In Their Time: The Greatest Business Leaders of the 20th Century is a book that mines the work of Harvard's Business School's Leadership Initiative. This Initiative looks at 860 top executives and analyzes their lives in order to expose leadership qualities that are not easily measurable. In the book, the authors speak of three leadership archetypes: Mold-makers, Mold-breakers, Mold-Takers.

Leonard Sweet mentions this finding in his book, Nudge: Awaking Each Other to the God Who is Already There and he notes that the mold-makers are entrepreneurs, the mold-breakers are the charismatics, and the mold-takers are the managers. Of course as a Christian, when I see the number three I think first and foremost about the mystery of the Trinity. To build on this idea, might we suggest that God is the mold-maker, Jesus is the mold-breaker, and the Holy Spirit is the mold-taker.

And like God, so the Church needs all three expressions of "molding". We need those who will make, those who break, and those who take the mold. It is also somewhat a trend that the longer one is in church leadership the more inclined we are to move toward being a mold-taker (manager or one that takes care of the already made mold) and away from the mold-maker (entrepreneur). And regardless of ones tenure in leadership there is always a suspicion of the mold-breaker.

So to those in leadership and those in the pew, whatever your leadership style is, know that the Church needs you. We need the makers, the breakers and the takers.