadership foundation consists of, so that our leadership foundation will weather the storms, challenges, adversities that will eventually come. In 1 Samuel 16:7, God tells Samuel his perspective on a leader’s foundation when he tells his prophet Samuel whom he sends the