LEADERSHIP AND ITS DISCONTENTS 

I believe there exists throughout America today a rampant sabotage of leaders who try to stand tall amid the raging storms of our time. It is s highly reactive atmosphere pervading all the institutions of our society – a regressive mood that contaminates the decision-making processes of government and corporations at the highest level, and, on the local level, seeps down into deliberations of neighborhood church, synagogue, hospital, library, and school boards. It is “something in the air” that affects the most ordinary family no matter what its ethnic background. And its frustrating effect on leaders is the same no matter what their gender, race, or age. (Edwin A. Friedman, A Failure of Nerve) 

This book just came to me and the quote above comes from the introduction which I have browsed to date. Why am I ordering this book on leadership? Because I realized in the wake of what became last year a leadership vacuum at Hope Church that I was never trained to be a leader. I may have the character, the will, and the gifts of leadership, but there had never been in my life prior to this time an intentionally reflective process on leadership. 

Seminary training was, and still is, primarily theological training. Last fall I began a process of Interim Ministry Training in Minnesota, 30 hours of instruction in October 2006 to start, some work in between, and another 30 hours to finish up last month back in Minnesota. I now have a mini library of leadership books sitting above my computer in my office. They whisper to me every day (well, sometimes they yell) telling me that yes, I am a leader…act like one! But oh how difficult this is, and at a time like this, which, according to Friedman, finds leaders and institutions “stuck in a rut.” 

I chose to attend Interim Ministry Training precisely because of the rut, and the leadership vacuum (I learned to call it such in training) that I was deeply ensconced in. I have no intention of running off to actually do interim ministry, but I am profoundly convinced that Hope Church is still in transition, and that all institutions, religious or otherwise, are in a state of flux. The old moorings and safe harbors that once served such institutions will no longer provide us with stability. We must learn to navigate new waters together. 

Mostly, I write this now to let you in on a piece of my journey, and to ask for your prayers. I am growing to accept this challenge. In some ways it is still the same – it is my willingness to lead by example, to share my journey of faith and hope, and to challenge the community to grow, even as I myself find growth opportunities. With Friedman’s understanding that effective leadership is first and foremost an emotional process in mind, I encourage not only my growth as a leader, but that all of you who provide leadership at Hope would find strength in the knowledge that you too have a calling to leadership, and a community that provides you with prayerful support. 

                                                                                                          Pastor Vance Toivonen