The Blame Game

Anyone who has watched an episode of Donald Trump's “The Apprentice” has witnessed how the “boardroom” explodes when an initiative fails. Team members rarely choose to take responsibility for their actions and, instead, they resort to pinning the blame on a convenient scapegoat. What results is executive-level combat in which the candidates sell each other out in a bid to survive. You can find the same less publicized bickering and back-biting in churches all across America. When a church engages in the Blame Game, it is often because the creative process has failed. But unlike the Apprentice, church leaders must go on working together. And what is it stake is more than a job at Trump Enterprises; it's often the well-being of our ministry and our community's ability to live out its mission. The creative process falters for a number of reasons. Sometimes the church rushes into creativity without being thoughtful about roles or infrastructure to support it. Other times, communication channels are unclear, creatives are micro-managed and relationships become strained. Too many times, when our church's journey to be creative takes a downward turn, we resort to finger-pointing. Fault is often assigned to the wrong things and the wrong people. This book will not assign blame but will help nurture healthy creative views and strategies. It will help church leaders analyze the causes of an unhealthy creative process and implement new solutions that normalize and maximize creativity. This book will bring clarity to the role of the creative leader, identify the essential team players in a church's creative development and implement an effective creative process. Together we’ll discover how to choose systems and behaviors that foster creativity in everything from programs to worship while reducing typical tensions that arise around change.