Leading is lonely at times, no question about it. If you’re doing the job God has given you, the loneliness cannot be avoided.
Looking back, I think I was a little too hard on leaders who didn’t deal with things. Not that I ever said much as a youth pastor or singles pastor. Not that I stormed into the president’s office as a Bible college and seminary student; I mostly kept my thoughts to myself. But I remember immense dismay as I watched and experienced obvious institutional issues go unaddressed. I remember great perplexity at the damage their avoidance was doing to the mission. Did they not see it? Or were they afraid to deal with it? I just couldn’t make up my mind. Why the passivity, why the lack of leadership and intentional problem solving? I just couldn’t figure it out. How could they see it and not deal with it…They MUST not see it, I often concluded.
But I have changed my opinion. More often than not, I think leaders DO see the things that need to be done. They observe the underperforming personnel that need to be reseated or relocated or removed. They totally know about the attitudinal issues that call out to be confronted as they do damage to morale and momentum. They comprehend completely the outdated structures and board governance gridlocks that are paralyzing upward movement of fresh innovation and new perspectives. THEY SEE IT ALL, but they are unwilling to pay the price to address it.
The price? Misunderstanding and isolation from those losing control. Uncertainty and distance even from some who remain but legitimately struggle with the gap between what is good for the organization as a whole and what is good for our ongoing pastoral mission with the families involved. Personal attack by those who struggle to accept that their own participation in the mission is not more important than the mission itself. Especially difficult in all of this is the pressure to continue publicly without affect while the residue of these issues is not yet processed in your own heart.
Wow, was I ever wrong about the leaders I observed as a young man. FOR SURE, they saw the things they needed to address, but they concluded that the cost was just not worth it. As for me, I was the one who was blind. I had no real concept of the personal impact courageous organizational leadership demands. I didn’t calculate accurately how quickly people can flip from focusing on what is wrong with the organization to what is wrong with the people who threaten their role. I know now though, and I am a lot more sympathetic to the leaders who choose to ‘leave it alone.’
I understand their choice; I just don’t respect it.
“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:24
(Image background by Jared Rarick via CreationSwap.com, a site with free church graphics shared by thousands of Christian artists around the world.)
