Texas Baptists Committed Convocation, Houston, Texas, July 9–10, 2004

Why Smart Executives Fail
By Kenneth L. Hall

Through the efforts of Free-Baptists, our Baptist mission enterprise continues to advance. Your advocacy for truth, generosity in effort and financial resource, and unwavering rejection of creedalism is making a difference. In the BGCT, creedal fundamentalism is a defeated foe. Your hard work has preserved our ministry for the Kingdom advances in the 21st century.

Tonight, I want to address the needs of this new era of Christianity and Baptist work. I plan to describe our obstacles and appeal for strategic actions that must be quickly undertaken.

Recently, I read a book that crystallized for me feelings I had for many years that have been hard to put into words. Dr. Sydney Finkelstein is a business professor at Dartmouth. He has recently written a book entitled, Why Smart Executives Fail, Portfolio Press.

It is a remarkable book for business leaders, but has great application for our Texas Baptist denomination. Finkelstein basically answers the question about why smart and dedicated people make foolish decisions and then act with ludicrous behavior. He has in his conclusion a take-off on a previously popular book by Stephen Covey. Finkelstein calls his conclusion: “Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful People.” I want to apply his observations of foolish habits to what I see as trends in our Texas Baptist family. It is not my intention to be critical but to state observations of concern. I truly believe that we must change the way we carry out our stewardship of ministry for the Lord. We have developed some habits that are hurting our ability to see Jesus shared with every Texan and to expand the Lord’s message to the whole world.

Habit One

• The Illusion of Personal Preeminence

Many failed leaders begin to believe that they are more important than their company or product. We have seen this happen with the corporate scandals of recent years and with politicians who believe they know best.

Jesus calls on us to recognize the paradox of leadership by service. The Texas Baptist family must see ourselves as servants of the Lord and servants to others. We have to get over ourselves and recognize that what we do is “not about us.” As Baptists and Texans, this goes against our pathology.

Habit Two

• The Company is Mine

Instead of treating the company as something they need to care for, nurture, and protect, failed business executives treat the company as extensions of themselves.

Texas Baptists are workers in the field of the Lord. We are disciples of Jesus. The work of Texas Baptists does not belong to churches, institutions, denominational hierarchy, the Baptist Building or Texas Baptists Committed. The ministry we should be engaged in is the work of God.

Habit Three

• We Have All the Answers

The gift of decisiveness can also be a curse. No one has all the answers. Business leaders who think they are always right are heading toward disaster.

I am a traditional Baptist. I believe in the historic principles of our movement. They are beliefs like religious liberty, separation of church and state, authority of scripture, soul competency, and autonomy of the local church. However, when I am honest, I recognize that those historic positions did not prevent Baptists from perpetuating slavery, segregation, male supremacy, and such sins. This was done because we believed we had the answers. We stopped asking the right questions. We canonized traditions. Let us keep searching for God’s truth in a complex and changing world. Christian humility demands we seek the Lord for the methods and strategies to reach our culture for Christ’s sake.

Habit Four

• My Way or the Highway

When executives eliminate all dissenting and contrasting viewpoints, they cut themselves off from their best chance of correcting problems as they arise. Many companies and organizations would still be thriving today had they learned to celebrate diversity of opinion and activity.

My greatest fear for Texas Baptists has its roots in this foolish habit. I have observed this year as President of the BGCT a type of reverse fundamentalism that says every church must take the same action, every institution must do the same thing to be truly loyal. We must allow dissent and give freedom to those who come to different conclusions on practical issues.

Habit Five

• Obsessed with Image

Leaders buy into our media-conscious society by putting more emphasis on public relations than content. They allow their companies to be dominated by slogans rather than substance.

We Baptists are very guilty in this regard. We like saying we have over 2,000,000 constituents. We fail to recognize just how lost our state is; how much broken humanity needs our resource and attention. Jesus said that we should not stand in the street and blow trumpets. He tells us to expect our reward to be in secret.

Habit Six

• Underestimating the Size of Major Obstacles

Business leaders can become so enamored with their vision and their products that they overlook the difficulty their organization is facing. It is imperative for a good leader to recognize that some obstacles cannot be overcome at the present time. You are not admitting failure, you are recognizing reality.

Texas Baptists should recognize that some obstacles we face are bigger than our intellect or ability to defeat. The difference between believers and the business world is that we have Jesus as our Champion. He is the Lord of the hopeless, the forgotten, and the destitute. These are some problems we have that only God can overcome. For us to attempt to defeat these forces in our strength is to invite disaster.

Habit Seven

• Stubbornly Rely on What Worked in the Past

Many business types on their way to becoming spectacularly unsuccessful accelerate their company’s decline simply by reverting to what they regard as the tried and tested. In their quest for certainty in a world grown unpredictable, they persist in using the wrong scoreboard. In their effort to achieve stability in a world of change, they seize yesterday’s answer.

I believe we are at a defining moment in our Baptist experience. We cannot use the old mantra and messages. We can’t keep score the way we did in the 50s and 60s. The world has changed and is changing even faster with each passing day. Our past is our past. It is behind us. Let us celebrate the good things that were done. However, it is time to change for the future.

If we ask ourselves the hard questions, we should see that while our resources are great, we are not fulfilling the mission Jesus gave us. While there is time, we must seize the day, change what must change, and do the work of the One who calls us.

In the coming weeks, I predict that you will see a proposal come forward that will drastically change the way Texas Baptists do Kingdom business. I hope it will be so courageous and visionary that we all see God’s hand in the proposal. Your input, counsel, and wisdom will be critical. In the end, I trust you will endorse this new day for Texas Baptists. Let it never be said of us again that we have failed in our mission.

I believe the greatest days are ahead of us as Texas Baptists. Charles Wade has appointed a strategic planning committee that is bringing forth major recommendations that will reconfigure how Texas Baptists do our work. Our focus will be on missions, resource development for churches, Christian education, and human welfare. We will not look very much like we have looked in the past. I think it is imperative that we have a visionary optimism that believes God wants to do His work through us.

I have a selfish prayer that I willingly admit to you, my friends and co-laborers. During my tenure as President, I have wanted to set a stage for change. My observation of our state, nation, and world is that we are in a mess. My selfish prayer is that I want our Texas Baptist family to be at the forefront of addressing the issues for God’s glory.

“Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit’s fire, do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.”
I Thessalonians 5:12-24 (NIV)

August 2004