The Orthodox Leader

I’ll be returning to the parish website topic shortly. However, I gave a talk entitled “Spiritual Leadership: Extending Spiritual Influence” at the 2011 ROCOR Western American Diocese pastoral conference earlier this week. I will post successive sections of the presentation in the coming days. Please note that parish clergy (priests in particular) were the intended audience. Your comments are appreciated.

I want to express my thanks to the fine clergy of the Western American Diocese, especially His Eminence, Archbishop Kyrill, for blessing me not only to speak at the clergy conference, but also for inviting me to participate in the rite of revesting the relics of St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco.

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Defining the topic

Having introduced myself, I should say that this talk is not about me, but only observations and reflections concerning this topic of spiritual leadership. When I first began preparing this, I struggled somewhat, because, while I am a priest, a preacher, a servant of the Mysteries of God, and an intercessor for those around me, I do not see myself as particularly spiritual. In fact,an attempt to be what I held in my own mind as the image of “the spiritual person” led to a particularly acute period of spiritual malaise, anger, cynicism, and frustration in my own life.

Thus, I really want to emphasize that this presentation is about spiritual leadership, not spirituality. This is a good thing, as I’m sure there are at least a dozen people in this room who exceed my “spirituality,” if such a thing could ever be quantified.

Up front, we really have to address the idea of what spiritual leadership is. Defining “leadership” is always thorny, but the best general definition I’ve come across is that leadership is influence coupled with the expectation that it will be used. Leadership is what we observe when, at a parish council meeting, a question is asked and, after a short pause, all eyes fall on a single person. The others want that person to influence them, to show them where to go. Leadership is what we observe when our kids, having gotten into trouble or otherwise needing assistance, call us first, trusting that we can fix what they can’t. Leadership is what we see when the faithful come to us confessing their sins and seeking guidance and, even more importantly, those precious words of forgiveness.

Leadership becomes the ability to guide others into taking your lead, and, particularly in these moments of dependence, good leadership means that words must be carefully chosen so as not to violate the trust implicit therein. For those of us who serve as clergy, our desire should be that our spiritual leadership be, first, leadership coming from Christ and, secondly, that it be expanding. That is, true spiritual leadership naturally seeks to extend itself, not in order to puff itself up, but in order to manifest Christ in the world. Spiritual leadership is about mission and evangelism, which is nothing less than the spread of the Gospel of our Lord.

Leading with a flexible mind

Before going into specific spheres of influence, I want to make a simple assertion: There is no spirituality that is universal in its applicability. Put in a colloquial way: there is no “one size fits all” spirituality. Orthodox leaders in our particular context face a great temptation to see one particular kind of spiritual life as preferable to all others and, therefore, as the kind of spiritual life that all Orthodox Christians should seek. I am unsure of the exact reasons behind it, but there seem to be two general ways it works.

For some, they have a profound sense of the suffering of Orthodox Christians over the past century in particular, and the awareness of those priests and bishops who led under terrible conditions, praying, gathering, baptizing, and communing in secret. Such men labored mightily to avoid falling into sins of hatred and vengeance, and rejoicing at every tiny blessing. Thus, some fall into this view that all spirituality is to look like that spirituality. This, of course, fails to take into account that the myriad other charisms that established other forms of spirituality were significantly minimized if not persecuted out of existence entirely for a time.

For others, they either come to the Faith, or grow to maturity in the Faith, in the awe of saints such as St. Seraphim,or of St. Herman, or in the wisdom of the various monastic fathers from the famous places: Optina, Valaam, Athos, and so on. The vision of a patient, holy silence that has no need for earthly humor or family life takes hold.

I hold my suffering brethren, the martyrs and confessors, and the pious monks and nuns—spiritual warriors all—in the highest of regard, and realize that my own spiritual life pales absolutely in comparison with theirs. Their lives and writings are worth reading, for the edification and building up of the faithful of Christ.

However, as spiritual leaders we err greatly if we allow these fairly narrow visions of sanctity and piety, especially to the extent that our popular understanding makes them caricatures of the real thing, to take hold as the sole legitimate spiritual path.

St. Paul writes:

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant…. There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. 1 Cor 12:1,4-11

Or, if we don’t like that, we should consider some other words, namely those of the proskomede. Consider all those ranks of saints we commemorate there before every Liturgy:

1. The Theotokos – the one whose holiness and quiet piety we should all seek to emulate.
2. The Forerunner who prepared the way, speaking boldly, and losing his life for it.
3. Of all the prophets, who were alternately exalted and brought low for speaking God’s word to his people. Think especially on Jonah and David as prophets coupled the greatest of manifestations of God’s grace with, at times, profound flaws of character.
4. Of the holy Apostles, which are in themselves an absolute picture of the diversity of gifts and, perhaps more importantly, of weakness and sin. Consider St. Peter in his moments of greatness and of weakness, plus James and John “the sons of thunder”, compared to John, the disciple whom Jesus loved.
5. Of the holy hierarchs, among whom we have John Chrysostom and Basil the Great, but likewise Cyril of Alexandria, who was notable for the (ahem) rather heavy-handed way he dealt with his opponents. Others we know of by their brilliant articulation of the belief of the Church but who were rather less noteworthy for their effective episcopal leadership.
6. Of the holy martyrs, including several soldiers by name, and, by extension, those like St. Nestor whose hymns commemorate not his spiritual victories but his military ones.
7. Of the holy monks and nuns, most of whom need little introduction.
8. Of the holy unmercenary healers, a group that is often forgotten.
9. Of Joachim and Anna, and of the several equals to the apostles, who, in many cases, brought the Faith to people through translation, writing, and even imperial decree.

If there is anything negative in this list, I want it not to be construed as casting aspersions on our holy fathers and mothers in the Faith, but rather, to paraphrase St. Paul, “if he can save me, he can save you.” Which is to say, God’s strength is made manifest in weakness, and he works through the broad spectrum of the charisms he has bestowed upon his creation.

Our goal as spiritual leaders should be to help those who have placed themselves under our leadership to develop the gifts that they have. If we place a single vision of piety on them, we distort the fullness of Christ’s gifts to us. Worse, it leads to despair and, in some cases, even the loss of faith. Therefore, I return to the assertion that we must lead with a flexible mind, discerning the gifts and weaknesses inherent in each person given unto our care. As the canons themselves make clear, our goal is the salvation of the person, taking all of the factors into account:

It behooves those who have received from God the power to loose and bind, to consider the quality of the sin and the readiness of the sinner for conversion, and to apply medicine suitable for the disease, lest if he is injudicious in each of these respects he should fail in regard to the healing of the sick man. Trullo 102 (bottom of page)

Such discernment is not always easy, but it is absolutely necessary. It will also color how we go about interacting in the general spheres of leadership.

 

Next time: The first sphere of influence.