An Expedition's Journal: Sabbatical Leadership Lessons

Mike and I spent 5 days hiking and camping along the Duckabush River on the eastern slopes of Washington's Olympic Peninsula. The five-mile hike into our campsite was a blend of delightful river-side stroll and grueling, lung-busting climb over the aptly named Big Hump. But the beauty of the scenery, the solitude, the long fireside chats, and the constant roar of the glacier-fed Duckabush made it all worthwhile.

Here's where we set up camp:

Here's a picture of Mike contemplating the river right beside our camp:

Here's a picture of the river where we stopped and had lunch on a lengthy dayhike into Olympic National Park on Sunday:

Here's what lunch looked like:

Over the five days, we shared the campsite and trail with a number of other people. The first night we camped next to a friendly gentleman who stopped over and chatted a bit. There was also a young couple and their son. The father was a former chef who shared his camping recipes with us. We met a couple of younger ladies who hiked another 5 miles past us, and out the next day, putting our plodding efforts to shame.

The second and third nights, we shared the campsite with Boy Scout troops. We almost thought we had the site to ourselves on Friday, but just at dusk a group of Scouts and their leaders descended the mountain and set up camp in the next site over. One leader came quite a bit later, setting his tent right next to ours long after we'd settled in for the night.

These scouts were considerate. They were polite. They were having lots of fun, but they kept to themselves. They respected their leaders. The man who camped right next to us apologized the next morning for being so close, while explaining that, in the dark, he hadn't been able to find a better spot.

Later that morning Mike and I hiked up to a waterfall, and soon the scouts followed along, where they engaged in the age-old game of "Throwing Large Objects Into the River." The leaders were actively involved, as well. They were obviously having fun together.

Eventually they headed back to camp, packed up, and left for home.

By the time Mike and I got back to our camp, another Boy Scout troop had arrived and set up camp. This troop stood in marked contrast to the first. They set up a city, commandeering most of the campsite. And the kids ran wild. They ran through our area, and through the camp of the younger couple with son. They stole firewood that couple had been collecting. They threw rocks at each other, narrowly missing the rest of us. They threw rocks into the river, splashing the young couple's tent. They screamed and hollered and played Tag all around us. They had no respect for anybody else; they were engaged in all sorts of dangerous horseplay at the river's edge.

And the whole while, their leaders totally ignored them. In fact, their body language made it clear they didn't particularly like these kids. There was no interaction between leaders and kids, except in the Making of the Campfire. The leaders made sure they showed the kids how to build a campfire: 4 feet wide, 6 feet high, doused in lighter fluid.

I know this is a little blurry, but here's a picture of the scouts. The orange smudge in the middle is there monstrous fire:

Keeping this fire going required a lot of lighter fluid. And a lot of wood. I think they used up all the wood available, leaving nothing left for later campers. But the kids were so impressed, they went and lit another fire about 20 feet away, in an unapproved fire pit. Which the leaders ignored.

Making all this worse was the fact that we were surrounded by evidence of the 2011 wildfire that burned in the valley for months. All around us stood the charred remains of ancient trees; the ground was covered in fallen trees and blackened roots. Still, the scouts kept fueling there fire with all the wood they could find, and copious amounts of lighter fluid.

Thankfully, they were gone the next morning. But we ran into the young ladies again, who shared that when they were climbing the switchbacks of the Big Hump, they found themselves dodging large boulders pouring down around them. The source? Those same Scouts, who were engaged in the age-old game of "Let's Roll Boulders Down the Hill at the Hikers Below Us!" Needless to say, they weren't happy with the scouts, either.

So Mike and I spent a lot of time talking about the two groups, and realized it was a marvelous lesson in leadership. Scout troop #1: Polite, considerate, fun-loving, good neighbors, friendly, respectful, honored the space of others. Scout troop #2: Rude, obnoxious, a danger to others, disrespectful of people and the environment, poor neighbors. And the most obvious reason for the difference was leadership. In the first group, the leaders were involved, they were interested, they were engaged with the kids, they seemed to like the kids, they were having fun with the kids. They seemed to be enjoying themselves, and even told us how they had hiked up here in their teens, and were glad to share that experience with the next generation.

