Lovett Weems on faithful vs. fruitful leadership

"Faithful ministry," the watchword of my generation, was typified mostly by Mother Theresa’s statement, "We’re not called to be successful; we’re called to be faithful." I believe that, and I’ve said that. But I don’t say it anymore because it plays to a lack of accountability that many clergy feel. It’s almost as if faithful is more a condition. It’s part of being instead of doing.

Faithfulness is always directional. It’s not riding a stationary bicycle—it’s a Boston marathon! It’s faithful in a direction—faithful toward the reign of God. You’re faithful toward justice. You may not end up where you are headed. You may plant one kind of seed and another crop grows—God has that kind of sense of humor—but it’s not, "Oh, I’m not doing this. I’m not doing that. I’m being faithful." No, it is faithful in a direction. You are risking. You may make mistakes in that. You may not be successful.

John Wesley had a set of three questions: is there faith?, is there fire?, and are there fruits? The concept of fruitfulness led Wesley to do things that, in his mind, he really didn’t believe. He was not convinced, in theory, that women should preach—but it was the fruits of their preaching that led him to sanction it. He didn’t think that there should be lay preachers; but he supported it because he saw its fruits. In a sense, he was able to rise up above his principles by seeing the reality of what advances the gospel.

I’m not as concerned about thinking about fruitfulness as setting a goal so we’ll know if we’ve made it or not. I’m convinced that when you focus on the outcome, you make the journey. It’s only when you say we will do this program so that...that you know how to run the program.


The Reverend Doctor Lovett H. Weems, Jr. is Executive Director of The Lewis Center for Church Leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary, where he is also Distinguished Professor of Church Leadership.

Lincoln: Prayer and action in the little things

Prayer often clarifies our vision of what needs to be done, but we should not expect to emerge from prayer with a lightening bolt of divine insight. The interplay of prayer and action is usually more subtle. Usually the understanding of one’s task unfolds gradually as a sense of reverence, and prayerfulness starts to permeate our life as a whole.

Psychologist, Ira Progoff, relates an event in the life of Abraham Lincoln that reveals the subtle, yet profound connections between prayer and action. Lincoln had a rich prayer life and he’s regarded as one of our most spiritual presidents. In his early years he had intimations that meaningful work lay ahead for him, but that he would have to refine his intellect and acquire professional skills if he was to fulfill his destiny. In his frontier environment, however, few tools or opportunities for professional development were available and Lincoln feared that his hopes would never be fulfilled. One day a stranger came by with a barrel full of odds and ends and old newspapers and he offered to sell the lot to Lincoln for a dollar. Realizing the man was needy, Lincoln, with his characteristic kindness, gave him a dollar, although he had no idea how the barrel’s contents would ever be of use. When he later cleared out the barrel, he found among the junk, an almost complete edition of Blackstone’s Commentaries. These books helped Lincoln become a lawyer, and eventually enter politics. The reverence Lincoln felt for others, which are often the fruits of prayer, created an opening for a life changing event, that otherwise might not have happened. You see Lincoln did not get zapped during prayer with a sudden revelation of his life’s work. Humble ingredients: a barrel of junk, a stranger down on his luck, a dollar, and Lincoln’s innate compassion, combined unspectacularly to help shape the destiny of a nation and affect millions of lives.

I suggest that Lincoln’s prayerfulness made him sensitive enough to respond to a nudge from the Holy Spirit to buy a box of junk. Who knows what God can do in a life prepared by prayer? Who knows what God could do in your life if you were prepared?

Don’t you sometimes feel an itch that begins with questions like: “Is there more to life than what I’m experiencing?” “Is the meaning to my life gone now that I am retired/my children are grown?” If you are looking for answers to questions like these, talking to your pastor is a good place to begin. There are also several good “itch-scratching” programs you might plug into like Sunday school, Companions in Christ, Disciple Bible, Emmaus walks, mission work and many more that can help you explore the changing meaning and purpose of your life. Maybe the itch you feel is to start a class or program that will scratch someone else’s itch.

One last thought, perhaps you have moved beyond the resources of your local church. Check out the seminaries in your area or the religion departments of your local colleges. Think about it, pray about it and act.

A spiritual practice

Here from one of the spiritual classics is a useful spiritual practice.

What is here urged are internal practices and habits of the mind. What is here urged are secret habits of unceasing orientation of the deeps of our being about the Inward Light, ways of conducting our inward life so that we are perpetually bowed in worship, while we are also very busy in the world of daily affairs. What is here urged are inward practices of the mind at deepest levels, letting it swing like the needle, to the polestar of the soul. And like the needle, the Inward Light becomes the truest guide of life, showing us new and unsuspected defects in our¬selves and our fellows, showing us new and unsus¬pected possibilities in the power and life of good¬will among men. pp.31-32

How, then, shall we lay hold of that Life and Power, and live the life of prayer without ceasing? By quiet, persistent practice in turning of all our being, day and night, in prayer and inward worship and surrender, toward Him who calls in the deeps of our souls. p.38

