Copyright © 2016 St Vladimir’s Seminary Press
Introduction
Vince Lombardi once said that leaders are made, not born. As an ultra-successful former head coach who led the Green Bay Packers to five NFL championships, Lombardi ought to know. So if we agree that leaders are made, the question is, how are they made and who makes them?
Since this book is about Christian leadership, we will look at the lives of some of the Bible’s great leaders for some answers. These leaders were very different from one another. But they all had one thing in common: they became leaders after a profound encounter with God.
Leaders: Discovered, Formed, and Challenged
Let’s begin with the Prophet Amos. There is no stronger, more powerful, or less likely preacher in the Old Testament. Amos was a simple shepherd and farmer who earned his living pricking the fruit of sycamore fig trees to hasten their ripening. Could one imagine in this day and age a more unlikely candidate for leadership? No Harvard Business School for him, no aristocratic childhood with education by tutors. Yet the Lord chose him to go and speak to his people Israel, in extraordinarily strong and forceful terms.
What about the Prophet Jeremiah? When the Lord asked him to go and preach, Jeremiah resisted. He complained that he was too young and could not speak in public. He had no gift of blarney, no training in homiletics or rhetoric. So how did he manage to become a great leader? The Lord put his own words in Jeremiah’s mouth. And thus Jeremiah became a powerful preacher. The Lord discovered the prophets Amos and Jeremiah, and then gave them the tools and the words to lead.
Jesus’ disciples were also discovered and called by him, one by one. They faced an even greater task than the prophets did. Jesus formed them during his three-year public ministry by means of his continuous teaching, healing, scolding, serving, suffering, and dying. It was not an easy job. They were difficult to deal with: they doubted, they deserted, and one betrayed. But in the end, except for one, they became true apostles. Later, the Apostle Paul was called and converted from the persecutor and zealous Pharisee Saul into Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. Paul endured dangerous and weary voyages, imprisonments, and frequent disappointments in the newly formed Christian communities. At the same time, he experienced the joy of companionship with his fellow workers. All this formed their persons and apostleship.
After the resurrection and ascension, the Holy Spirit continued to inspire the first Christian leaders with the remembrance of all that Jesus taught them, not only by his words, but also by his life. The Lord challenged the disciples by the very facts of his life. The temptations of poor and inadequate leadership—exemplified by the betraying Judas, the denying Peter, and the doubting Thomas—were shown to be in direct opposition to the living example of the obedient-even-unto-death Son, the steadfast and loving Master, the faithful Servant of all. The challenge for Christian leaders today is to refer every idea, every action, and every feeling to the example of the one who said, “I came not to be served but to serve,” and who commanded us to love one another as he has loved us—namely, to give our lives for one another.
Working with Others Toward the Kingdom
According to the Scriptures and the teaching of the Orthodox Church, the goal of the Christian life is union with God and eternal life in his kingdom, as persons and as a community. Persons and community go together. Jesus Christ declared that love for others is central to discipleship: “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”[1] The early Church assumed that “one Christian is no Christian” (Unus Christianus—nullus Christianus).[2] St Seraphim of Sarov, a Russian saint of the late eighteenth century, stressed the importance of the personal acquisition of the Holy Spirit and also saw the enormous impact this could have on the community: “Acquire a peaceful spirit, and then thousands of others around you will be saved.”[3]
Leadership is not something done in isolation from others. It needs to be done within a community, with mutual activity on all sides. The glue that binds everyone together is the recognition that we are all subject to the ultimate leadership of God.
God is the real and ultimate leader, since he is our Lord and Master and King. We are his subjects, and we are guided by his commandments. We accepted those commandments when we entered the Church. We re-commit to them every time we participate in the sacramental life of the Church. Each time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we say: “Our Father who art in heaven. . . . Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. . . .” This commitment reaffirms that we are subjects of his kingship and members of his kingdom.
However, kingship and leadership does not stop with God. In every age, the leadership of God in this world has been delegated to man, who is made in God’s image and likeness. In the beginning Adam was given dominion over the animals. Whatever he called a beast of the field or bird of the air became its name. In fact, the Lord God patiently waited “to see what he would call them.”[4] However, Adam decided to be a leader in his own right, with his own goals and ideas, not God’s. That did not turn out well for him, or for us. The Old Testament leaders Abraham, Moses, Aaron, David, Samuel, and the prophets all acknowledged their dependence on God. But whenever any of them became “independent of God,” calamity and tragedy inevitably ensued.
