Tempered Passionate Leadership

The first day of class, when we were asked to share why we wanted to be in a Religious Leadership class, I gave a polite response. I have respected and appreciated Professor Dalton on the Committee on Community Life that I serve with her, but my distrust of anything as corporate, Harvard Business School, the principles of successful people, as "Religious Leadership" made the only reason I signed up due to a course requirement. I said out loud that one of the things I wished to learn was to move beyond the instinctive aspects of my leadership. I was surprised at realizing that this answer, because it wasn't merely politeness, it was the truth. Despite my youth, I have been in many different leadership places. This was the first example that this class gave me insight into my own processes around leadership. Despite my initial cynicism around such a course as this, I have discovered a great deal about myself and its usefulness for a course of ministry. That in of itself, that situations will be unexpectedly useful over my anticipated cynicism was a first important lesson that I will try to hold on to throughout my (God-willing) career as an ordained elder of the United Methodist Church.

Another one of the important aspects I have learned and have been helped systematically thinking through, is that there are in fact limits to how far my leadership can take me. This year I said yes to everything. And this year that parts of my leadership suffered because of stretching myself too thin. I think that saying "no" will be a constant adaptive problem in my future leadership, yet this year taught me the consequences of that constant "yes." Since I was taking this class at the same time that I was recognizing my limits, I was given the time and safety to constructively think through this unexpected roadblock. No sometimes means that my hopes and objectives will be achieved, yes sometimes acts as a hindrance.

One of the places that I would like to continue to grow is that when I feel so comfortable in a group, like I did for this religious leadership class, is to how to be quiet gracefully. My eagerness to contribute and to process my thoughts verbally still plays across my face. I wish to indicate that the reason I wish to remain quiet is because I want to hear others speak, not that I wish to be so magnanimous as to keep my mouth shut. One of the places that I wish to grow in my leadership is to learn how to gracefully convey that while I am often convicted in my own opinions, I also appreciate the opinion of others with equal passion.

Ultimately, what I have learned about myself in this class is that I am a tempered* passionate leader. I know that I feel my victories and disappointments keenly. Yet, I also know that I have the assessment tools and support network to support me and not let me get overwhelmed by the disappointments and the headiness of victoriesg. The passion was the instinct; this class was the addition and recognition of the tools that allows me to channel and guide that passion without burning out. This was easily one of the most useful classes that I have taken at Claremont School of Theology and I am extremely grateful for it.

Thank you Professor Dalton.


*Temper, not as in anger, but tempered as in qualified.

Small Wins and Being a Contribution

Institutional Change comes painfully and agonizingly slow. Institutions have a culture that is deeply inscribed in their everyday actions and communications. Sometimes this culture has a beneficial aspect, because culture acts as the binding aspect that holds that institution together and allows it to accomplish its vision and goals. Yet other times this culture has a detrimental affect, that while it benefits a few inside the culture, may bar the institution from continuing to thrive and accomplish what it sets out to do. Sometimes change may be the very thing an institution may need to survive, yet the culture is so deeply engrained that it will not be able to adapt.

Change does not always have to come about in large, immediate success. Many different sources talk about small victories, including Kouzes and Posner. The account of small victories that I found most compelling was Meyerson's example in Rocking the Boat, because of its incorporation of personal integrity against and in conjunction with organizations the most clearly. These small successes allow for momentum to shift from the ingrained culture to the necessary growth needed for survival and flourishing. The small succeses also allows for other people in that institution and part of that institutional culture to come on board; either as seeing small victories as a method of persusasion or through understanding the small victories as indicators that the overall change of culture will be possible.

The way to measure or recognize these small victories shouldn't be dependent upon an outside source for validation. In the very first day of class, Professor Dalton read to us from Zander and Zander's being a contribution. The Zanders suggest that instead of assessing through accomplishment, to instead look to "contribution." This is not an example of "Did I check off goals off of my list" but instead "how did what I do have meaning?" To me, contribution thinking is the first step toward small victories, because it allows for the proper perspective and positivity to recognize when small victories happened. Instead of assuming that the institution (that is resistant to change in the first place) will be the place of validation, it instead allows the person enacting the change to measure their success. While for perfectionists like myself this may seem like a difficult understanding, being a contribution allows the value for works in progress and self-reliance upon measuring and evaluating success.

What I have learned the most from this class is to trust my own self-assessment skills in how I appreciate my own ability to change institutions around me. I recognize when little things ease and this contribution, small victory outlook, allows me to celebrate when that little bit of culture is liberated and continue toward that large, necessary changes that are often needed inside an institution.

Mission and Values Satements

Mission statement:
In life I wish to return good for evil through building churches and communities that are homes to the hopeless and living out God’s call of love, compassion and justice in this world.

