What Church Leadership Can Learn from Donald Trump

Okay, before you immediately stop reading, there might be something that church leaders can learn from Donald Trump and the Apprentice. Years ago, when I was the executive pastor (unpaid) of a church that was going through a transition period, I had the difficult job of evaluating the paid staff and honing their job description. I interviewed the children’s ministry leader and asked her what her vision was for children’s ministry. She had no answer.
Donald Trump is looking for answers. In the boardroom scene at the end of the Apprentice, Trump evaluates the leadership of the team and the members who lost that week’s challenge. He asks direct questions. He evaluates. He turns to on-site observers and team members for assessments. How often does anything close to that happen in the church? Donald Trump takes decisive action. So much of what happens in the church takes a long time. Sometimes it takes months to make a personnel change, unless the person in question has been caught in public immorality of some kind. So little of personnel change is based on any sort of benchmark evaluation. With Donald Trump, someone is going to get fired, it’s just that simple.