Reflections on Leadership in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

by Frederick J. Heuser

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"Charisma becomes the undoing of leaders," writes management consultant Peter Drucker. "It makes them inflexible, convinced of their own infallibility, [and] unable to change."1 The recent corporate scandals at Arthur Anderson and Enron seem to affirm this analysis. Indeed, the rashes of corporate improprieties that have flashed across the headlines during the past six months are reminiscent of another leadership crisis that unraveled the presidency of Richard Nixon thirty years ago.

Unfortunately, these examples illustrate the extremes of leadership failure. For most of us ordinary mortals, we probably spend little time contemplating the ethics and ethos of contemporary leadership. Most of the days of our lives are spent either lamenting the leaders we have or aspiring for those we don't.

Presbyterians, of course, are not exempt from this dynamic. How often do we discuss the quality of leadership in our churches? I am not referring to a specific incident, but to a more generic discontent about the quality (or in some cases, the insufficient quantity) of individuals who serve our church as Ministers of the Word and Sacrament, elders, deacons, and other leadership positions in presbyteries, synods, or the General Assembly. Our genuine Presbyterian whine about leadership is probably not any different from the rest of the world. We are just "kinder and gentler" in affirming or rejecting an individual's specific gifts.

As the Presbyterian Historical Society planned for, and now draws to a close, its 150th anniversary celebration this year, I pondered how previous generations of Presbyterians reacted to the leadership in their times. I thought about my predecessors and the challenges they faced in their times. From our vantage point in history, we often regard those prominent Presbyterian leaders like Robert E. Speer or Eugene Carson Blake as more than mere mortals in our collective memory. But truth be told, that wasn't necessarily the case in their lifetimes.

It is important to remember that human beings frequently lionize those who come to be regarded as the giants of history. With individuals like Speer or Blake, we sometimes forget that their contemporaries did not always hold them in as high regard as did later generations. For instance, Blake's position on civil rights or his work on behalf of the World Council of Churches produced angry reactions from parts of the denomination. Speer's role in the Fundamentalist and Modernist Controversy did not endear him to those more orthodox Presbyterian dissidents like Machen.

A baby boomer acquaintance occasionally reminds me that our generation has not produced the quality of leadership so evident in the "greatest generation," that remarkable group of now seventy and eighty year olds who survived the Depression and went on to save the world from the tyranny of Nazism and fascism. "We are pygmies," he opines, "in the shadow of giants."

I am not prepared to accept his self-deprecation and pity. Nor do I believe that our legacy from the "greatest generation" should be a cause for a feeling of generational inadequacy. Indeed, the World War Two generation, as Tom Brockaw has reminded us in several of his books, were ordinary human beings called upon to do extraordinary things. Their legacy to us is the example they provided of how to deal with adversity, calamity, and uncertainty. "Example is not the main thing in influencing others," noted Albert Schweitzer. "It is the only thing."

Walter Lippman once remarked, "The final test of a leader is that he [sic] leaves in others the conviction and will to carry on." The function of leadership, whether it is in the church or broader community, is not to produce more followers, but to produce more leaders. The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership. These words should resonate for those who serve the church of Jesus Christ, for is this not what Jesus did in his own ministry?

The good news of the gospel is both a history of how God developed a leadership model for us through Jesus Christ and how we are expected to encourage and develop that in others we meet along our spiritual journeys. Jesus selected ordinary individuals to do extraordinary things. Perhaps most illustrative of this leadership style is the story of the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20, Acts 1:1-11). In broad brushstrokes, Jesus provides the vision of what the disciples will achieve and the strategy for achieving it.

Thus, the servant ministry of Jesus Christ and the great communion of saints who have preceded us model the example we are to provide for those yet to come. As we have been influenced by our predecessors, so too are we called to model for others what it means to be a leader in both our church and world. We do that by our actions as well as by our words. For us as Christians, it is our common faith in Jesus Christ and our common humanity that links past, present, and future.

1. Drucker, Schweitzer, and Lippman quotes in this article are taken from Teal Trust, an Internet leadership quote source. The address is http://www.teal.org.uk/Leadership/quotes.htm.