A lot of people are calling for your blood and blaming you for the state of the Redskins since you began your ownership. I am not one of those people. In fact, I know that you want to win and win badly. Otherwise, you wouldn’t show how deep your pockets are and spend as freely as you would on these players with these great names and reputation.
But something has to change, and I firmly believe it just has to begin with you.
Running your franchise, I feel, isn’t that much different from pastoring a local church.
The biggest problem is that you are the face of the organization. That can be good, but, I don’t think it’s healthy. When the pastor is the face of the church, I feel something is wrong. The pastor, in all that he or she does, should always point to God, and therefore, God should be the face of the church. People may go to church wanting to see the pastor, but they should leave the church seeing God.
You’re out there too much, Mr. Snyder. The only other NFL owners that do that is Jerry Jones and Al Davis. Not good examples to follow by.
It starts with you. You need to look yourself in the mirror and decide what you want this franchise to be. Come up with a statement like “Win with Integrity and Lose with courage.” We shouldn’t be scared of failure. The real fan base will not desert you if this losing will pay off. A church will never move forward in the right direction, if they never fail together.
You need to look at your staff and players, and really evaluate if they fit into the vision you have for the Redskins. If not, you need to let them go. Even if they are your star players or your closest allies. No favoritism. People will take advantage of that and others will resent you for it.
Once you have your team, you need to trust them and empower them. If you constantly meddle in their business, you’ll pull the rug right out underneath from them and they will know that they do not have the freedom to do anything.
If a committee in our church constantly needs to seek approval from the pastor, then that committee is doomed to fail, because the passion will be gone, the rug will be swept under from them. We as pastors can’t wade in every pool that exists in the church. It’s unhealthy. Not only that, people will stop trying, because they know that the pastor will come fix whatever they did wrong. The passion will be gone. I didn’t learn how to do my laundry until I was 23, because my mom kept doing it for me. Even when she insisted that I needed to learn, she always kept doing it for me, so I never bothered to learn, until I was on my own.
And when we pastors are involved way too much, people start saying “The pastor is my shepherd” instead of “The Lord is my shepherd” and the people then will eventually say “I shall not want” him or her.

You need to start setting the example. Get your team behind a vision of winning with integrity and losing with courage. If you need to make changes, make them wisely. Don’t go out there based on people’s past reputation of what they did and have accomplished. Get them on what their gifts and ability are and what they can do.

Attitude reflects leadership, and that leadership begins with you in your organization and us in our local churches.