A few weeks ago I found myself in a consultation with a
number of pastors listening to and giving guidance to a pastoral team who were
struggling. In the course of the
conversation one of the consulting pastors stressed that what was needed was
for this pastoral team to display strong leadership. By this was meant casting vision, shaping
ministry, taking charge, make things happens – lead!
As I was listening, I realized that this was a very
different sense of power than I would support as a Mennonite pastor. One of the pastor’s commented after I made a
comment that this is what happens when you invite a Mennonite to be part of the
group – they have a very different perspective on power.
My comment about “strong leadership” was different from what
had been expressed. I stated that coming
from an Anabaptist perspective that I have a very different understanding of
what constitutes strong leadership. For
me a strong leader is one who is able to come alongside his or her community
and help them discern God’s leading in their midst, to see where God is active
in their lives and in their communities, to have ears to hear what God is saying,
to have eyes to see what God is doing, to encourage the congregation to
participate with God in God’s mission.
To be strong is not to be above the community, but to walk alongside the
community, to be with the community, to be among the community leading them to
give attention to God through prayer, engaging Scripture and participating in
spiritual conversation. In fact, the
strongest leaders in a real sense become invisible in the community because the
members of the community are giving their attention to God. A pastor has exercised strength of leading
when the pastor is no longer noticed, but God in Christ becomes the primary
focus, when the community has the courage to participate with God in God’s
redemptive mission in the world. In
fact, strong leadership would confess with John the Baptist regarding
Jesus: “He must become greater, I must
become less” (John 3:30).
A few weeks later I was leading a didactic session for a
group of CPE chaplains at a local hospital sharing on the ministry of
paraclesis (ministry of walking alongside and with those we are called to
serve) and a student mentioned that there is such a strength in this that
brings the presence of God into a hospital room while lessening the presence of
the chaplain.
I think we need to reframe what we understand by “strong
leadership.” God says to Joshua to be “strong
and courageous” in the context of being careful to obey and meditate upon the
law of God Paul reflects saying, “I will
boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest
on me. That is why for Christ’s sake, I
delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in
difficulties. For when I am weak, then I
am strong” (2 Cor. 12:9-10).
When we come across the term “strong” or “strength” we often
fill it with what we understand by these terms and engage in exerting the
strength of our own character. Too much
of leadership has done this and we still are not fully aware of what harm we
have caused in the church by leading in this way – we have done violence to
those whom God has called us to serve.
Being strong has little to do with our strength and
everything to do with the presence and power of God being manifested through
us. It is not about us, even as leaders,
it is always about what God is doing in our midst, within the community, within
God’s people to advance God’s purposes so that in participating with God in God’s
mission, we participate in demonstrating the presence of God’s reign in the
world.
Therefore, the strongest leaders are not ones who are
visible to the community, but those who become invisible as the community
becomes more aware of God’s presence with them – where Christ Jesus and his
mission become greater, and we become less.
When it becomes about us or our strength of character, it has less to do
with exalting Jesus Christ and less to do with discerning and participating in
God’s mission with God.
So, I encourage us to rethink what strong leadership entails
– may we lead in ways which make us invisible and makes God more visible.
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