sojourn stories...

on leadership...

Caroline Ramsey has been blogging about leadership...a fantastic and interesting discussion that has spilled over into other blogs...

in her latest post, Wes posed the following question about presence:

"Having lunch today with one of the young emerging business leaders of our community, what you wrote was part of the topic of our conversation. "Presence" is a significant missing element in the development of many relationships...especially, it seems...among many leaders. My friend today asked, since were on the topic even before reading your blog, "Can 'presence' be taught...or only modeled, experienced, and thus taught?" What would your answer be if you had been in on the conversation?"

and I responded with the following comment:

"imho, i think presence mus be modeled... that is the Hebraic way as talked about in Deuteronomy, "as you sit, as you walk by the way" as well as the way that Jesus, the Hebrew, taught and led his disciples and followers during his time on earth. I think that "presence," our truly being aware and engaged in the moment with another's life, story, journey, thoughts, ideas, struggles, etc is the fundamental part of leadership that makes mankind essentially not a machine! Presence is the offering of the soul, of the senses and what causes people to want to follow and to share..."

How would you answer Wes' question? 

I wonder about the church today, if we can really make the shift from the top down hierarchical structure that has become familiar and accepted, even "ordained"  as inspired, divine, and thus right. 

Can we shift from this to something that honors the reality that the Divine indwells each of us and that the Body is interdependent, without any part that does not need to follow at some point in time?  Interdependence assumes a fluidity to leadership, an ebb and flow that fits each circumstance.  Will we be able to meet the changes that are already shifting the sands of time and culture and restructure our churches to minister, to be salt and light in the midst of the changes rather than resist them in fear of the unknown and the untried?

As I read the gospels, I see Jesus often doing the unconventional, challenging the "way we have always done it" but not getting bogged down with doing it only one way.  For example, once He said to the blind man, "Be healed!"  And the blind man was healed.  So does this mean that each and every time there is a blind man, that healing comes according to this formula, quick someone write this down!  ;)

Except, another time, when a blind man was brought to Jesus , he bent down and spit in the dirt, (yes, Jesus spit, my son loved this verse as a kid;)  and then Jesus made a paste of mud and spit and put it on the man's eyes... Then he told the blind man to go to the water and wash it off...(i am assuming that the friends who brought the blind man to Jesus took him to the water, if they were hoping for the quick two word healing they were surely disappointed).

Here we have a three step process for healing the blind:  1) spit on the ground & make a mud paste 2) smear mud paste on blind eyes  3) send blind man to wash off paste... Which method goes in the healing manual? If we include both, how do we know when to use which method?

I love that throughout the Gospels there are many stories where Jesus was confronted with similar situations, that he often did not handle in the same way.  imho this is so that we could not come up with a formula for How to: ____  and forget that we need to be present to the moment, to the person who we are engaged with, and most of all forget to be involved in a relationship with Jesus, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, so that we might know how to best serve in any given situation. 

I know that the term "servant leadership"  has become popular, and i hope it does not become so overused that it loses its profound meaning... that in laying aside our rights, our position, our rightful place, we can be present to another and begin to really hear, see, discern their needs and by the grace of G-d, we can serve them... this is leadership after the way of Jesus and it requires a profound ability to be present in body, mind and soul...

changing forms of leadership...

Andrew Jones posted this among other random thoughts:  "emergent leadership is not about removing the leaders, but empowering and elevating the laity into leadership" 

I think it is a timely statement given all that I participated in and observed at the recent ec05 in Nashville, read in the blogosphere, heard in the conversations before, during and after the emergent convention and the growing emergent conversation.  This issue is not unique to the emerging church, but it is increasing in volume as the emergent conversation moves through its first stage of organizational development and begins another.

I perceive an undercurrent of angst, that seems to remain unspoken, which i am going to try  to name and identify.  Andrews words are a springboard for thoughts.  We are a people created to worship. If we do not intentionally and humbly seek to worship g-d, we will worship something or someone. 

One of the burdens that leaders bear is a throng of worshipers who have decided that they possess 'the way,' 'the answer," or 'the solution' to the questions, confusion, or even woundedness and emptiness in all of our lives.  It is in our nature to seek and we seek to quiet the inner ache.  We seek and hope to find someone who will have "the answer," and far too often we pin these hopes on the leader of the day.

While i am not denying that leaders may have an answer, or a way that will offer insight, help, direction or lift our burdens for a bit, i am concerned at the elevated place they are given, and the pressure and burden this places on identified leaders to be all things to all people.  Even more troublesome is the way such leader worship excludes the many other "unidentified" leaders/laity who may offer a wise word, a solution, path or  insight as well, but remain unseen and unheard.

