Centennial Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ)
Centennial Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
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Christian to Christian I’m happily
hopeful about an opportunity I anticipate we’ll do
well with at Centennial this year. This
opportunity is coming — as most opportunities do — partially disguised as a
challenge: a few of our pillars of leadership in committees are feeling a need
at the same time to “take some time off from leading the committee”.
Mike Kenerley, our new board chair has received a few resignations from
committee chairs. And as he’s asked for replacements, he’s received a number
of “No’s” from our long-time folks who in the past have said yes.
This is simply
a normal predictable cycle in midsized congregations like
ours. Long-time hardworking leaders do legitimately get very tired as
they do their jobs well for several consecutive years. Our whole church benefits
when we recognize and honor our personal need for a healthy rhythm of work and
Sabbath — and when our leaders say “No” when we need to.
Not only do we take care of our own need to re-energize, but when our
church is pressed to invite newer folks to take over the reins set aside for a
while by the experienced folks — Centennial develops additional leaders, gets
“new blood” in our system, and benefits from the “can-do!” energy and
the new ideas of the newcomers. What I’m
excited about is the opportunity to really blend our leadership efforts in committees with strong teams made up of new leaders and
long-time experienced folks helping this year.
A couple of outgoing chairs are saying, “I need to step out of chair
now, but I’m happy to be on the committee as a hard worker helping the next
person.” Kudos to each of you who’ve said this!
I envision our developing fuller participation of the whole team of each
committee, where sometimes in the past we’ve tended to let the chair carry
alone more of the load than is best for us. (And some chairs have slid into Lone
Ranger-ing styles.) I observe real
team-work depending on two sources: the leader, and the participants.
If a leader wants to head a real team, they must lead in a
style that enables team-work.
They must set meeting dates in advance with input from the whole group,
so that the members of the team are able to come.
The leader needs to provide a
clear agenda, in advance if possible that encourages members to come with their
thoughts ready. And they must open discussion of options, and readily use good
ideas from others that they would not have thought of. Team members
meanwhile show up both in body, and in spirit. They are in one of my favorite phrases,
“present and
accounted for” with
good suggestions and ideas of resources (“I know where we might could
borrow one of those — I’ll ask my friend!”)
And they don’t simply sit silent when someone else proposes an idea
they think is less effective than we want to be — they speak up for their
healthy perspective on the best approach. I’m hoping
this year that long-time members will get
their gas-tank of enthusiasm topped off again as we work with new leaders, and
that we’ll experiment with some new styles of teamwork that make us even more
versatile — already one of our good strengths. Pastor Ellen
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