LEADERSHIP AND FOLLOWERSHIP (2)

According to Anthony B. Robinson in his article in The Christian Century (01/11/12), if a congregation wants to have a good leader, it must be a good follower. That means, first of all, that the people recognize that leadership involves a lot of hard work at times and that the work to be done by the leaders is necessary and important and often difficult for many and varied reasons, not the least of which is the truth that each member has her or her own idea of what a leader should be like and what that leader both should do and how it should be done. Any volunteers here?

Each member of a congregation has a personal interest and investment in that congregation. Churches are voluntary organizations. The funds that keep the parish operating are all faith-based. The funders, if you will, even if they make pledges, can take their funds and leave any time their hearts so desire and for any reason they choose to do so. If too many walk away and the needed financial resources dry up, that church will close sooner or later.

It is not only the need for sufficient financial support that allows a congregation to exist and minister, what is even more important are the ministers themselves, namely, the people of the parish. Yes, each of us belongs to a particular church because of particular needs. We join that church in the hope, not always articulated or admitted, that those needs will be met. Even so, it is not just about nor all about “me”.

It is about all of us, all the members. What is? As Robinson asserts, what a parish is all about is a shared commitment to a larger congregational purpose and not each parishioner’s own personal need and even agenda. That is, again, important, to be sure. We do need our needs to be addressed or we will find someplace else that will meet them or keep shopping until we do.

Yet, while our needs are being met, we also, as a congregation, must try to meet the needs of both one another as well as the needs of those who are not part of us. As our baptismal promises remind us, we are to seek and serve Jesus in everyone, minister to them as best we can. That is our larger congregational mission. Those who only serve themselves eventually wither and die.

One of the demands on those who lead is to keep those who follow on track, to never lose sight of what the mission and ministry of the congregation is truly all about. That is not always easy for both leaders and followers. We all seem to have too much on our plates these days, some things we’ve chosen to place there and some dumped on us without our even asking and certainly not desiring, but there they are.

Thus, in order to keep our priorities straight, both personal and parochial, leader and followers must work together, must often ask the hard questions and make difficult choices. That is an on-going process that needs to become a habit. It is something that we must and just do on a regular basis, this asking the questions about what we are doing and why we are doing what we are doing or not doing what we should be doing. Are we?