Calling

Jim Goodmann

Regional Director, Calling Congregations

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March 01, 2010

Where Do Leaders Come From?

The Old Testament contains many stories of leadership. Noah, Moses, Samuel, Deborah, Ruth, David, Jeremiah, the “Servant” of Isaiah (or Israel in exile) all come from communities which cultivated a way of knowing or coming to know who and whose they were. Even Jacob comes to terms with his birthright and a divine mercy in ways unexpected and holds together an unruly and sometimes violent brood that includes another son of promise, Joseph.

Not just Jacob’s, but many of the above-mentioned stories have the mark of what Flannery O’Connor describes as “…people coming to the church by a means the church does not allow” (Kathleen Norris, Amazing Grace, p. 270). A close reading of Ruth’s and David’s stories would corroborate that conclusion many times over, enough for any of us to question whether we can enter into redemption in the “right way,” or in a process that could be described as neat and even. Above all, this strange narrative of the Hebrew Scriptures places with the church a question that will not leave us alone: where do leaders come from even now and how do we prepare for their arrival?

The stories in this issue are a partial answer to that question and in ways that mark their kinship with that meta-narrative. They tell us of vocations discovered or entered into in the course of a conversation or a through a prayer offered for someone whom this pastor could no longer recall nor remember what prompted the prayer. They also tell us of struggles: the struggle to discover a pastoral identity in unpromising circumstances and the challenge of remaining a pastor when so many others have left ministry behind. (A special feature of this issue: excerpts from Lillian Daniel and Martin Copenhaver’s This Odd and Wondrous Calling: The Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers.)

I call special attention to an example outside the church walls that our colleague Elizabeth Mitchell Clement references, the community organizer and civil rights leader Ella Baker. Ms Baker, she says, “had a deep respect for persons—a reverence—and a commitment to develop their many gifts to advance the community cause.” “It follows,” she continues, “that she would find group-centered leadership is more appropriate than leader-centered groups for people with an ambitious social agenda.” Where do leaders come from? The Civil Rights movement and the Hebrew narrative suggest that they come when and where there is room enough to honor each person in their distinctive histories and for their unique gifts. They come from within communities that recognize that who they are looking for may be already in their midst – or who may just be walking in the door this morning. They are the “updates” to our familiar narrative. Are we prepared for updates? This is one of the questions that floats through our conversations here at FTE as we work at the grassroots with congregations to identify the next generation of leaders—keeping a careful eye on where they come from.