RevPeterLougheed
Leading from a Spiritual Centre
Posted on: 05/26/2009 09:00
Preached 24 May, 2009 by Reverend Peter Lougheed - Emmanuel United Church
There was a time when the church dealt with misconduct by a church leader by quietly moving the troublemaker out of town. The theory was “Let’s not upset the congregation.” “No need to air our dirty laundry in public. “
But this course of action by the church failed to hold its own leadership accountable. It also failed the victims of the misconduct under its care and failed the church in the next town that had no warning about the arrival of a potential repeat offender.
That sad chapter of our church history is in the news again this week with the report of a Child Abuse Commission in Ireland which has documented six decades of the abuse of children in its care by Roman Catholic priests, nuns and lay people in schools and care homes.
This is not just a Roman Catholic issue. Every church including the UnitedChurch has had to deal with misconduct. Now at last our church has a set of guidelines in place called Walking Wisely, which provides protection for the vulnerable in our communities.
But for years the temptation was to keep it all quiet. Pay off the victims and keep it out of the press. And that temptation is still there. Keeping things positive and hopeful is a good thing but ignoring or suppressing the truth is never a solution. ____
The story of the early church also had to deal with failures by its leaders. Both Peter and Paul had to overcome their unfaithfulness. But the greatest problem for the church was Judas. The book of Acts begins by openly acknowledging that Judas had betrayed the cause. With his death, there was a need for new leadership. They came up with a short list of two names, Joseph and Matthias.
Which one would replace Judas? If it was us we’d check their references, do a police check and design some good questions for the interview. Apparently the biblical method is to roll dice. That would make joint search committees jobs much easier. In those days, casting lots was part of the culture. And along with reading animal entrails, it was a respected way of requesting divine direction.
I’ve always thought that if common sense or past experience had been involved in the decision, the short list would have included Mary Magdalene. Mary had been faithfully present at the cross and the empty tomb on Easter morning. But in that time and culture, that was too big a jump for them. Opportunity lost.
_____
You would think the book of Acts would begin the story of the church with the explosion of the Spirit at Pentecost. But that doesn’t happen until chapter 2. That’s next week’s story. What Luke is trying to show here is that the early church was trying to put its house in order before the Spirit drenched them with new life and flung them out into the world.
They were not yet thinking outside the box enough to include women or foreigners, so they cast lots and settled on Matthias whose name does not come up again in the early accounts.
Despite their limitations, the church was paying attention to its leadership. Leadership is still worth paying attention to - leadership in the broadest sense - clergy and lay.
The church is full of leaders. Our Council is a body of church leaders. We have leaders chairing the many committees of our church, leaders in our church school, in the groups that meet here each week. Anyone of us who has a vote or a voice in the church exercises leadership by our questions, and discussion and by the way we vote.
All of us need to be concerned with how we help to lead the church. Are we leading in a way that fits with our sense of God’s will for our world? Can we lead in ways that don’t just keep the wheels of the system turning but in ways that are transformative, open to the Spirit’s unpredictable leaps? Can we learn to lead not just from our heads, but also from our vision,our intuition, and our action?
Author, Gary Peluso-Verdend suggests that we should pay attention to the spiritual dimensions of leadership. These are important values and principles for all of us because in the UnitedChurch we share leadership between clergy and laity, adult and youth, male and female, long term member and newcomer.
First of all spiritual leaders have the capacity to enter with hope into suffering. We do not ignore or avoid the suffering of others. We are willing to walk with people who are hurting, listen carefully to their places of pain and look for a way forward in hope. We don’t see ourselves as saviours but when we listen and stand alongside those wo suffer, we find our calling to be good news for others.
Spiritual leaders have the capacity to practice emotional intelligence. This means to choose the most helpful and fitting response to the situations we encounter. That requires thinking before speaking so that we don’t blurt out the first thing that occurs to us. It requires owning our own feelings rather than making others responsible for what we feel. It requires of us a response that moves us forward rather than taking the safest, easiest way.
