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Jan Paulsen
It may strike you as extraordinary that time should be set aside at a General Conference Session, which normally has a very full agenda, to address and respond to five different presentations of the personality and character of "Leadership" in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Why is the subject especially important now? What is it that makes Adventist leadership so special? Where do we go and what do we look for when we seek to profile the leadership character or personality of our church? Where are the models--what do we look at? We don't live in a world different from that of other people, but we are different. And models and values of leadership, developed in business or politics, will not reflect the will of Christ for HIS people and will not meet the needs of a spiritual community such as ours.
I feel strongly in my heart that the time has come for us to speak clearly on this subject. We must define and address what is expected globally of leadership in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. How does it function? What is the best climate or mode in which leadership in our church can express itself? What is acceptable, and what is clearly not? Where are the boundaries?
As we consider this, it is important to recognize the critical role of trust. We are a community of individuals, united by love and commitment to Christ and His church, who have voluntarily chosen to be Seventh-day Adventists. We have to trust each other. It is vitally important that trust not be swallowed up by an obsession for control. It is important also for the World Headquarters to be mindful of this as it relates to a global community.
We face a number of realities which compel us as a church to consider this matter of leadership. Let me mention some:
I. The Expanding Church
We have become a large global community, and our rate of growth is unprecedented. Those who evaluate statistics and make projections based on current patterns tell us that if we are still here in the year 2020 we will be a faith community of possibly as many as 50 million. But of these only 12% will have been Seventh-day Adventists in the year 2000. It will be a 'young' church. This prospect alone compels us to consider how we pass on identity and values from one generation of believers to the next. What is at stake, and what is it that must be preserved? And this is very much a leadership issue. For if we hold, as I submit we do, that there is a faith-identity and a range of values which are integral to being a Seventh-day Adventist anywhere, values which transcend time and culture, leadership must be deliberate in identifying them, and give priority to asserting and nurturing them. If not, time and culture will change them.
III.The Strength of Permanence'Permanence' and 'change'--in a sense, 'rigidity' and 'flexibility'--will inevitably be there, and they will be in tension. They will and must coexist because that is the dynamics of being a community--like being young and being old. The dynamics of change will always want to test the strength of permanence. It cannot be otherwise. This is so also in our church. Leadership has the responsibility to faithfully and caringly guide the church in living creatively with both. Change will be informed and checked by the permanence of specifically defined landmarks which we hold to as a church. Change, or non-change for that matter, is not sacred; the church is.
IV. Living Creatively with Diversity
This same dynamics is to be seen particularly when multiple cultures come close to each other and learn to live together as community. Diversity brings tension, but tension is not of itself an enemy to be fought. It is the way life is. In this respect life may have been simpler in ages past when cultures essentially lived in their own separate regions. But we don't have the luxury of moving back into the past, nor am I suggesting that tension between permanence and change was not there then. It was, but it will significantly increase as our world today, instead of being multiple villages, is rapidly becoming one.
And that is precisely where we are today, whether in the church or outside. People, in large numbers, move and settle where their forbears did not. And they don't come empty-handed or empty-minded. Cultures and traditions are on the move. Furthermore, communication is global. And we move into each other's world even when we do not physically relocate. And into this mix there is a constant transfer of opinions, assessments, and judgments. Let us not pretend that this is not happening on a significant scale in our church, for it is.
Let me say again: It is the responsibility of leadership to clearly identify the values of faith and conduct which transcend time and culture, values which identify us as a church community and which we will continue to hold. In respect to these values we have not been vague. In statement upon statement, committee actions and policy documents, agreed to and duly processed by our global church family, we have been very clear about who we are, the values we hold to, and where we stand on a variety of issues. Ignorance with reference to these is not our problem. Obedience sometimes is." (3T 493)
Leadership in the church, at any level or in any capacity, will always seek that which is good for the whole body. A leader may be elected by a small constituency, but he/she functions in the interest of the whole church. That cannot be compromised without the broader unity of the whole church being undermined. If an individual cannot see this or will not abide by it, he/she should not accept a leadership appointment in the church. A conference organization is as bonded to the whole body of the church as it is to the local congregation under its supervision. It is the will of Christ that our church should be like that. This is where he has led us in our history.