In the second group, the leaders couldn't be bothered. They stomped around camp looking grumpy; one spent considerable time trying to find a cell phone connection. The kids ran free while the leaders stuck to themselves. I never saw those leaders smile, laugh, or kid around. They ignored us when we passed by their camp. They projected a message that said "this is the last place I want to be."

Leaders lead, whether they know it or not. Leaders set the tone for the group. People know whether you care about them or not. People will listen to and respect a leader who engages with them. Distant, aloof leaders create groups that run wild. In Friedman's A Failure of Nerve, he speaks of the way leadership interacts with the group in the same way the mind interacts with every facet of the body. Your brain is a long way from your toe, but your brain's presence is strongly felt down there.

It may be nothing obvious, but how you relate to your people has a strong effect on the overall health of the group. It's not just what you teach, but how you relate. If you're grumpy and distant and tell people you'd rather be elsewhere, they'll get the message and drift off. But if you let people know you like them, that you're glad to spend time with them, that you genuinely care for them, the group will be that much healthier (not to mention that much more pleasant to camp next to).

The leaders of scout group #1 - that's the kind of leader I want to be. Invested, involved, genuinely caring, sharing life with the people around me, happy to be on this planet with them.

Thus ends the first lesson of my sabbatical. Here's the waterfall where the first group were throwing things into the water, from that large ledge over my left shoulder. To be clear, I'm not grumpy in this picture. Just sore.

A couple of book reviews about books about church leadership

Over the last few weeks I've finished two different books related to church leadership.

The first was Simple Church, which we read as a group project for the Lakebay Church board.

Based on an extensive research project, Simple Church argues that churches are weighted down by complexity, busy-ness, and too many ministries and programs; at the same time, they lack clear vision, focus, and direction. The most important task of the church - building disciples - is lost in the chaos of events and programs and structure.

Simple Church calls churches to refocus, to reclaim their vision, to find their one true calling, and to reorganize around that task. Beyond simply sharing the facts deduced from their research (which are impressive and comprehensive enough to prove their point), the authors describe how to begin to reclaim a simplicity of style and structure, in order that churches would become more effective at living out the gospel.

There were parts of the book I found aggravating - too much statistical information interrupting the flow, attempts at light-heartedness that seemed forced, illustrations that didn't exactly track with the central point - but the overall premise is worth reading and understanding. Rainer and Geiger make clear that Simple Church isn't a program to adopt, but a philosophy to guide and direct whatever program a church decided to pursue.

It is also an easy read, not requiring a college degree to understand, and sincerely lacking in seminary-level words, which the Lakebay board very much appreciated.

The other book, which I mostly read while relaxing in my hammock during the last sunny days of Fall, was How Your Church Family Works by Peter Steinke.

HYCFW is a slightly older book (first published in '93), but I found it one of the most useful ministry-related books I've read. Steinke takes Family Systems Theory and applies it to church. His premise is that we too often fail to see the forest for the trees - when looking at churches, we look at individuals and how they behave, but we forget to look at the whole, at the overarching system. But Family Systems Theory tells us we are all interconnected, and the organism is much more than the sum of its part, for better or for worse.

Specifically, Steinke writes about the process anxiety plays in the system - the things that make us anxious, and how that anxiety plays out across the group. Because, quite often systems will behave in predictable, if somewhat unexpected ways. Or to put that another way, people respond in systems differently than you would expect them to as individuals. Sometimes the nicest, kindest, gentlest folks react in surprising ways when the system is infected with anxiety.

This book is filled with theory and research, but also with case studies and stories to flesh out the concepts. It deals with the direct conflict that often happens between people in systems, but also spends considerable time working through the triangles we create to ease our anxiety. Finally, it gives helpful ideas and tools that can be implemented to manage anxiety, whether we seek to ease it or use it to spur healthy decision-making.

