Leadership

I don’t know about you, but I am more than tired of the election season. It feels like it’s been going on forever! By this time, all the political pundits have given their myriad perspectives and the pollsters have counted and recounted, trying to figure out how the final count will go. We’ve heard about economic plans and foreign policy, the value of experience, and the danger of past relationships that might have involved controversial people. But behind the noise of the election process, perhaps we need to consider how we understand the nature of leadership itself. What are we looking for in a leader, after all?

For hundreds of years before Christ, prophesies swarmed around Israel that someone would be sent from God to save the people and restore them to their former glory. They referred to this divine hope as “The Messiah”, to use the Hebrew term that means “the anointed one.” It is from the Greek language that we get our Christian term, “The Christ”. Both the Greek and the Hebrew words mean substantially the same thing. By the way, anointing, or pouring olive oil on the head, was part of the ritual by which the priest indicated God’s choice of the next leader.

From a psychological perspective, troubled human individuals and groups tend to project their hopes and dreams onto the person who is supposed to come and save them. The Jews in the time of Jesus used the ancient story of King David to determine the model for their expected savior: the mighty warrior and great king. It is interesting to note that while the times of King David were thought of as “the good old days”, much archeological evidence indicates that Jerusalem in David’s time was not, in fact, a great kingdom, but it was rather simply the center point of a loose collection of rural communities. But of course, nobody in Jesus’ time knew that. They had visions of the past greatness of Jerusalem and they expected that God would send another a new “Messiah” who would resemble their image of King David: one who would be anointed by God to be the leader they needed. If God would only send this leader then all would be well. Sound familiar?

Probably we can relate to the feelings of those first century Israelites. Every time we go through the process of electing a President, lots of legitimate and fantastic projections are heaped onto the candidates. As the actual election draws close, our feelings tell us that if our chosen candidate is elected, all will be well, but if the other candidate is elected, we might as well leave the country, because disaster must be right around the corner.

Bad leaders believe that those projections are really about them, personally. Good leaders realize that many of the expectations placed upon them to be “the next King David” are not about them at all. What is projected onto them does not only come out of the neediness of the people, but in fact, points to the latent strength in the people that is obscured by their fear. Good leaders empower their people to make use of their own power rather than hoarding and misusing the power that has been projected upon them.

Too often, voters succeed in selecting powerful leaders, but then go back to sleep, expecting the leader to fix everything. They are likely to feel betrayed when the results are not acceptable. The best leaders do not fix, they lead. The best leaders always reflect the projected power back onto the people. This is true for kings, presidents, prophets, basketball players, and interim ministers, to name just a few.

This dynamic of psychological projection takes place in religious institutions only too often. One of my concerns about so much of current American religion involves the power that is projected onto the clergy and even onto the “correct” doctrines held by the group. That model makes leaders look powerful, and it suggests that the people should remain childish and needy. All the people can do, then, is wait for someone in authority to tell them how to believe and how to act. Bad leadership keeps the people powerless and dependent. Good leadership engenders growth, learning, and development with the goal of supporting people in their journey toward maturity.

So do you want a president or a minister who will do the job for you, or do you want a president or a minister who will help you find the best in yourselves and will empower you to take collective responsibility for your spiritual transformation (and, yes, for your salvation, too)?

Sometimes people misunderstand statements about taking responsibility for your own spiritual transformation, thinking that they are intended to cut God out of the process. Actually the opposite is true. It takes great faith to risk one’s personal and congregational identity to the process of transformation. We need leaders who will help engender such faith in us so we can more fully trust the Divine Process.

What do you think?

Wayne Gustafson
Interim Minster

"Never place a period where God has placed a comma"
The United Church___of Christ