The Adventist leadership style works on the basis of consultation and consensus. This means that one may not, at the risk of traumatizing the church, be able to move ahead as quickly as one had wished, even with that which, when the time is ripe, will be acknowledged as good, creative, and progressive ideas. Leadership will be sensitive to what the church can accept at any given time and not to out-pace the community it serves. And a leader will always have the humility and honesty to acknowledge that he could be wrong; that there could be a better way. "In the wisdom of many there is safety."
All who serve as elected leaders in the church serve at the pleasure of that community and the Spirit. And that service is an honor and a privilege which should not be presumed or taken for granted. Therefore, bitterness and anger do not belong if one's elected mandate is not renewed but passed on to someone else. In the words of one elected leader, "If you cannot accept being elected out, you should not accept being elected in!"
What are the qualities which the community of faith can reasonably be expected to look for in electing a leader? Granted, as this is leadership in a spiritual community the one who is to lead has to be seen by the community as being primarily driven by spiritual qualities and concerns. But that is not easy to assess reliably and fairly. "Spirituality" is notoriously difficult to measure. It is tied up with personality and temperament. And, sadly, it is also vulnerable to politics. It is very possible to have the vocabulary of spirituality, but not its heart. Nevertheless, however difficult it is to measure, the community will somehow, with prayerful reflection, need to sense that the person to whom they entrust leadership will in fact give spiritual leadership.
What else are they looking for?
Three qualities--humility, integrity, and vision come to mind. I don't think the church is looking for the "perfect" person; and beware of any individual who will not acknowledge his or her humanity. Mistakes and failures are common traits of humanity, and just a cursory glance at our individual records will readily display that. But what people are looking for in a leader are humility, integrity, and vision. They want to be sure that they can trust their leader, and they will feel more secure if they can be sure that what they see is what they get. Transparency is the filter through which humility and integrity are seen. Next to spirituality, these are the highest qualities needed in Adventist leadership.
There will be men and women of high intelligence, excellent training, with a variety of gifts and skill who, sadly, fail to qualify because they lack humility or they have compromised their integrity. They are no longer real. They have become "merchants" of ethics and morality. I am not speaking of history. Probably all of us in leadership have had moments we wish we had handled better. The past can not be fixed--you can only learn from it. But when you stand at the helm of leadership, it is critically important that you do not sell your soul and that you do not get caught in a conflict of interest. Keep the professional relationships uncomplicated and clean.
Greed and self-seeking, so commonly on display in secular leadership, do not belong in any leadership assignment in our church. We do well to remember the counsel: "If self is woven into the work, it is as the offering of strange fire in the place of the sacred. Such workers incur the displeasure of the Lord" (TM 260.1). This is as applicable to institutional leadership as it is to elected offices.
Vision is the capacity to see beyond where you are presently standing--to see the opportunities, and define their values. Leadership which lacks vision is at best managerial only. Looking to its leadership, the Seventh-day Adventist community wants to know where they are going; not just what they hold in their hands.
The honor to serve the church and the Lord in a leadership function should be accepted only after prayerful consideration by the individual who is being asked and his/her immediate family. They will all be affected by it. Some may find it too much; and what should be a gift of love becomes then so easily a sacrifice. When that happens, the honor and privilege become a burden and a chore. It is important that service in leadership should be an experience of joy and fulfillment. When it ceases to be that, it is probably the time to step aside for someone else to lead.
Adventist leadership will always be conscious of the times in which we live; that we live in anticipation of the Lord's return, and that we live with the unfinished assignment of being his witnesses. An Adventist leader, at the local church as well as at other levels of organization, will, and must ever be, very deliberate in focusing the church on mission. Mission is the environment in which the church comes alive. A leader who cannot, or will not, see this should not carry a leadership assignment. Let it be clear: Mission is THE primary reason for our being as a church.
In essence, leadership in the Seventh-day Adventist Church is an assignment of love, devotion, and loyalty to the Lord and His church.