New Testament leaders similarly rose and fell depending upon their willingness and ability to follow God’s commandments. The writings of the Apostle Paul are full of observations of how the leaders of the early Christian communities either cleaved to or departed from doing of the will of God. The Church fathers speak of both difficulties and victories within later Christian communities who sought to make their way to the kingdom while living within the confines of the empire. The Church has persevered to this day by seeking to do God’s will. As Christians, we must work together as leaders to attain the promise of the kingdom.
Christian Leadership. It is loving one another. It is doing the will of God. It is striving together for union with God in his kingdom. We can put these concepts together into a definition of Christian leadership, as follows:
Christian leadership is the conscious working together in faith and in love, in a community of fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, to do God’s will on earth as it is in heaven, and to attain to the kingdom of God, in the love of the God the Father, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the communion of the Holy Spirit.
This “working together” implies that each of us in the “community of brothers and sisters” contribute our own divinely given gifts and talents. We work according to our own specific responsibilities, with some as “apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers.”[5] All will be mutual servants of God and of one another. All will be leaders.
Planning Together
The title of this book refers not just to leadership, but to strategic leadership. A leader may lead in many different directions, but it is important to note that not every possible direction is appropriate or even useful. Strategic planning is the subset of leadership that establishes proper direction, objectives, desired actions, and mileposts. It enables leaders to be disciplined stewards of the responsibility placed in them by others.
The very notion of strategic planning may strike some as bringing a foreign and not necessarily comfortable idea into the Church. Over the years, I have heard many people say, “Planning is for business, not the Church.” I have also heard the statement, “If we had complete trust in God, we would not need planning.”
Our need—and indeed, our obligation—to do planning for the Church is not the result of a lack of trust in God. Rather, it is the recognition that the Lord has placed his trust in us, and he accordingly sets high standards of responsibility and stewardship. As he said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you . . . [to] go and bear fruit.”[6] The commandments of God start from the greatest (“love the Lord your God with all your mind and soul and strength”) and the one like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[7] This commandment of love and action demands from us constant self-examination, repentance, and recollection if we are to do, with God’s help, what he requires.
Strategic planning is an effort by the members of a community to undergo an examination of conscience—to measure themselves as a group, ordained by God to fulfill a particular purpose, as to whether they are in fact fulfilling that purpose. Having done this, they next determine God’s will for them and what the Lord wants them to do. Then, they actually go forward and do the Lord’s will seriously, with dedication and utmost honesty concerning their own weaknesses and their dependence upon the Lord in everything. They do all this in assembly, involving not only the members of the community but all whose lives are impacted by that community. Finally, the mutually agreed-upon, God-directed work is managed and performed carefully and properly, “decently and in good order.”[8]
God did not leave us with a blank slate, without direction or purpose. He has plans for us that he wishes us to follow: “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”[9] We know them also, especially from Scripture. St Peter, in his first sermon after the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, proclaims that Jesus was handed over to the Jews “according to the definite plan [Greek, boulē] and foreknowledge of God.”[10] The best known instance of the “plan of God” is contained in the first chapter of St Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians: “For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ, as a plan (oikonomian) for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”[11]
Our plan in the church, and our plan for our ministry in the world, must be consistent with God’s purpose, counsel, and administration. We are to be united in him. Plans are foundational guideposts, lights, and compass bearings to direct us on the path to the kingdom. Those plans must be based upon God’s word, for as Jesus said, “Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock.”[12] Every plan of the Church must be based upon the gospel, then tested for consistency and alignment with it. It is not easy to fulfill this task. It requires commitment and discipline and working with others in openness, truth, and love.
Managers as Leaders
In most organizations, leadership is considered to be a separate category from management. For example, some experts say that leaders inspire, while managers merely organize. According to this model, the leader is considered “superior” in the organizational chart to the manager, just as a CEO is “superior” to a regular shop floor employee. However, management is in fact a subset of leadership and completely contained within it. A leader needs to know how to manage, and a manager needs to know how to lead. Both are critical.
