4 Jun 2026, 14:57Pastor Ebenezer Jones-Lartey, Retired Minister
Striking the Right Balance: Leadership, Policy and Mission
The former UK Prime Minister, Sir Tony Blair, recently published a 5,700-word essay outlining a ‘10-point plan’ to address challenges facing Britain. Central to his argument was the need to focus less on personalities and more on policies that improve outcomes for citizens. Whether one agrees with his conclusions or not, the broader conversation about the relationship between personalities, leadership, and policy offers an interesting lens through which to reflect on church leadership.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is not a political institution. We do not elect leaders on party manifestos or campaign promises. As a spiritual movement, we rightly place high value on calling, character, and spiritual maturity. Yet the reality remains that church organisations are also complex institutions requiring governance, leadership capacity, accountability, and sound administration.
This raises an important question: how do we strike the right balance between spirituality, leadership competence, and organisational effectiveness?
Leadership Beyond Likeability
When selecting leaders, churches naturally consider spirituality, relationships, and trust. However, leadership in today’s environment increasingly requires additional competencies; strategic thinking, people management, conflict resolution, supervision, crisis leadership, and team development.
Conference and Mission structures function not only as ministry entities but also as employers, administrators of resources, and organisations responsible for compliance, safeguarding, governance, and workforce management. Consequently, leadership increasingly requires both pastoral sensitivity and managerial competence.
Many leadership challenges experienced across organisations, including churches, do not arise from poor intentions but from insufficient preparation. Pastors and leaders are often expected to navigate staffing matters, emergency responses, organisational change, difficult conversations, performance management, and complex compliance environments with limited formal leadership training.
Policy, Culture and Leadership
Healthy policies are essential. They protect people, preserve mission, and create accountability. However, policies alone cannot sustain organisational health. Culture, the unwritten behaviours, assumptions, and leadership practices within an organisation – often shapes outcomes just as powerfully.
The danger is not policy itself, but when policy becomes disconnected from mission or is used primarily to preserve systems rather than support people. Organisations can unintentionally drift into what sociologists describe as trained incapacity, where established habits, traditions, or systems make adaptation increasingly difficult.
Leadership therefore requires more than preserving structures; it requires discernment, humility, adaptability, and the willingness to lead through change while remaining mission focused.
Developing Leaders for Mission
Leadership development should not begin after election or appointment. It must become part of the culture of ministry preparation itself. Investing in leadership formation means equipping pastors and administrators with practical skills in:
• Supervision and team leadership
• Conflict management
• Strategic planning and deployment
• Decision-making and accountability
• Workforce engagement and wellbeing
• Crisis leadership and organisational resilience
Alongside these competencies, leaders must continue growing spiritually; recognising that effective leadership in ministry requires both character and competence.
A Leadership Challenge for the Future
As the Church continues navigating increasingly complex environments, the challenge is not choosing between spirituality and competence, policy and personality, or administration and mission. The challenge is integration.
Strong leadership is not built solely on likeability, charisma, or organisational expertise. It emerges when spiritual maturity, leadership capability, humility, and mission alignment work together.
If we desire healthy churches, resilient institutions, and mission-focused organisations, we must intentionally invest both time and resources into developing leaders who can shepherd people well and lead organisations wisely.
Perhaps striking the right balance is not ultimately about choosing between policy and personality at all. It is about ensuring that every leadership decision, from selection to development, serves the mission of God and the people entrusted to our care.
The former UK Prime Minister, Sir Tony Blair, recently published a 5,700-word essay outlining a ‘10-point plan’ to address challenges facing Britain. Central to his argument was the need to focus less on personalities and more on policies that improve outcomes for citizens. Whether one agrees with his conclusions or not, the broader conversation about the relationship between personalities, leadership, and policy offers an interesting lens through which to reflect on church leadership.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is not a political institution. We do not elect leaders on party manifestos or campaign promises. As a spiritual movement, we rightly place high value on calling, character, and spiritual maturity. Yet the reality remains that church organisations are also complex institutions requiring governance, leadership capacity, accountability, and sound administration.
This raises an important question: how do we strike the right balance between spirituality, leadership competence, and organisational effectiveness?
Leadership Beyond Likeability
When selecting leaders, churches naturally consider spirituality, relationships, and trust. However, leadership in today’s environment increasingly requires additional competencies; strategic thinking, people management, conflict resolution, supervision, crisis leadership, and team development.
Conference and Mission structures function not only as ministry entities but also as employers, administrators of resources, and organisations responsible for compliance, safeguarding, governance, and workforce management. Consequently, leadership increasingly requires both pastoral sensitivity and managerial competence.
Many leadership challenges experienced across organisations, including churches, do not arise from poor intentions but from insufficient preparation. Pastors and leaders are often expected to navigate staffing matters, emergency responses, organisational change, difficult conversations, performance management, and complex compliance environments with limited formal leadership training.
Policy, Culture and Leadership
Healthy policies are essential. They protect people, preserve mission, and create accountability. However, policies alone cannot sustain organisational health. Culture, the unwritten behaviours, assumptions, and leadership practices within an organisation – often shapes outcomes just as powerfully.
The danger is not policy itself, but when policy becomes disconnected from mission or is used primarily to preserve systems rather than support people. Organisations can unintentionally drift into what sociologists describe as trained incapacity, where established habits, traditions, or systems make adaptation increasingly difficult.
Leadership therefore requires more than preserving structures; it requires discernment, humility, adaptability, and the willingness to lead through change while remaining mission focused.
Developing Leaders for Mission
Leadership development should not begin after election or appointment. It must become part of the culture of ministry preparation itself. Investing in leadership formation means equipping pastors and administrators with practical skills in:
• Supervision and team leadership
• Conflict management
• Strategic planning and deployment
• Decision-making and accountability
• Workforce engagement and wellbeing
• Crisis leadership and organisational resilience
Alongside these competencies, leaders must continue growing spiritually; recognising that effective leadership in ministry requires both character and competence.
A Leadership Challenge for the Future
As the Church continues navigating increasingly complex environments, the challenge is not choosing between spirituality and competence, policy and personality, or administration and mission. The challenge is integration.
Strong leadership is not built solely on likeability, charisma, or organisational expertise. It emerges when spiritual maturity, leadership capability, humility, and mission alignment work together.
If we desire healthy churches, resilient institutions, and mission-focused organisations, we must intentionally invest both time and resources into developing leaders who can shepherd people well and lead organisations wisely.
Perhaps striking the right balance is not ultimately about choosing between policy and personality at all. It is about ensuring that every leadership decision, from selection to development, serves the mission of God and the people entrusted to our care.
