– Lao-Tzu
It was a group of a dozen who gathered one November morning in a church sanctuary to start a long and arduous journey. Half of them are going to spend 2009 under a great deal of scrutiny, analyzing their own approach to being leaders in their community, in their church, and being analyzed by their congregation and others. These ministers have willingly and voluntarily submitted themselves to a process of further developing and sharpening their leadership skills. The next day, lay leaders from their congregation will join them. Together, they will face the challenges of being a church.
The other half of this group are the sherpas on this journey – they are there to guide the ministers, help with some of the heavy lifting, provide resources and feedback. After the Swiss Chalet lunch order is filled (certain priorities can't be denied) the first of this resource team steps to the stool in the centre. Mark Michaelis is a Pentecostal pastor currently working as a civilian constable with the Windsor police. He speaks softly of his own life. He had always worked in the church, first as a lay member, a volunteer, and later as a pastor. It was the only life he knew. But it had “no foundation,” he tells the group of himself. His marriage “paid the price.”
This confessional is a strange beginning to a seminar on leadership. There are no declarations of power, of asserting authority, no leadership theories. Instead Michaelis leads into a close scriptural reading of 2 Timothy 1:3-7, which speaks of humility, spirituality and maintaining a personal relationship with Christ.
A man who considers himself a failed leader, who was a pastor without a strong spiritual foundation, is the person who starts this journey. His is a life in transition and the ministers listen closely. Each of them is also managing transition – not necessarily their own but of their church. They have all worked in the church for many years and have faced many challenges – one of the more difficult of which they will face shortly after Michaelis' presentation.
Each of the ministers has already completed a survey which asked them about their own leadership style: how they listen, how they take criticism, how they approach each task and so forth. The same survey has already been given to and completed by five other people, each chosen by the minister, from their church community. Soon they find out how their self-impressions match with those around them. Doug Schonberg later calls the experience “painfully helpful.”
Schonberg is minister at Chippewa, Niagara Falls, Ont., which he describes as “socially liberal, with an orthodox tradition and conservative theology.” Though it is within the city of Niagara Falls, he says it is still very much a village church. A “jeans-wearing church.” The congregation is involved in Presbyterians Aiding Nicaragua and with the local food bank, along with other community initiatives.
But, as in many other churches, there have been “chronic conflicts” and the session has been working to determine a future direction, which started with a day-long retreat in 2005. One of their growth barriers is their building, which Schonberg describes as “a mishmash of rooms and space,” with a 1960s addition attached to the 1890s building. “You have once a generation to reshape your space. And whatever you choose, will shape your ministry,” he says. Before you can define your building, you must define your future ministry. “The whole mandate of the church is to share it. A church looking inwards is not healthy. A church is supposed to grow. And a church can only grow as far as its leaders grow. It has to be a strength-to-strength move.”
And that is why he has put himself on the firing line: Schonberg's personal survey is in many ways typical of a minister's personality. By nature he is a people pleaser. And a perfectionist. And these two points come into conflict with each other: his desire to do things right leads him to feeling he is not pleasing those around him. And so, the survey showed he tends to avoid tasks. The emotional and psychological cycles can tighten till the minister begins to “burn out in ministry.”
To be fair, the survey is much subtler than this description. And it is one part of a longer journey than Schonberg has started. Plus he has support, not only from his congregation, but also from the sherpas; one of whom he identifies as the reason he signed up for this Leadership Roundtable.
“The draw is Chuck,” Schonberg says. “I found Difference Makers [a series of seminars on evangelism and leadership earlier this decade] very inspiring and motivating. And when this opportunity came up I thought, I want to know what he knows.”
Rev. Chuck Congram arrived at St. Andrew's, Lakeshore, Ont., outside of Windsor, in 1973. It was then a small rural congregation. By the time he retired in 2006, St. Andrew's was in a multi-million dollar building with a thousand people worshipping each Sunday. It's a remarkable story – particularly in a presbytery, Essex-Kent, which has been losing members and churches for years – but that's not the one he tells when he takes the stool in the middle of the leadership group.
