Is it even possible to lead a radically diverse team where each person sees things so different and still accomplish the mission?

Better yet, what if we state the question another way.

Is it even possible to accomplish the mission without a radically diverse team to lead?

In 2005, my mentor Dr. John Reed (http://civilwarstories.org) recommended a “must read” book to help me grow as a ministry leader of diverse teams.

It was Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals. The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. (Don’t you love the title? Team of Rivals).

This book unleashed my straitjacketed thinking and helped me visualize the value and need for building a motley team of leaders with each member individually forged in strong, opinionated, independent, and at times uniquely strange ways of seeing the world.

As you read this post you may be picturing your own motley crew that God has called you to shepherd.

You could be really frustrated, discouraged or burned out.

Or maybe not.

Perhaps you are thriving, and you love the creative tension and rivalry that is a part of your leadership team.

Either way if you are leader on a mission you’ve got to read this book and see the movie. If you can’t read the book then at least see Spielberg’s movie, Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln was a powerful leader of the ages placed in a time of great national crisis. His genius was in forming and leading a radically diverse team of rivals to accomplish the mission and change the world forever.