Spiritual leaders have the capacity to engage the discipline of relinquishment. This is a hard gift to develop. Relinquishment calls on us to catch ourselves when we are becoming defensive. It means having enough self-knowledge to recognize when we are defending our turf and no longer listening. Can we get past our own anxieties and give our attention to the person in front of us. Relinquishment means being in a lifelong process of learning to let go, letting go of our pride and our stuff so we can be present to others.
Spiritual leaders have the capacity to practice thankfulness for small things. The central core of becoming a healthy and whole human being is to be able to give and receive. You can’t just be a giver or a receiver.
If we just receive than we are self-indulgent. We become the spoiled adult who is willing to enjoy the benefits of being part of a relationship, a family or a group but will not respond to the needs of the other.
On the other hand, if we cannot receive, then there is part of us that refuses to be vulnerable, to be helped or supported. It’s a sign of lack of trust and openness. We need to learn to pray the old prayer says, For what we are about to receive, O Lord make us truly thankful. Our development into a whole, authentic person means being able to both give and receive.
Spiritual leaders have the capacity to to practice the equivalent of the slow food movement. This requires healthy ingredients: people as opposed to technology, a premium on savouring - allowing enough time to allow the food to cook, celebrating God’s goodness with occasional feasts that revel in the diversity of the food and menu. Churches have this great tradition of eating together. Potlucks, buffets, meals in our homes, picnics, BBQs, lunches after service. Spiritual leaders support taking time to build community around the table.
Spiritual leaders have the capacity to persist. One of the differences between an ox and a horse is that an ox will lean into a yoke and pull all day even if they cannot see immediate progress. A horse will give up if it can’t see the quick result.
Real change will happen when there are more oxen and fewer horses in a group. This does not mean pulling in the same way forever. In an ever changing world, it means finding new ways to get to your goal. if this one doesn’t work, find another way, but it does mean developing an underlying persistence in moving ahead. Spiritual persistence mixed with flexibility is a great gift to any organization.
The final attribute of a spiritual leader is learning to think theologically. if we can begin to look at a situation of life with the eyes of faith, hope and love then we are seeing with the eyes of Christ.
Every Sunday we pray “your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.” John Crossan says we don’t need to worry ourselves about the kingdom in heaven. The kingdom in heaven is doing quite nicely, thank you. It’s God’s kingdom on earth, God’s community here that needs attention. Thinking theologically means bringing that question to all our discussions and decisions. Does this further further the kingdom on earth? Does this contribute to God’s vision of justice and love ?
These are the Peluso-Verdend’s guideposts to leadership in the church. And they would hold up very well as learning goals for Christians. We can learn to attend with love to God and to our neighbour if we develop the capacity to enter with hope into suffering, practice emotional intelligence, engage the discipline of relinquishment, learn thankfulness in small things, try to cook slowly, practice persistence and think theologically.
We are engaged in some large challenges in the year ahead of us that require leadership from the whole congregation. If we can move through this coming year, leading from a spiritual centre then there will be greater opportunity for the Spirit to lead us. Pentecost is on the doorstep. The spirit awaits. I think we’re ready. Amen.
with thanks to:
Gary Peluso-Verdend - the Alban Weekly
- RevPeterLougheed's blog
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Comments
WaterBuoy
We couldn't tell such stories
Posted on: 05/26/2009 10:09
We couldn't tell such stories to the Pagans ... could we?
They might catch on and learn what the rich and powerful are up to ... absolutely nothing ... ignorance is a blind sort of Passion. Who has most of the living experience of Life? Now ain't that a funny reverse psychology ... reciprocal initiation in the world of a dumb brain?
Then some are not aware of that eclectic Jinn that possesses that indeterminate space we call mind/soul/psyche complex! You bet ... ID's a beauty, or is that butte' as is ... unimmersed? Did you know in old myth both the mind and its spirit are ephemeral ... like the soul and its emotions are fey, fickle and passin fantasies ... like blind fey th's (flying words) they are amourphus! Then one has to know the meaning of the old signs ...