Follow the Leader

I realise that a lot of what I have written in this blog is critical of the church and its failings. If I have ever done anything of note, it will probably have been written about in somebody else's blog as an anecdote, along the lines of, "there was this stupid bloke I used to work with / be part of a church with / live round the corner from..."

After 22 years as a teacher, and after 26 years as a Christian, I have worked with some very good leaders, and some pretty awful ones. One of the responsibilities of leadership is to train, empower and release people to fulfil their role in the workplace, or calling in the context such as church.

I remember once when I was working with a colleague who was having some difficulty in quietening a non-compliant year group. With good intentions, and with my loudest voice, I demanded silence, and was pleasantly surprised when I got it within a few seconds, only for the teacher who was meant to be in charge to tell me, in front of all the students, to be quiet as they were dealing with the matter. I have also seen church leaders riding roughshod members of the church over minor disagreements, where what was thought to be constructive dialogue had been interpreted by a leader as a rebellious heart.

There are times when leaders need to pull rank, and make decisions and statements that others need to co-operate with, but the best leaders I have encountered only ever do this as a last resort. Those I hold with the greatest respect have been the ones I felt able to follow, to copy their example, and those from whom I felt able to take valid criticism from whilst still feeling appreciated: there haven't been too many like this...

Graham Cooke has a saying, not to drive a seven tonne truck of correction over a four tonne bridge of relationship, which I try to apply to all aspects of my life. I have little time for people who will pursue an argument at the expense of a friendship, where their sphere of influence is to do with control rather than the empowering and releasing of people I mentioned earlier.

I have delivered messages in various churches over the years. In some, I have asked if I was expected to fit in with a particular theme or area of study. The most controlling environment was when I was expected to submit my message in advance to be scrutinised by the leaders. The most releasing was when I was told, "you tell a messenger what to deliver when you send a message, not when you receive one."

In my somewhat limited experience of life, I have actually found, as a generalisation, more control and less release in the church than I have outside it. In my workplace, I have found my leaders more interested in my advice, opinions and experience, at times actively seeking my viewpoint, than in the church, where to express an opinion that is not shared by the leadership is so often misinterpreted as a challenge to authority. I know this is not true of every church leader or network, and thankfully not of our current congregation, but I wonder why this is the case of so many?

I suspect that although there are many reasons for this, amongst them is the level of insecurity I see in leaders who are unsuited to their role, either because of areas of moral weakness or lack of gifting, which, as I said in an earlier post, leads to a strangulation of the life in the church through control, with a constant fear of being outshone by those who are mostly doing their best to support the leadership. (I am not naive enough to think that the argument is quite so one-sided, and that often the control factor is the other way round, where a leader can be manipulated and made impotent by controlling influences in others).

I work with two colleagues whom I appointed as newly qualified teachers four and five years ago respectively. They have now both been promoted to the same level of influence as myself, in pastoral roles. At present, I am delighted by their success. If and when there comes a day when either one of them rises to the next level and could in theory become my boss, I guess I will face a real test of character over this whole area...