Vision Statement:
To fulfill this mission:
I will ask myself these questions of myself each day:

· “Do [I] make [my] home a place of friendliness, refreshment, and peace, where God becomes more real to those who live there and to all who visit there?[i]

· Is my church and community reflecting the God’s desire of justice for all people and bringing about the kin-dom of God?

· Have I lived out my call to Feed God’s Sheep, by making sure people feel fed spiritually and physically?

· Have I made sure to eat, drink, sleep and be merry today?

Personal Values
Hope, compassion, peace, kindness, justice, hospitality, faithfulness

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[i] "New England Yearly Meeting - Faith and Practice Online - The Queries," New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, section goes here, accessed October 02, 2011, http://www.neym.org/fponline/queries.html.

It Won't Happen Here vs. "Let the Children Come To Me"

One of the favorite stories that is told during Childeren’s sermons is the Matthew text where Jesus says:

“Then little children were being brought to him in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them; but Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.’ And he laid his hands on them and went on his way.”[i]

Jesus insists that we bring in the most vulnerable of his society (children) and bless them. There is a “feel good” aspect to this. How wonderful that we get to include children as an important part of our congregations and church life!

Yet since children are so vulnerable, it’s incredibly important that we take the time to ensure that we take care of them.

Unfortunately, the most common reason that people in United Methodist Churches do not follow through on "Safe Sanctuaries" programming because they think that it's unnecessary for their congregation. They cannot see their congregation as a place where sexual violence could happen. They do not recognize that their children are as vulnerable as they are.

The statistics are stark:

• 1 out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime (14.8% completed rape; 2.8% attempted rape).
• About 3% of American men — or 1 in 33 — have experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime.1
• 15% of sexual assault and rape victims are under age 12:
  Inlcuding:
• 7% of girls in grades 5-8 and 12% of girls in grades 9-12 said they had been sexually abused.
• 3% of boys grades 5-8 and 5% of boys in grades 9-12 said they had been sexually abused.
• Approximately 2/3 of rapes were committed by someone known to the victim. [ii]

Bacher and Cooper-White suggest that "abuse and harassment prevention, boundary reinforcement, background checks, and other such matters should [not] receive attention only or even primarily because of legal requirements or to avoid lawsuits. At their core, these are deeply theological, ethical, and pastoral issues.”[iii] And they’re absolutely right. We need to recognize that we have a biblical imperative to let the children be bless in our church and we also need to recognize that we live in a reality that is far from perfect for children.

Ensuring that churches take part in and follow programming like Safe Sanctuaries is not suggesting that our church is terrible because we think people will rape our children. It’s quite the opposite. It’s suggesting that we love our children so very much that even in this violent and terrifying world, we will do everything we can to protect them.

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[i] Matthew 19:13-15

[ii] Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network: http://www.rainn.org/statistics

[iii] Bacher and Cooper-White, Church Administration, 276

Rule #2 Rocking the Boat: Testimony

One of the most compelling aspects of the Quaker life, is it's testimonies. These are not beliefs, “but a description of committed actions.”[1] These fundamental principles are lived out by Quakers in their everyday lives and practice.

Here is a quick video that summarizes quite a few of the testimonies and their importance in the Friendly life:

As you can see there is a direct connection between identity and action. In Debra Meyerson’s Rocking the Boat, this connection between identity and action is one that she points to throughout the book. It is at these places of intersection between identity and action that the potential for friction and growth happens.

In chapter seven, Meyerson talks about small wins, which are an important part of how I understand change-based leadership. Yet she also talks these small gains in terms of people’s simple, lived out commitment to aligning their corporation’s culture with their vision for a more peaceful and just society. To me, the parallel between testimony (in that committed actions, done in a faithful, peaceful matter) and the small gains are remarkable.

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Testimony

Rule #1 of Rocking the Boat: Know Thyself

For many Americans, gainful employment is done as corporate work. While working for a corporation sounds like it would have additional job security, sometimes the hierarchical power-structures of American society also eases life inside a corporation. Therefore, if you do not fit the traditional mode of "Moderate-conservative, white, male, with a wife and children," life inside that corporate world becomes complicated and constraining.

Meme image based off of the webcomic Hyperbole and a Half

Debra Meyerson, a professor and radical at Stanford, wrote Rocking the Boat for this particular worklife situation. Gathering data from hundreds of people, Meyerson carefully constructed a book that speaks to the people in the middle of corporate life that do not fit the heternormative, white, male expectations. This book is entirely for people who wish to change things, but have no desire to leave the organization that they are in.

In Chapter Three, Meyerson outlines the ways that people did not sacrifice their identity to conform with the corporate culture. A gay man did not bring a beard, but instead brought his partner of many years to the corporate dinner party. A woman giving an important presentation bought a fancy new suit, but refused to take out her cornrows. In each of these examples, I was struck by the fact that the people knew what their boundaries were. The corporation would explicitly or subtly pressure the individuals to conform, and to a certain extent they were willing and happy to do so; yet, they also recognized when conforming would overwhelm a critical part of their identity. There were lines that they simply would not allow corporate culture to cross.