HYCFW is both diagnostic and prescriptive; it gives language to the issues that happen all around us; it also gives us tools to move ahead into health and vitality. It isn't a program or study for the whole church to digest and implement, but it does give healthy language to understand the reality that is all around us, helping leaders name the issues that they face, and decide how to move ahead even in the midst of those issues.

Over the years I've read a number of books on church leadership; this one ranks up there with the most important of them. Many times I've found myself in confusing situations, wherein people were reacting in odd and unexpected ways. Steinke's work on anxiety and the different ways it pushes people has been very helpful. More importantly, it helps me understand better my own tendencies within systems - how I respond to anxiety, how my fears and doubts and natural patterns sometimes aren't the healthiest response.

As a side note . . . a friend of mine had loaned me his copy of HYCFW, and after I returned it I decided I needed my own. So it was sitting in my Amazon shopping cart, when, much to my joy and surprise, I was given a copy at last week's Navigate Conference in Minnesota. So thank you, Covenant Church, for also recognizing the importance of this book, and for passing it along to us pastors.

At least one important lesson to take from Egypt, et al

Last week a woman in our church came up and asked "what's this 'postmodernism' I keep reading about?"

In some ways, Egypt and the continued chaos across the Middle East sheds some light on the question. And it teaches us all an important lesson about leadership. What you had in Egypt was a power clash between two distinct worldviews, aided and abetted by technology unforeseen a generation ago. Mubarak, like so many other leaders in the Middle East and around the world, ruled because he was the ruler. His authority was in his position. The world has a structure, with leaders (often divinely-designated) and followers. Kings/presidents/Prime Ministers/Despots/Juntas rule because, well, because they're the rulers. And the rules of civilization state that the rest of society will follow these rulers, because that's the way it is. Mubarak's claim to authority was mostly that he was the leader; therefore, everybody else should follow.

A new world is upon us, in which the playing field has been leveled. No longer are rulers divinely appointed, no longer does their position hold any authority. They can say whatever they want, but the power of the individual voice, magnified in the massive echo chamber that is the internet, holds equal sway. In fact, in Western Culture at least, the voice of the leader is suspect simply because he or she is the leader. The voice of the common person, tweeted for all to hear, is seen as the voice of reason. Experts and politicians and authorities are distrusted, they are held in contempt. Public Opinion as culled from Facebook and Twitter is much more trustworthy than anybody with a degree or experience.

Thus, the leader says "follow" and the masses get on their twitter feed and say "rise up in revolt." And the masses win.

Sometimes this is a wonderful thing. The story on Egypt (as well as the other Middle Eastern countries) remains to be written, but we may be seeing the dawn of a new age. We may see freedom and openness in societies known for secrecy and internal violence. We may see some form of democracy plant its feet in the deserts of that ancient land. Our 'enemies' may move closer to our own worldview. Some are already comparing this to the fall of the Iron Curtain 20-some years ago. These are historic days and, for Egypt, they may be very good days.

But there is a difficult lesson to be learned for those of us who are called to leadership in our lives/communities/churches/organizations. Too often the Church behaves like Mubarak. We in pastoral/priestly leadership carry a divine authority to speak truth and righteousness, to call people to a certain moral behavior, to challenge false belief and action. And for too long the justification for our pronouncements has been "because the Bible says so." Or "because God says so." Remember that lovely song in the 1970s - "God says it, I believe it, and that's good enough for me"? That's Mubarak-type thinking.

We say "same-gender sexual activity is a sin." Our kids ask "why?" And we say "because the Bible says so."

We say "abortion is a sin." Our kids ask "why?" And we say "because God says so."

We say "you need to tithe" and people in the pew ask "why?" And we respond, "because I said so."

And we think we're going to win the argument that way.

