The Leadership Blog Interview: Doug Pagitt

Doug Pagitt

Bio: Doug is the Pastor of Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis. He is part of Emergent and the Gospel in our Culture Network.

Doug is married to Shelley and father of Michon, Taylor, Ruben and Chico. He is the author of the books Church Re-Imagined, Preaching Re-Imagined and BodyPrayer.

Church: www.solomonsporch.com/
Blog: pagitt.typepad.com/

The Leadership Blog Interview
1. Doug, What gives you the greatest joy in being a leader?
Doug: "I find leadership to be situational. in other words we lead incertain areas and certain situations. So to me it is not about beinga leader, but leading in certain things. Since we all lead in onearea or the other the great joy I find is connecting the areas I leadin to the places where others lead. In other words, my joy comes inconnecting my life with others in a way that brings about somethingwonderful that could not have come about without the dedication of usas leaders. So, I guess I would say the best part of leadership iswhat comes in cooperation."

2. What is your biggest pet peeve as a leader?
Doug: "I find that so many people feel they have nothing to add, or no leadership to provide. In my view of leadership, based on cooperation, frustration builds when people see themselves as followers only, and do not have hopes, dreams and desires of their own."

3. Who made the biggest influence in your life as a leader?
Doug: "There are so many people who have lead in different ways that have influenced me. As I reflect on this question, it strikes me that depending on the situation there have been different influences."

4. What books have changed your life?
Doug: "Not sure I would say any books have changed my life. I have neverthought about books in that light. It kind of sounds like the question from Junior High School, "what is your favorite song". But maybe books have changed my life, there are sure many that I recommend and loved reading, I will give some time thinking of books in that way and see what comes to mind."

5. What's your biggest challenge as a leader?
Doug: "Being able to help draw from others and myself the deeply seated dreams in our hearts, minds and imaginations."

6. What goals do you have as a leader?
Doug: "I am not trying to be flippant, but it really depends on thesituation. There are times when it is people-development, and timeswhen my goal is to get a task done. Other times I want to keepsomething from happening and still again trying to make something happen. One of my early mentors says that the job of a leaders is to do what needs to be done. In my life there are so many things I do, from church, to parenting, to writing, to being a neighbor, to being a friend that I could not begin to list my goals overall."

7. Where do you see yourself in ten years?
Doug: "10 years older for sure. That will make me 49. I think much abouthow I want to spend my 40's and have not settled on that as of yet.This is the kind of question that I do spend much time thinking about. My guess is that I will be deeply involved with global justice issues in some ways."

Thanks Doug for taking time for an interesting interview!