The Spirituality of Administration
by Bishop David J. Lawson
In 1876, at the urging of Samuel Plimsoll of Derby, the British Parliament created a safety device, a "load line" to limit the weight of cargo loaded aboard ships. These weight indicators, Plimsoll Lines, are still to be observed on merchant vessels today. Sometimes they are a painted line on the hull of the ship; at other times, a series of three lines painted on the side of the ship, one for saltwater, one for freshwater, and one for sailing within a harbor. When the "Plimsoll Line" disappears below the surface of the water, it is an indication that the vessel is carrying too much weight and is in danger of sinking.
Unfortunately, people involved in modern-day administration are not equipped with "Plimsoll Lines." All excuses aside, it is undeniable that administrators in our high-pressure environment can and do regularly increase our load without appropriate attention to the danger of "sinking." Too many yesses, not enough no's. Unexpected emergencies. Procrastination. Failure to keep a calendar of tasks needing completion. Uncoordinated deadlines. Unmet personal needs that pollute our efforts. Too few Sabbaths.
Finger Posts Pointing the Way to Spiritual Maturity
Clarify one's identity.
The first finger post reminds us that the root meaning of administer comes from Latin — ad meaning "to" and minister, meaning "to serve" or "service." With this clarification we are getting closer to the Christian meaning of the term. For our use here, we will mean "administrative servant leadership" or "administrative leadership" in the mode of service.
This understanding of administration may prove to be in conflict with much that our culture would have us understand. With this understanding of administration, the administrator is better prepared to evaluate competing identities. Our environment is saturated with business-oriented books and training experiences ranging from "Power-Driven Leadership" to the "One Minute Manager." Church consultants invite us to be shepherds, chief executive officers, ranchers, vision carriers, and those who create work assignments for others. Some of these concepts may provide a useful identity for us. However, all of them need to be seasoned by the principle of servant leadership.
Claim one's baptism.
The second finger post points toward baptism. "Administrative Leadership in the Mode of Service" is one expression of our baptism. Baptism marks each of us for service in God's Realm. It is a sign of our God-given vocation. Through this sacrament, the sacred office of administration is instructed in at least two ways:
- However helpful insights from business or other organizations may prove to be, it is baptism that ultimately defines the calling of the administrative leader. To be baptized into Christ is to be immersed in his character, to take up his cross, and to produce the fruit of his Spirit. Whenever we are given the office of administrative leader, we are also given the mantle of service. All administration involves people and has an effect on people: people serving people in Christ's name.
- In baptism we are freely given the gift of God's grace. We in turn seek to allow our administrative leadership to carry God's grace to others. Efficiency and effectiveness may be worthy categories. Purpose-driven administration may have things to recommend it, but if our administrative leadership is not grace-filled, we will have missed the mark.
As carriers of God's grace, we seek to help others serve with joy, while not being destroyed by their failures. An expression of God's transforming and reconciling mission must be evident in all our administrative leadership. For us, success will be found in the degree to which we are faithful servants of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
Influenced by our doctrine of Creation.
The next finger post asks us to be conscious of how our administrative decisions and actions express our stewardship for God's creation. We are not owners, but stewards. We are to tend and to protect. Our administrative leadership must witness to God's desire for Shalom in the whole of creation.
One of God's great gifts to us is the "gift of incompleteness." Our vocation as administrative leaders is sacred to the extent that we recognize God's call to participate in the continuing activity of creation. What God started is still in process. The work of reconciliation continues. Knowledge of the laws of creation is still to be explored. The ability to love God with mind and heart is still to be nurtured. Peacemaking is still ours to do.
Still to be fully explored is Jesus' statement, "My Father is still working, and I also am working" (John 5:17). This theme is continued in Romans 8:21-22: " . . . that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now."
Perhaps it is not too much to suggest that every action by an administrator either positively contributes to the realization of God's intention for the total of creation or undercuts that realization. There is no neutral territory here, no administration that can excuse itself from the consequences. God has presented us with the gift of incompleteness. Blindness to that gift will not relieve us of responsibility.
Honor the covenant between God and God's people.
The Ancient Ones understood that all people within that covenant are accountable to God and to God's people for faithfulness to their vocation. All people called to the office of administrative leadership are included in this accountability. They are also called to teach this accountability and to create accountability structures.
The Doctrine of the Incarnation sensitizes us to the presence of Christ in others. The spiritually mature administrator will remember that the words spoken by others, no matter their circumstances or condition, may prove to be the Word of God the administrator needs to hear. Thus we learn to listen respectfully, observe carefully, and question gently. This change in perspective is one expression of our covenant.