A Testament of Devotion, Thomas Kelly

Nourishing Ourselves

If we don't nourish ourselves, joy will elude us.
We nourish ourselves whenever we enter into activities that build our energy reserves. Consider this list of common nourishment sources:
1. Music - What songs lift me?
2. Thoughts - What thoughts speak to me?
3. Experiences - What experiences rejuvenate me?
4. Friends - What people encourage me?
5. Recreation - What recreation re-creates me?
6. Soul - What spiritual exercises strengthen me?
7. Hopes - What dreams inspire me?
8. Home - What family members care for me?
9. Giftedness - What gifts activate me?
10. Memories - What memories make me smile?
Finding Joy, by Dr. John C. Maxwell

Symptoms of an undernourished soul

Leaders need to be spiritually mature and healthy. The busy pace of our lives can lead us to a place where we are not taking in enough spiritual food to keep ourselves healthy. Pastors are at greatest risk, because we can fool ourselves into thinking that our time spent in Scripture preparing for a sermon counts as devotional reading. It does not! Years ago Harvey Cox identified some of the signs of an undernourished soul which now describe our whole society.

The symptoms of an undernourished soul appear in countless ways: violence, lethargy, alienation, alcoholism, deterioration of the family. The shrunken modern psyche is “just as much a victim of industrialization as were the bent bodies of those luckless children who were once confined to English factories from dawn to dusk.”--Harvey Cox, The Feast of Fools,

Lest we fall into despair, P.L.Berman offers this word of hope:
“It does not matter how long your spirit lies dormant and unused. One day you hear a song, look at an object, or see a vision, and you feel its presence. It can’t be bought, traded, or annihilated, because its power comes from its story. No one can steal your spirit. You have to give it away. You can also take it back.”
--P.L.Berman, The Search for Meaning

The work of the church is to bring back to life the souls of people who don’t even know they have a spiritual problem. This is one reason why churches need leaders who can do more than just chair a meeting.

Leading with Soul

Here are some quotes from Bolman and Deal worth reflecting on. - Ed

Perhaps we lost our way when we forgot that the heart of leadership lies in the hearts of leaders. We fooled ourselves, thinking that sheer bravado or sophisticated analytic techniques could respond to our deepest concerns. We lost touch with a most precious human gift---our souls. p. 6

The heart of leadership is in the hearts of leaders. You have to lead from something deep in your heart.

Like what?

I can’t tell you what’s in your heart, nor would you want me to. Would you want someone to offer you fruit but chew it up before giving it to you? On1y you really know what’s in your heart. p.21

The essence of leadership is not giving things or even providing visions. It is offering oneself and one's spirit. p.102

If you show people you don’t care, they’ll return the favor. Show them you care about them, they’ll reciprocate.
When people know that someone really cares, you can see it. It’s there in their faces. And in their actions. Love really is the gift that keeps on giving. p.84

Leading with Soul, Lee Bolman & Terrance Deal, Jossey-Bass Pub.

The Power of Intimacy with God

I hope you read and meditate on John 14:8-14; 17:18-23. These verses really capture a glimpse of the large view of the Christian life. We have the potential for developing an intimate relationship with God like the one Jesus had. In 17:21 Jesus prays for that very thing, “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us.” It is out of this connection and unity with God, that real power for prayer and ministry come. If you are working hard at being a Christian, you are doing it wrong. Jesus didn’t work on his own either. Listen to his words in John 14:10, “The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.”

Anyone can be a superficial Christian in their own strength. It is even possible to be a work-a-holic “super-Christian”, burning ourselves out in self-righteous glory, in our own strength. But to be a healthy, empowered Christian requires listening, slowing down, more listening, opening ourselves to a deeper relationship with God, still more listening, and allowing God to do God’s thing in and through us. It’s not as easy as it sounds since most of us want to be in control our own lives. This is important for all Christians, but crucial for leaders.

The rhinoceros approach to spiritual growth

They say rhinoceroses have poor eyesight and small brains. Therefore, if while you are walking across the African plain, a rhino charges you, you should stand still. The reasoning is thus: If you stand still, the beast will have a hard time seeing you. Then because he has a tiny brain, he will forget why he is charging, his full gallop will slow to a walk, and he will look puzzled and just wander off.

Many of us are like that in our spiritual lives. We move toward "perfection” which is being formed into the likeness of Christ. Along the way we forget where we are going and wander off. Worldly concerns like family, work, health, and busy schedules sidetrack us. We forget where we are going on our faith journey because the way is long and the goal hard to see.

For more than 200 years Methodist bishops have asked pastors at their ordination, "Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life?" While the expected answer is "Yes", once a young ordinand, in a graduating class of one, hesitated in his answer as he stood alone before his bishop and the community. His crusty old bishop peered over his glasses and said, "Well Bill, if it happens, don't you imagine it will be rather late in life?"

Perfection in love, if it comes, will probably come late in life because the way is long and the goal hard to see. This is why we need role models, spiritual friends, knowledge of the varieties of religious experience, a faith practice, and a Christian community which can help us on our way. Church was intended to be a community of soul support. It takes spiritually mature leaders to help a church become what God dreamed for it to be from the time he called it into existence. Therefore, who are your role models and spiritual friends and what is your faith practice to help you become the person and leader that God needs you to be?

