In yesterday’s post I began to reflect on Jesus’ example of servant leadership. Today, I want to continue those thoughts about leadership in the church and the call to be servants one to another. This way of leading is so contrary to much of what the world believes to be true. However, servant leadership seems to me the only way to renew the church and make a path into the future.
Jean Vanier is the founder of the world famous L’Arche community for mentally handicapped and their helpers. Twenty-three years ago, I was introduced to his book, Community and Growth, an amazing collection of thoughts about the essence of true community. This is no boring stale thesis treating the subject in some systematic way, but a brilliant literary contribution that serves to act as a starting point for reflection and conversation on the nature and meaning of community.
Well into the book, Vanier writes about the servant leader. Here is a small sample of his reflections:
“Jesus is the model of authority for Christians. On the night before he died, he washed the disciples’ feet like a common slave. Peter was shocked out of his wits by this gesture. And then Jesus told his disciples that they should do likewise: ‘Blessed are you if you do what I have done.’ This is such a different way of exercising authority and goes against our wish to be superior and above others. Jesus leads by going lower than others. We truly need the Spirit of Jesus to teach us to be humble servants of communion….
“People who assume responsibility should remember that, in the perspective of the Gospel, it is the poorest people who are the most precious and close to God, not the leaders. It is they whom God has chosen to confound the strong and who are the heart of Christian community….
“People with responsibility must always be concerned for the minorities in a community and those who have no voice, listening to them, and interpreting for them. The leaders must defend individuals because the interests of the individual must never be sacrificed to those of the group. A community is always built around people; people should not be shaped to suit community….
“The leader is the guardian of unity. He or she must thirst for unity and work for it day and night. For this, the leader must not fear conflict, but rather accept it and strive to be an instrument of reconciliation; the leader must be in contact with all the different elements in the community, and particularly with those who are in pain or who are angry with the community….
“To be a servant leader is to be more concerned with people than for the institution. There is always an institutional aspect to a community: things have to be done, work must go on, the accounts must be administered wisely, etc. It is a bad sign when leaders become more preoccupied by the institutional aspect than by the growth of people” (Community and Growth, pages 212-215)
I have always thought the Jean Vanier was on to something and had important things to say to the Church. Servant leadership is one aspect of being an effective leader. I will look at another aspect of leadership tomorrow when Jesus states: “Come and see.” Write and tell me what you are thinking.
Love One Another – Brian
God's Love and Our Weaknesses
Thomas Keating
The experience of God's love and the experience of our weaknesses are correlative. These are the two poles that God works with as God gradually frees us from immature ways of relating. The experience of our desperate need for God's healing is the measure to which we experience God's infinite mercy. The deeper the experience of God's mercy, the more compassion we will have for others.
Source: Invitation to Love
Isaiah 6:1-8
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.’ The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And I said: ‘Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’ Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: ‘Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.’ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’
I wish our own bishop would heed these words!
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