During a PowerPoint presentation on defining leadership, Congram gives examples from a life in ministry, speaking of other ministers he has counselled over the years, but particularly of his own struggles and crisis as a minister and as a man. Like Michaelis before him, he speaks of strengths by giving examples of his own weaknesses.
He gives examples, some shockingly personal, of his own need for affirmation, his pride and his ego. He speaks of his reluctance to enter ministry, his struggles with being a minister, his desire for a positive self-definition. But this is not a confessional, nor a group therapy session. Like Michaelis, Congram, with great personal honesty, tells the story of his own journey and his personal relationship with God.
“Who I am matters more to God than what I am able to do. You have to know who you are in Christ,” he tells the group. He echoes what Schonberg is about to learn about himself, what Michaelis has already said about himself: “Ministry has a lot of introverts, doing a lot of extrovert work. The cost is to the family.
“We graduate from college or seminary without any leadership skills. Theology does not mess up relationships as much as leadership style. Leadership style is the source of many wars.”
That, if you will, is the punchline. Leadership, leadership style, is constantly atop any list of issues facing the church. How we are led and how we lead is a huge challenge. Leading a church is considered, by many experts, as one of the most difficult jobs in society. And while the number of churches may be declining – a hundred years ago there were 27 churches for every 10,000 people in the United States, today that number is down to 11 for every 10,000 – many denominations are having difficulty filling their empty pulpits.
The issue is not just ministers, but also lay leaders. As churches shrink in size, so does the available pool of elders and managers, of Sunday school teachers and librarians. It is a continuous cycle, named as post-Christendom, of diminishing social and communal importance. Anyone who goes to church knows this, and yet the church has not developed sufficient models in response.
“In my father's day,” says Rev. Dr. Andrew Irvine, “the minister was defined by the office. But, as the church loses its place, clergy lose their relevance or importance. There is a diminished sense of identity. The status for all professions – once held in high regard because they were the only educated people in the community – has changed.”
Irvine is the director of the Centre for Clergy Care and Congregational Health at the Toronto School of Theology and a professor at Knox College, Toronto. A child of the manse, Irvine first studied psychology before entering ministry. (A portrait of Carl Jung, amongst others, hangs in his office.) On his Knox website he declares, “I believe that the health and well-being of clergy are essential to the health and strength of the church.” Through the centre he has done some cutting-edge research into the lives and mental health of clergy. (Findings from one study were published in the February issue of the Record.)
In talking about leadership, he first begins by discussing identity. “We have confused the theology of the whole people of God, with the ordered ministry of the church,” he says. “Clergy were once seen in a power position and that got inculturated in the church.” That power dynamic no longer exists. “We have many incredibly able and competent congregants within the church, who live active and productive lives. The old structures no longer fit into the lives of empowered people. But, the minister is still seen as the holy person.”
Clergy are no longer seen as an authority on everything, but are seen as spiritual guides. Leadership, therefore argues Irvine, coming around to the question, “is working with equal partners within the context of the church to live and proclaim the word of God.
“The Bible talks of leaders equipping people to do the work of God. We have to develop creative ways of doing gospel. Leadership is not an individual with an idea and how things should be done. Leadership requires humility to find creative ways of working together.
“Part of the task of clergy today is to begin to have a dialogue with their people that the Christian life is a life of change.”
Humility. Dialogue. Partnership. Change. These ideas echo throughout any discussion of leadership. The handful of ministers at the Leadership Roundtable, meeting one morning in November, express the same ideas: Rev. Sean Howard of Nassagaweya, Ont., started out as a schoolteacher before he entered the ministry. His congregation of about 50 people lives in a rural community that is slowly becoming suburban. As their identity changes, they seek a new direction for themselves. “We need to figure out one thing to do well,” says Howard.