Take the chairing of a meeting, for example. We might think that a manager chairing a meeting need only know how to keep time, how to exercise the rules of procedure the organization uses (e.g., Robert’s rules of order), how to follow the pre-determined agenda, how to appoint someone to keep minutes, and how to keep the meeting running smoothly. Many meetings are deemed successful when these objectives are achieved.
But while these things are important and indeed necessary, the chair must also be a leader if he or she is to maximize the meeting’s effectiveness. The chair must tap the creativity of the participants and encourage them to be more than mere attendees, but also fellow workers. The chair must empathize with the participants, sensing unspoken thoughts, ideas, and unexpressed emotions that may hinder or help the work of the meeting. The chair must be able to depart sharply from the appointed agenda when the need arises. Finally, the chair must be able to bring the meeting to a close with a sense of unity and a mutually decided path forward.
It is sometimes said that leaders see the long-term, big-picture vision, while managers see only the short-term, daily details of ordinary life. Managers certainly need to deal with the details of ordinary life, but there is no such thing in the Church as “ordinary life.” All is to be filled with the presence of God, and all is to be done in his name. There are no “ordinary” interactions with people. Everyone is to be seen as an icon of Christ, made “in the image and likeness” of God. There are no “ordinary” actions of our bodies, for as St Paul says, “Glorify God in your body.”[13] Every action of ours is under the oversight of, and in service to, God. This stewardship to God applies not only to what we do, but also to how we do it.
Managers are delegated with responsibilities, just as Adam was given dominion by God “over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”[14] The kings of Israel were given covenant responsibilities by God. David said of this responsibility: “I have kept the ways of the Lord. . . . All his ordinances were before me, and from his statutes I did not turn aside. . . . For he has made with me an everlasting covenant.”[15] In our time, managers need to know about financial matters, compliance with laws and regulations, and ethics and misconduct. They cannot escape these often disagreeable responsibilities.
Managers must be skillful and encourage the skills of others. In the Exodus account of the building of the tabernacle, stress is placed upon the ability of those coming to help. Moses said: “Let every able man among you come and make all that the Lord has commanded. . . . and all women who had ability spun with their hands, and brought what they had spun. . . .”[16] In our time, managers need to know how to encourage others to bring their skills to the organization, while learning enough of those skills themselves to effectively oversee the work.
Managers need to have a generous and willing heart. The tabernacle story illustrates the enthusiasm and love that was in the hearts of those who built and . . . came, every one whose heart stirred him, and every one whose spirit moved him, and brought the Lord’s offering to be used for the tent of meeting, and for all its service, and for the holy garments. So they came, both men and women; all who were of a willing heart. . . .[17]
All work must be an offering of love to God. In our time, managers need to know how to transmit this love to the people, to counsel their subordinates, to resolve conflicts, to come to common agreement even with those who disagree with them, to encourage others to contribute resources to support the common effort.
All Together
Often, people make an artificial distinction between leadership, planning, and management. However, when considered strategically, these three fundamental tasks overlap considerably and one implies much of the other two. Although there are several separate parts to this book, each focusing on the tasks mentioned above, the best course is to read the entire text before applying any of the parts exclusively, and to avoid concentrating on one to the exclusion of the others.
[1] Jn 13.35
[2] Georges Florovsky, Bible, Church, Tradition: An Eastern Orthodox View (Belmont, MA: Nordland Publishing Company, 1972), 59.
[3] Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, The Inner Kingdom (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2000), 133.
[4] Gen 2.19
[5] Eph 4.11
[6] Jn 15.16
[7] Mk 12.30–31
[8] 1 Cor 14.40
[9] Jer 29.11
[10] Acts 2.23 The word boulē, translated in the RSV as “plan,” is translated in other versions as “determinate counsel” (KJV) and “set purpose” (NIV).
[11] Eph 1.9–10, RSV The word oikonomian, translated in the RSV as “plan,” means stewardship, administration, and management.
[12] Mt 7.24
[13] 1 Cor 6.20
[14] Gen 1.28
[15] 2 Sam 22.22–23, 23.5
[16] Ex 35.10, 25
[17] Ex 35.20–22
Copyright © 2016 St Vladimir’s Seminary Press