Unfortunately, our kids all go home and get on facebook and find 1000 other people who think "Church is lame" and "Christians are bigots and haters." And even if we've spent countless hours studying the scripture, seeking God's face, discussing theological trends and meditating on God's work in the world, the countless online choir chanting "church is for losers" will still win.

Authority and leadership based on "because I said so" no longer works, as Mubarak just found out. Authority based on "because the Bible says so" pretty much stands the same chance. Which is going to be a monumental difficulty for established, institutionalized churches to overcome.

The good news is this. We don't serve a God who said "I'm God because I said so." Our God isn't like Mubarak, resting in his position of authority. Ours isn't a God who rules because of an Office or a Role. Ours is a God who climbed out of that presidential office and got his hands dirty. Ours is a God who ruled by washing the feet of his followers. Ours is a God who proved his authority not by coalescing power, but by giving power away; God doesn't rule by making edicts and then waiting for everybody to obey. Our God rules by loving, even to making the ultimate sacrifice.

It seems to me that too many Christian leaders want to lead according to the autocratic, Mubarak-style of leadership. It also seems to me that, rather than being frightened by this new, postmodern, voice-of-the-masses, bottom-up leadership issue, we can find our answers still in the pages of Scripture, in the face of Jesus, who led by being a servant, and didn't care about the trappings of power. Jesus built up quite a following that way, and he certainly remained a leader in spite of his lack of a P.R. campaign.

To be certain, there is a dark side to all of this. Sometimes, as we just saw in Egypt, the voice of the masses can be a good thing. But all too often the masses are idiots. You can prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that mankind landed on the moon, and still have a large percentage of the population believing its a hoax. You can prove that continued burning of fossil fuels is bad for the environment and bad for our children, and still the masses will demand their over-sized pickup trucks and SUVs. You can give an award to a talented musician known for her dedication to her craft, and still have hundreds of thousands of 12-year-old girls rise up in a twitter frenzy calling for a Biebolution. And this is where it becomes difficult.

Again, Jesus didn't seem to worry about that. He spoke truth, he humbly lived out the truth, he challenged misguided thinking, but he didn't seem to need to prove his point beyond that. When others rejected his teachings, he let them walk away. When the masses abandoned him, he remained faithful to the task, trusting that God was working behind it all and would take care of the details. His only work was to spread the good news of the Kingdom of God.

And this is the leadership challenge to us all. Those who want to hold on to their authority, a la Mubarak, will eventually lose it. But those who give up their need for power and authority in exchange for the opportunity to love and serve others, will eventually find themselves leading, because the world is drawn to those kinds of people. In this postmodern world, the authentic voice of love and compassion will win over the authoritarian 'because-I-said-so' leader every time.

Book review: Incarnate Leadership

Incarnate Leadership by Bill Robinson (President of Whitworth University) was a gift given to Covenant Pastors at our last Midwinter Conference. Based on John's description of Jesus in John 1:14, Robinson explains what it looks and feels like to lead in the way of Jesus. Eschewing power and glory and privilege, Incarnate Leadership means stepping off pedestals to live among the people we lead; it means transparency and honesty, it means reflecting glory and praise to those who really deserve it (either the people actually doing the work, or the God who is the source of all we have), it means living in a marriage of grace and truth (showing grace while never compromising the Truth), and it means continuous sacrifice.

As Zondervan's press describes this book, it is "Conversational in tone and seasoned with real-life stories from his own successes and failures as a leader. . ." That describes the book perfectly. It's not so much sitting in a seminar under a professional leadership guru; instead, it's like sitting down with a friend who's picked up some good leadership ideas along the way (often learned the hard way), who wants to share it all with you. To that end, parts of the book were fantastic and instantly applicable (to me), whereas others didn't seem to resonate, nor seem all that useful (at the moment). But it's a quick, easy read, while at the same time being one of the best books on Christ-like leadership that I've read. I would have no problem recommending it to any pastor, college president, or business leader who wants to allow their faith to guide their leadership style.