So Howard starts that journey by subjecting himself to a paradigm-shifting survey completed by his lay peers. “Finding my own weaknesses is not always pleasant. But, if we're going to be leaders in the church, we need to see where we need help.”
“I am trying my best to give ministry away,” says Rev. Johannes Olivier, which may be the best definition of leadership in our times. Ordained for a quarter-century in his native South Africa, Olivier came to Canada in 2003, after his daughter was mugged. It was the precipitating event that motivated the family to move. He is very happy with the work he has at the two-point charge of Dorchester and South Nissouri, near London, Ont. Both are rural communities, and like Howard's, both are changing, with new subdivisions nearby.
Olivier joined the Leadership Roundtable for the same reasons as Schonberg and Howard: to work with Congram and his team, to develop his own skills, to discern the will of God for his ministry, and to empower his lay leaders to shape the vision for their church. He refers to the church as “a living organism” and speaks of his congregations as seeking their own “identity.”
“People attract people,” says Olivier. “You have to surround yourself with strong lay leaders because they often have very dynamic visions.”
He may well be referring to Bill Fellows, a lay member of Congram's team, and the sort of person every congregation dreams of having on their session. During a 40-year career as a senior manager in an international firm he lived across Canada, the United States, Europe, and South America. Since returning home to his native Windsor, he joined St. Andrew's, Lakeshore, got roped into becoming a member of its sanitary engineering team and is one of Congram's trusted sounding boards.
“Since being involved as a parishioner and church volunteer, it didn't take me long to realize the church and the corporate world have much in common by way of challenges and practices involved in just staying alive, let alone achieving success,” Fellows says. “Leadership effectiveness, customer service, marketing, communication, fiscal discipline, planning, people problems, project management, etc., are just some of these common denominators. (A church environment, in many ways, is more demanding.)”
Taking the centre seat, he speaks of the importance of developing a vision for the institution, and then, and more importantly, a strategic plan to implement the vision. “Most strategic plans/visions don't fail; they just fade away and die because little or no thought is given as to how they should be implemented. The industrial landscape is already littered with remains of once successful companies that could not adapt their strategic vision to altered conditions of competition.”
Fellows's presentation is detailed – he has it written out so it can be referred to in the future. It is not leadership theory but practical advice, listing the myriad pitfalls, the importance of being specific, the importance of working slowly and patiently, of bringing together the community and of tracking the progress. “Plan – Do – Check – Act!!!”
He concludes by emphasizing the importance of communication: “Simply put, the best way to communicate a vision is 'any possible way you can.' That said, communicating to a large and diverse organization is a challenge. [Use multiple means]: disseminating it in written form, using audio visual displays, interviews and Q&As by leaders, by having leaders publicly sign up for the vision …”
Andrew Irvine has worked with church leaders for many years. He mentions that many clergy have told him they wished they had been ordained in an earlier age, when being a leader was easier. When the arrogance within that wish is noted, he does not shy away: “We are meant to be the missional church, but have we embraced the gospel? No, because we haven't embraced what it means to be the missional church. We haven't lived our faith. We need to take seriously our role as a redemptive agency.”
Leadership is not just a matter of telling. It is about sharing; working on a vision, building a consensus, inviting everybody to participate, and then sharing that vision. Leadership is no longer about back-room deals and power mongering. It is about communicating – which involves humility and care. Participants must feel an ownership of the vision, otherwise the vision will never rise. Leadership is about sharing the vision and then entering into an open, transparent process to implement the vision. And through every stage, communicating the process. Without a sense of ownership there is no church.
Within the vast landscape of the church, even within our own denomination, the journey begun by those involved in the Leadership Roundtable, by Congram and his team of ordained and lay leaders, and by a handful of ministers and their lay leaders who are facing their own vulnerability in order to discern God's leading, is a small step forward. But it is instructive of the effort required to be the missional church, to constantly be reforming.
