Leadership Network encourages evangelical leaders to spend a year learning the best business management practices of Peter Drucker. Leadership Network is a “Non profit 501c3 donor supported ministry organized in the United States.” In a 2011 article called “Drucker’s Discipleship” and the book Hath God Said? Emergent Church Theology, I documented how the genesis of the Emergent Church can be traced back to an organization called Leadership Network. This organization was introduced as a resource to help leaders of innovative postmodern churches to connect. Mark Driscoll and Brian McLaren both retell the involvement of Leadership Network in the origin of the Emerging Church movement.

In the early 1990s, Bob Buford funded Leadership Network to bring together the leaders of megachurches around the country. Buford is not only the founder of Leadership Network but also founded the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management. Buford referred to Drucker as the “wisest men alive” and has often expressed his deep admiration for Drucker. It is no surprise that his organization Leadership Network is now encouraging their followers to spend a year under Drucker’s tutelage.

Bob Buford happens to have a lot in common with influential megachurch pastors Rick Warren (Founder and Senior Pastor of Saddleback Church) and Bill Hybels (Founder and Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church). Some have referred to these three men as the Druckerite trinity because of their relationships with business management guru Peter Drucker. The management guru had great influence upon Buford, Hybels, and Warren. The source of their success is Drucker, not Christ. [Read more…]