Go out into the world...

A friend and colleague in ministry, J. Herbert Nelson, has just been appointed to head the Washington Office of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Some of his remarks speak directly to the issue of what it means to be a leader in this difficult time.

Working for transformation is never easy, Nelson said, adding that there are plenty of challenges ahead.

“We are in a time in which there is intense fear,” he said. “There is fear of the future and fear of letting go of the past.”

When such fears show themselves, it’s easy to blame some one — or some office, Nelson said. But it’s important to look at the prophetic and priestly images in scripture. These images show an inextricable link between righteousness and justice.

In fact, Nelson said, righteousness and justice come from the same Hebrew word, but are sometimes separated in life: we are righteous on Sundays and see justice as merely an option, he said.

Sometimes being prophetic and priestly can seem contradictory, he said, adding that Christians are called to be indignant while exhibiting excellent character.

“How can we be indignant and still be righteous?” he said.

By helping to create a new reality, one that addresses such issues as health care, the environment, immigration and fiscal responsibility, he said.

“We’re called by God to address these realities,” Nelson said. “(We’re called to be) priestly in love and prophetic in speaking truth to power.

“These are not contradictions in terms,” he said, “but expectations for God’s people.”

That dual image of the role of prophet and the role of priest is the type of tension that good leaders must walk as they seek to be faithful to their call. How can we be prophetic without being self-righteous and arrogant? How can we be priestly without being captured by the fears of our constituency?

Real leaders nurture and support other leaders. If the type of leadership that our churches need in this chaotic time are people who are willing to step into uncharted waters and take uncomfortable risks, then we need to recognize that such leadership is not easy. Most of us recognize that courage to exercise such leadership comes at an uneven pace. There are days that we are willing to take risks, and other days that we wonder why we were ever so foolish. Actually I think that is a good thing. If we never had doubts about what we are doing that challenges the conventional wisdom, then we would be in danger of either sheer arrogance or living in an illusion. To be a leader doesn’t mean that you have all the answers. To be a leader means you are willing to ask questions, even questions that make you uncomfortable. To be insensitive about how such questions make others feel is to lose touch with the very community that you seek to lead.

Given the challenging nature of real leadership and the uneven levels of courage to lead at any given moment, we need to be intentional about supporting others in the exercise of such leadership. Look around you. Who is trying to lift up the questions that we should be asking? In what way have you expressed support for them? Since real leaders need to be open and not locked into a set of answers, can you provide such people the type of supportive yet probing questions that enable them to explore further?

Too often people’s response to anyone raising a challenge to the status quo is to demand a better alternative that is already fully thought out. Because someone doesn’t have a completely formed alternative to the way things are, doesn’t mean the question raised isn’t legitimate. If you are concerned about some area of church life, for example, but aren’t sure what the best solution is, how would you want someone to respond when you raise the concern?

What are the questions that the lay leadership should be exploring with the people they have called to be spiritual leaders for their congregation? The governing body of my local church is a session. You can translate that into your language for the council that meets with the pastor(s) of your local church.

If we are to encourage leaders rather then managers, we need to develop the capacity to converse around areas of discomfort. I recently asked a pastor what was one significant area that he wished his congregation would move forward on in response to God’s calling. He thought a moment and then said, “I wish they would sense God’s calling them to be truly open to diversity as a congregation. They dabble in it but they are not willing to face the chaos of discomfort that would lead them to fully embrace the vision of a Body of Christ which welcomes all of God’s people. They are open to diverse people joining if they will then adapt to become just like them.”

I wonder how often a session ever raises such questions for a pastor. How often do we challenge a pastor to be a leader. Leaders are not always right in their visions. They need to have a reality check of trying to interpret their vision among a supportive group of believers. What they don’t need is to be afraid to try to have that conversation.

As a congregational leader, I am challenged and supported by having people take me seriously enough to ask such questions. I once had an elder who liked to sing Christmas carols during Advent ask to have a discussion about that. I was impressed when he began the discussion by saying, “Before I tell you how I feel, I want to understand what you think are the issues behind your decisions.”

If some members of a congregation get upset by something the pastor is doing, what would it mean for the governing board to say, “We know some people are upset, therefore we want to hear from you what the faith issues are that we have to face with respect to our actions. Why do you think that being faithful to God leads us in this direction.”

Such questions and discussion might move our meetings from being just a set of votes to a journey in deepening all of our faiths. It might also help us develop a better understanding of what it means to be the Body of Christ.

For those who participate in congregations that are part of some sort of connectional systems, we need to look at how we nurture leadership in those who are part of our higher governing bodies. The “What Have You Done for me Lately” syndrome affects how we respond to those leaders as well. My General Presbyter, but for others their bishop, district superintendent, etc. is too often evaluated by “how happy we are” or whether there is a lot of conflict or not. Those are managerial issues. They are important but we also need to support them in being leaders.

When the leadership counsel of our larger church leaders has their meeting, what are the type of leadership supporting questions that we should be asking them when we meet? Let me try a few.

“If we are to be a faithful people of God, what are some areas of faithfulness that you think we might need to reflect on?”

“What are some issues that you think are important but you are concerned might not be received well if they were raised?”

“When you think of the challenges facing this governing body, what are some biblical images that come to mind?”

“In what way is your faith being challenged by the demands of your job?”

“What have you done this past month where you have felt the strong presence of God?”

“If you were strongly supported in doing it, what is one project or direction that you would like to emphasize for the next year?”

“If you were to paint a picture of a faithful governing body responding to the leading of God, what would it look like?”

“Recognizing that it might make us or our churches nervous, still how might we be more faithful in supporting you this next year?”

We need to focus on developing even better questions that encourage our leaders to be leaders and strengthen the bonds of corporate encouragement of such leadership. They won’t always be right, but that too is an important part of the process. Israel and its leadership were sometimes disastrously wrong, but they kept wrestling with God and God kept redeeming their efforts.

How can a congregation, its leadership, and its pastors support some innovative leadership even as it seeks good management?

I think it begins with the pastor(s) and the leadership core of the congregation. The first step is to recognize the challenge before them. It would be good for them to seriously read and discuss together some of the literature now being published with respect to the future challenges of the church. If things are relatively comfortable for a congregation, it is difficult for them to take seriously the need to make significant changes.

It would be helpful for the governing body to help provide some sort of check list of factors to review as a congregation reflects on their life. It may help for a congregation to look at its own statistics and project them 10 years out. It might have such questions as, “What does the trend of both infant and adult baptism suggest for your future?” “What are the challenges presented by the changing nature of the community around the church?” What is the trend of the age range of the congregation?” “If you were to guess, how would you estimate the long term commitment of your last three years of new members?” “What is most attractive in the life and behavior of your congregation to potential new members?” “If your congregation were to seek to diversify its membership in accordance with the trend of your larger community, what might it do to make others feel welcome and what might make them feel uncomfortable?” “What economic trends, both in society and in the recent history of your congregation need to be taken into account.” There are certainly other questions to be developed.

A different, but vitally important area of consideration if a church is going to “manage” some discomfort as they move towards their future, is the understanding of the theological base of who they are as a congregation. “What is God calling us to be or do as a congregation?” It is never easy but it is more a possibility to step into the raging waters of an uncertain future if we have a fairly strong conviction that God is going with us and calls us forward as a congregation. A major challenge for congregations is to recognize that the central issue is not what pleases us or makes us feel good but what God wants of us.

At the same time, the congregation needs to understand what is going on, what the checks and balances are within the leadership process, and how open the leadership is to faithful feedback. While the future is not easy, it can be an exciting adventure.