Leading is a double edged sword.  I do not want to deny the need for leadership. I do want to challenge the use of power and position on both ends of the leadership spectrum, leaders on one side, followers on the other.  Leaders are often criticized for how they lead, why they lead, and where they fail.  It is easy to criticize leaders (I have read many critiques, some are accurate, some harsh and cruel).

But rarely do '"followers" examine their role in the equation.  I want to address this side of the spectrum, that part of us as followers that first creates and then reveres leaders to the point of "leader worship," thereby, creating an imbalance of power.  It is this imbalance of power that can fuel both our worship and our ultimate disappointment.  Then, we eventually and invariably turn and attack, as harmful and unfair, the power the leader possesses, without acknowledging our part in its creation.

We give away power by not valuing the input and words of the laity, of the "unknowns," or even our own words with the same measure as the identified leaders.  Thereby, we participate in creating the system that we rail against.  Some of the angst and anger that has been communicated in the wake of the ec (and other gatherings for that matter, as it is not a phenomenon unique to the emergent conversation), is our insatiable desire for more, coupled with our created nature to worship, and these longings must be addressed in the context of our relationship with g-d. 

Will we ever be satisfied?  i don't think so, not this side of heaven, even in our relationship with g-d, because we have left the garden, where we could walk and talk with g-d in the cool of the day and we have not been restored to full fellowship.  we are divided by the finiteness of this world.  We have glimpses of heaven, tastes of fullness, moments of being satisfied and then... they are gone!  Are we able to savor them, be present to them and enjoy them?  are we content with the wonderful remembering? Or are we off for the next fix? 

Needing feel good again, wanting to dull the existential ache, longing for that which is greater than us, quite often these desires are the fuel that have us seeking the next leader, hero, answer man or woman?  Our longing to escape this angst exists at such a such a primal level that we follow those who touch it, who speak to it, who promise, even unintentionally, to fill the hole.  In our refusal to live in the brokenness of our finiteness, we seek the one who will ease our pain.  and thus far to often we worship identified leaders...who invariably disappoint, for they are all to human, and then we criticize, vilify and condemn them in their failings. 

We, who have placed leaders on a pedestal, are disappointed, become disillusioned and rip it out from under them...but sadly, we do not deconstruct it or destroy it realizing that the pedestal is the problem, not the leader... no, far to often we frantically search for someone new to put upon it...for a while, until we are disappointed again... and the cycle continues...thus there is an ongoing need for new conferences, best selling authors and "must see" speakers.  We secretly hope that maybe they will have the answer, maybe they will show the way, maybe they will fill this cavernous void...

Maybe, as Andrew says, we need to "elevate the laity" to a place where there is a common ground, a level platform where many can offer their wisdom and insight gained from experience, and without the pedestals that elevate some and silence others. But this level ground will not come apart from addressing the idolatry in our hearts.  It will only come as we admit that we do not seek G-d first, and far too often, we do not see Jesus everywhere, in each image bearer, in all of creation.  Leveling the ground of leadership in the realm of power requires us to look at our hearts, and examine the motive for our elevating some and ignoring others. 

This is the underbelly of idolatry.  We want to blame leaders for failing us, but rarely do we look at how we have dishonored both the leaders and the others that we have refused to hear.  It is humbling to look at our idolatry, my idolatry.  (Just as it is humbling to write this essay, as it reveals part of the darkness within my own heart and the path of my own story).  We are all capable of abusing power and privilege, not only in our roles as "identified leaders," but in our roles as creators of power structures by placing people on pedestals and valuing one person's thoughts and inputs over anothers. 

The abuse of power and position exists in part because we seek to illegitimately fill an unfillable void.  For true change to occur, we must each face the void in our own life.  The void is both the problem and the answer, for the void is our thirst, our hunger and what can compel us to seek the presence of g-d...the only One who can touch the ache in a manner that sustains us, offers rest, and ultimately provides the way to live in this fallen world. 

Worshiping G-d allows my soul to be open to impact from leaders and laity and from the least of these, because i am no longer searching for a fix, a filling, or someone to follow/worship other than G-d.  G-d offers a rest and a peace in the midst of the void that enables me to engage, both to give and to receive, but most importantly to see Jesus in the words and work of many fellow sojourners, whether they are identified leaders or not.  Then, the pedestals are dismantled and the ground becomes level, not because there are no leaders, but because there ceases to be leader worship, as we intentionally value each person's gifts, input, experience,  and wisdom and begin to truly live as the body of Christ.