A classmate of mine, Lorraine Ceniceros, suggests that the most important part of religious leadership is that we need to "know ourselves." We need to have self-awareness of our own triggers, passions, and growing edges. To me, Rocking the Boat, gives examples of where that self-awareness is not just preventative, but also constructive. This is eye-opening and world changing. (More on this in the next blog).

Good to Great and the United Methodist Bishop

In a series of patheos articles about the future of the mainline church, Bishop Larry M. Goodpaster,* was interviewed about his vision for the future of the United Methodist Church.

When the interviewer, Debera Acra, asked him about the mainline decline and specific plans, Bishop Goodpaster referenced Good to Great:

Given the membership decline in the mainline church, what specific efforts are underway in the UMC to revive the church and make it relevant for the future?
Many United Methodists, both lay and clergy, have read and been influenced by Jim Collins' book Good to Great. In that book, Collins makes reference to the Stockdale paradox, which states, in essence, that we must always confront reality, but never give up hope. That, it seems to me, is where we find ourselves today. Reality: declining membership in the United States coupled with redirected resources. Hope: the vision of the Reign of God pulling us into a different future. By the power of the Spirit and the grace of Jesus, we move forward to create a future with hope. We know we are losing any sense of relevance in this rapidly changing culture.

For me, seeing the President of the Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church, apply Jim Collins in a way that speaks to middle ground, makes me enormously happy, in large part this is an entirely Methodist synthesis of the text. Methodists like to balance personal and social piety, the present and future reality of the kin-dom of God, so why not add in the reality of church in decline with following Jesus in the future.

For the rest of his interview go here. His answers for what to do about young adults is well worth investigating.





*Yes, seriously. My love for puns is exceedingly happy about this. Much like when I heard my aunt’s stomach doctor was a Doctor Chow.

Branding as an Exercise of Self-Esteem

In Good to Great and the Social Sectors, Jim Collins attempts to translate the work that he had done for analyzing the highly successful businesses to the non-profit areas. I appreciate the strong emphasis that what makes for a successful non-profit organization is not a simple transposition of business world upon the non-profit areas. I myself often am skeptical of corporate measures of success, often seeing that short-term and yearly gratification (and dividends) is often valued over things like the environment, social justice, and other uncapitalizable, yet necessary long-term needs for our future.

Therefore, it surprised me that what I found most interesting in this text was one of the most corporate ideas as one of the best fits for what a church needs and how it can help growth in the future. I found the "hedgehog concept" as the basis for creating a brand to be something that is deeply important.

In my experiences, most churches don't really know why they are churches. They like to meet together and they have a deep commitment to the community, building, etc, but they rarely are able to articulate the purpose that these congregations have. Honestly, congregations have low self-esteem. I think that the hedgehog would be able to help these congregations that there are passions and missions that congregations DO WELL and then give them the opportunity to be able to articulate why they come together as a community.

Here is what Collin's hedgehog concept looks like:



What are you deeply passionate about:
Churches have deep passions. Sometimes, these deep passions are about "Our church puts out the most beautiful creches for advent." Sometimes its: "We love the teenagers in our congregation, and even though they grew up in the inner city, we're going to make sure that they go to college." Each of these passions have a specific value attached to them. For the first congregation, clearly beauty and the advent story are important values. The second congregation prides itself on supporting the teens in the congregation to overcome difficult odds and values social justice. It takes a lot of work to "just do what we've been doing," being able to unearth what matters to us is a good first step for realizing we're awesome.

What are you best at:
I am often amazed at what churches accomplish. Forty people put on a monthly food and clothing bank. Four hundred people come together to provide 300 children the school supplies they need to go to school, drive a van to pick up homeless men and get them to warm shelter during the winter, send 30 people on a yearly mission, and twenty or thirty other small ministries. Every week they put on a different worship service, each with its own unique character. Often, when congregations talk, they see all of the things they haven't done, not the amazing things they are accomplishing. Asking "What are you best at?" reorients the idea from "I'm not doing enough" to "We're doing this really well, because we value this."
What drives your resource engine:
Time, money, and volunteers are something that every single church needs more of. By being able to articulate: "We do this, because." Makes the "So you should help," part much easier to do. Making ourselves known for what we do, gives us a focus and a way to overcome our hesitancy to act.


Jim Collins' hedgehog concept would be a way of recasting the dominant narrative of a congregation from: "We're part of a dying denomination and congregation" to "This is what we do, why we're awesome, and what we value. We're so excited to be here." I think perhaps instead of understanding ourselves in terms of relevancy as dictated by the outside (perhaps even corporate) definition of the world and recasting our self-evaluation in terms of our mission and bringing about the Kingdom of God. Congregations do things well and I think this model might be a good way to tell ourselves the story that we are awesome.