LEADERSHIP AND FOLLOWERSHIP (1)

Over a year ago I read an article in The Christian Century by Anthony B. Robinson, a pastor in the Northwest who knows a thing or two about how parishes function, titled
“Five Habits of a Healthy Congregation”. His basic premise is that if a congregation wants a good leader and that leader wants to do a good job, the leader needs to have good followers and those followers need to be practitioners of five healthy habits.

We are now in the beginning stages of a search process, the culmination of which will be the calling of the next leader of this parish whom we will be asked to follow. Over the next five weeks I would like to reflect and expand on each of Robinson’s five habits to, perhaps, allow each of us to personally reflect on not only what it means to be a good follower but just what kind of follower we might be.

First of all, good followers must realize and recognize the truth that the work of leadership is necessary; it is important; it is difficult. It is work even if the leader does not consider it to be work but rather sees it as a vocation. My brother-in-law Dennis always kids me about only working weekends and my comeback is that I have never worked a day in my life. When what I do becomes work, when it simply and only becomes a job, I am done.

We all need leaders in those areas of our life where we are called to be followers; otherwise there would be chaos all around in general and in our personal lives in particular. That is why having good leaders in our lives is so important. We cannot live without them even if at times we find it difficult to live with them especially when those leaders are telling us some things we simply do not want to hear but, of necessity, truly must hear.

That’s risky business, this duty of a leader to sometimes impart unpleasant and difficult news to those who are followers, truths they do not really want to hear. It is even more risky when the followers do not have to follow, when their association with the leader is purely voluntary (as in a parish), when the followers can simply walk away with no repercussions of any kind. Speaking the truth can be a risky business for a leader.

Followers, too, must take risks, especially those who belong to voluntary organizations. Choosing another to be your leader is always risky. One never knows what kind of leader that person will be in this new circumstance. His or her leadership track record may be wonderful, but every situation is new even if it is similar to the previous one. Why? Because no two groups of people are identical. We all know great leaders who have laid an egg or two over the years. We just hope our new leader doesn’t lay one on our watch.

Not only is it risky in making a call to someone to lead us, followers must also be willing to take further risks. While it is always comfortable to continue doing what we’ve always done in the ways we’ve always done them, new leaders will inevitably challenge us to step out of that box and try something new. Are we willing to take that risk? If not, the new leader will have a more difficult time. If we are, the future will be bright.