Do you hear his voice?

Over the years I have taught a class I called Prayer 101. The first session is a review of common forms of prayer like Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication (Intercession and Petition). The second session focuses on how to pray for one another more effectively. The last three sessions will be a combination of lecture on and practice of meditative and contemplative prayer. In English this means learning ways to quiet our minds enough to listen to God and hear God speak to us.

Morton Kelsey, an Episcopal priest and author, tells this story on himself. Earlier in his life there was a time when he kept waking up in the middle of the night and was not able to get back to sleep. Concerned, he finally asked his therapist what might be going on. His therapist suggested it might be God and that the next time he woke up in the middle of the night, he should get up, put on his robe, go downstairs, sit in his comfy chair and say, “God, if that’s you, I’m listening.” To his surprise, when he tried it, Morton heard God say, “Yes, it is me.” Morton then asked, “God why do you keep waking me up in the middle of the night?” Again to his surprise, he heard God say, “Morton, you are so busy during the day, this is the only time I could get your attention!”

My thought is this, why wait for God to take drastic action to get your attention? Learn some simple skills to improve your ability to listen to God. As an added bonus these skills can also be applied to human relationships. Think of the possibilities.

Part of my early journey

The famous American editor, Horace Greeley, told of receiving a letter from a woman who wrote: "Our church is in dire financial straits. We've tried everything to keep it going: a strawberry festival, an oyster supper, a donkey party, a turkey dinner, and, finally, a box social. Will you please tells us, Dr. Greeley, how to keep a struggling church from disbanding?" Dr. Greeley wrote back to her a message in two words: Try Christianity!

While this is humorous, it is a painful description of too many churches. Part of the problem is that for generations in North American churches those activities have been the very description of being church and being Christian. Dr. Greeley's statement makes no sense to many people. He is pointing to a vision of Christianity that goes much deeper than the way we have been doing church for decades. When I was in my 20s, having grown up in church, I knew that in the first 3 centuries of church history believers willingly died for their faith. This puzzled me greatly because I hadn't seen anything in church worth interrupting one's social schedule for let alone dying for. Then I read the book of Acts and I got a glimpse of what was so important. That was the beginning of my adult spiritual journey. The next step for me in the late '60s was a program offered through St. George's Episcopal Church called "Christ and the Meaning of Life" produced by Rev. Edward Bauman pastor of Foundry United Methodist Church. This spoke to my questions in that era: "Was there a meaning to life and did Christ have anything to do with it?" The answer was a resounding "Yes!" Eventually this journey led me to seminary at UTS.

The purpose of Church

This is a vision of church worth building. - Ed

Barbara Brown Taylor in her recent book, Speaking of Sin, gives this description of the church. “The church exists so that God has a community in which to save people from meaninglessness, by reminding them who they are and what they are for. The church exists so that God has a place to point people toward a purpose as big as their capabilities, and help them identify all the ways they flee from that high call. The church exists so that people have a community in which they may confess their sin — as well as a community that will support them to turn back again. The church exists so that people have a place where they may repent of their fear, their hardness of heart, their isolation and loss of vision and where — having repented — they may be restored to fullness of life.”

Theological Education

An Excerpt from an Interview with Kitty Blackburn, Dean of Keymark Theological School (www.christianleaders.org)

Ed: What is wrong with the obvious goal [for theological schools] of making ministers? Isn't that why most students come to seminary, to become religious leaders of some kind?

KB: Well, that is what Edward Farley means by the "clerical paradigm." The clerical paradigm refers to the notion that the best way to teach ministers to be ministers is to teach them to be proficient at the skills and activities that make up a pastor's life. So, you teach them to preach, to counsel, to run a meeting, and to teach the Bible. And you assume that to the extent that they do each of these well they are good ministers. The problem, as Farley shows in tremendous detail, is that the paradigm does not actually work. If you only teach skills, you get lousy ministers. They have no heart. They are automatons that can go through the check-list and, say, preach a technically pleasing sermon. But they have, in the end, nothing to say. There is no depth of thought, no working through the crises of faith that make faith strong. They end up like the seed planted in rocky soil. They prosper initially but soon wither under the heat of ministry.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Lay people have known for years that something was wrong with modern theological education, but they didn’t know how to articulate it. It usually came out as some variation of “our pastor is not very spiritual.” Pastors tended to hear this as a judgment on their more liberal theology and to react negatively. Both parties were wrong.
I think Ms. Blackburn has named the problem in the structure of theological education. This is an issue primarily in Protestant seminaries. Catholic seminaries have known for years that the spiritual formation of the pastor is a critical part of the process of preparing for ministry. When I started as a student at United Theological Seminary (Dayton) 37 years ago UTS was a pioneer in making “formation” part of the program. Although it was more psychological than spiritual in those days, the process was in place.
Today the concept of spiritual formation for clergy (and laity) has gained traction across many denominations and theological education continues to evolve. We have not yet reached perfection.