March 2013
Cultivating Leaders

Getting to the ‘Why’ 2

The day-to-day vitality of our congregations relies on the ongoing commitment - and sacrifice - of its lay and clergy leaders. We are blessed by the gifts of those who serve on vestries, in soup kitchens, and who stay up late putting the finishing touches on the parish newsletter or sermon.

Believing that most Episcopalians want to be transformed by being a part of Christ’s bold mission and vision, becoming a more faithful disciple in the process, the Episcopal Church Foundation (ECF) often advocates for transformational leadership, a model that focuses on the ‘why’ of all that we do.

In Part 1 of this article, I shared stories of transformational leadership at work. Part 2 offers some of the key practices used by transformational leaders to both build a shared sense of purpose and strengthen leadership capacity.

A Shared Purpose: What is God calling you to do?
For many nonprofits, mission statements are simple, operational descriptions of what an organization does on a day-to-day basis. In the Church, we believe that God is doing the calling but the premise remains the same. A congregation’s “mission” describes what God is calling it to do.

The vestry at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, asked itself this question five years ago. At first, they struggled, caught between their experience overseeing temporal matters and this new call to consider what God was asking them to do. The vestry learned how to have ongoing, mission-focused conversations. They transformed their vestry meetings into opportunities to listen for God’s call. Through Bible Study and a congregation-wide discernment process, they continuously explore what God is calling them to do in the world.

When we become clearer about what it is that God is calling us to do, we can also start to name what it is that we can let go of. Many of us have served on committees and in organizations that have tried to do too much at one time. Having a mission means keeping resources – time, talent, and treasure – focused on the main thing.

A Hopeful Vision for the Future
As lay and clergy leaders, we need to envision a hopeful future and describe it often. Stepping out and proclaiming the Gospel was Grace Episcopal’s hopeful vision for the future and one of Karen Hunter’s first tasks as their new minister was to help identify how they might do this. The congregation found an opportunity and through trial and error, worked towards their vision of building relationships and community, as well as extending the invitation for shared worship opportunities with people living in an area with limited services.

Working to name a hopeful vision of the future can bring new life to a struggling faith community. Vision statements describe the impact you are seeking to make; they describe what the world will look like as a result of faithfully carrying out one’s mission over the long-term. Conversely, everything from membership to finances is hurt when we forget about the future. In his book Remember the Future, Gerald Keucher points out that “many [Episcopal congregations] have been managing decline for so long that they’ve forgotten the future. They view present needs only through the lens of past glories.” Keucher notes that the financial result of forgetting the future is overdrawing endowments to plug budget deficits and the selling of property to spend on current needs.

Who will help us get there?
As a congregation becomes clearer about what God is calling them to do and where God is calling them to go, leaders will want to keep an eye out for people who are drawn to this emerging mission and vision. Undoubtedly, some of these individuals will already be in the congregation. But we should also be attuned to the leadership potential of first-time visitors who show up at events and on Sunday services because they’ve heard that something interesting is going on. If invited, they have the potential to be the church’s next generation of leadership.

Recognizing that sometimes vestries and congregations have difficulty recruiting new leaders, Janie Kirt Morris,rector of Emmanuel Episcopal in Houston developed a prayerful process for raising up healthy, faithful leaders for vestry election. Central to this process is identifying the leadership qualities to look for and the importance of personal invitation: “Certainly vestry members should initiate conversations with potential candidates. I always make personal invitations by writing letters or emails to a list of those we agree are healthy, mature possible candidates, and I follow up with a phone call.” She contrasts this with our tendency to elect on-the-fly those with a lot of free time, those who are the biggest givers, or those who have already served on the vestry many times over.

A vital congregation needs leaders who are excited about the community’s emerging mission and vision. These may be the long-time pillars of the community whose faith in the future of the congregation has been renewed. Or, these may be first-time visitors who bring outside perspective and sorely needed gifts. Whoever it is, however, we need to become more skilled at identifying and inviting those individuals into leadership.

Taking a Chance on an Emerging Leader
For congregations to begin a new chapter, they need to reconsider their attitudes about newcomers and decision-making power. Once again, Gerald Keucher’s book neatly summarizes the lived reality of many Episcopal congregations: “Parishes in survival mode centralize power in the hands of the few. Because they’re trying to maintain the past, it’s difficult for them to welcome newcomers. New members have to pay their dues, so to speak, before they can be trusted.”

Transformational leadership encourages doing the exact opposite. Transformational lay and clergy leaders entrust emerging leaders with significant responsibility – i.e., decision-making power – before they have proven themselves on the gauntlet of menial tasks. Which isn’t to say they are left to sink or swim. Instead, the established leader’s role changes to mentor and coach. Here are a few techniques for doing this well:

  • Prioritize being present for emerging leaders: While there are many different people and groups who need a leader’s time and attention, being present for these emerging leaders will ultimately increase a congregation’s overall capacity to pursue its mission. This isn’t always easy to remember when the to-do lists become overwhelming, but prioritizing the newer leader’s emails, phone calls, and meeting requests helps build a strong cadre of leaders for mission in the long run.
  • Learn to say “Yes and…”: Tina Fey has got it right. When an emerging leader brings their idea to the table, we need to practice saying “Yes and…” to the general principle of the idea, “and” then make your own strong contribution to the idea.
  • Teach emerging leaders to love their stakeholders: Episcopal congregations are made up of many stakeholders: clergy, vestry members, long-time pillars of the community, major donors, and more. Learn the four kinds of stakeholders and help the emerging leader to appreciate the importance of engaging these groups.
  • Give the gift of strong feedback: Strong feedback is rooted in love. Strong feedback is 1) ongoing 2) balances the positive and negative, and 3) focuses on performance rather than personality.

Make no mistake about it. Transformational leadership views the laity as wanting to be engaged in a mission-focused community, working toward a hopeful vision and purpose. This model also suggests that many of the people who are already in our pews, as well as those who are visiting for the first time, may have enormous leadership potential. It will take all of us, however, making a renewed commitment to skillfully identifying, discerning and fostering that potential to build vital communities of faith for today. 

Miguel Angel Escobar serves as Program Director of Leadership Resources at the Episcopal Church Foundation (ECF). There, he works with Nancy Davidge, editor of ECF Vital Practices, and Brendon Hunter, Assistant Program Director, to coordinate the Fellowship Partners Program, ECF Vital Practices, ECF’s many workshops and web conferences, and ECF Fresh Start. Miguel is a lay member of The Episcopal Church, a M.Div. graduate of Union Theological Seminary, and an amateur bread maker. Write Miguel at mescobar@episcopalfoundation.org or follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

Resources

This article is part of the March 2013 Vestry Papers issue on Cultivating Leaders