This is difficult in cultures where covenants are not perceived to be related to The Most High God; that is, covenants are not perceived to be sacred or binding. The wisdom of the Ancient Ones has long taught that there are always three parties to a sacred covenant. Two of the parties are humans or groups. The third party is God.
Since many people carry responsibility in culture or church without this awareness, accountability to God may come as a surprise — an awesome surprise with the potential for transformation.
Remember that "all matters temporal and spiritual are to be administered in a matter that acknowledges the ways and the insights of the world critically and with understanding while remaining cognizant of and faithful to the mandate of the church." (¶ 401, Discipline)
In this well-crafted statement is to be found yet another finger post, a definition of the mode and scope of our administrative leadership. The statement is targeted toward supervisory leadership in the church. Its meaning is also available to all people with administrative responsibility, regardless of the context. The final phrase defines the central issue. All administrative responsibility, secular or sacred, asks that the administrator remain faithful to the mandate of the church.
Administrative leaders are expected to be wise in the ways and insights of the surrounding environment. Administrative leaders are to be servants who are serious students and observers — people who bring a careful critique to everything offered to them, people who are hungry to read and to learn, people who pull everything they consider through the screen of the church's mandate.
Struggle to understand that there is a crucifix at the heart of existence.
The finger post pointing to this assertion is indeed countercultural. These days, most church leaders will maintain a significant following only if they promise a gospel of ease and plenty. Especially in the Western Church, where many have been excused from persecution and marginalization, entitlement is the guiding vision. It is strange that, even among people who have experienced difficult times and painful illness, still there is the assumption of entitlement.
The spiritually mature administrator will remember that there is no guarantee that all will be well, that all will be pleasing or happy or painless, that there will always be success. Only the very naive person ignores this reality and leads others into a shallow optimism. A spirituality based on biblical understanding contains an earthiness, a grounded willingness to see life with all its heartache and lack of justice. This administrator acknowledges and celebrates the constant presence of the God of love and hope, but also acknowledges that there is a crucifix in life.
Genuine hope will only be available to those who are willing to face the certainty that the achievement of loving goals may include suffering; that Easter may require a Good Friday. Because of our doctrine of sin, there should be no occasion for surprise when sin seeks to cripple our best intentions. Spiritually mature administrators need not be depressed persons, nor should they be naïve.
Hunger for spiritual maturity.
The final finger post points to spiritual formation. Spiritual maturity is not
a luxury item for those who have received the mantle of spiritual administration. Given all that has been said before, it should be obvious that faithful and long-term administrative responsibility will wear on the soul. Fatigue and discouragement are to be expected. For this reason, it is urgently recommended that the administrative leader develop a discipline of life: recreation, occasional sabbaticals, quiet time for reading and reflecting on Scripture, non-business conversations with a good friend, laughter, retreats of several days' duration.
It was a Benedictine teacher who helped me understand the way God might be working in my life. I had gone to this teacher because he was known to be a good potter, and I wanted to make a chalice. One day, while sitting at the potter's wheel, he asked me what I knew about spiritual formation. I was having enough trouble working with the clay that I could not be patient with what felt like an intrusion. Rather than be put off by my attitude, he simply said to me, "Watch your hands." Then he walked away.
Later I began to understand. Working at a potter's wheel requires wet hands to form and shape the clay, while compensating for imperfections and impurity. The forming of one's spiritual life involves the wet hands of God working with the substance of our lives, compensating for imperfections and impurity, forming and shaping us as useful vessels for the work of God's reign.
It may seem strange to make this suggestion. However, there is overwhelming evidence that administrators do not normally take care of themselves in these ways. As a result, motivation and energy gradually leak out of their souls until they are empty. The Benedictine teachers use this imagery: "Life is not a pipe where you pour an intimate relationship with God in one end which then runs out the other end into life. Rather, life is like a chalice into which the spirit of God is poured. The chalice of your soul continually fills until it begins to overflow. It is out of the overflow that you share your administrative leadership with the world."
The matter does not end here. The administrative leader is also a leader of people and groups who have the same need for spiritual maturity and refreshment. A part of the leadership of an administrator is the structuring of times and ways in which these people and groups can develop their own discipline of life. The administrator shares with all others in the covenant community responsibility for providing the means and encouragement for the spiritual development of all those within the circle of God's people.
While some administrators may not understand this pastoral responsibility to apply to themselves, the decision to affirm or deny this role may be the turning point in their effectiveness. The evaluation of their nfluence will be by those around them who name them as either life-giving or life-destroying. If an administrator achieves the required institutional goals and leaves behind destroyed lives and waves of cynicism, the cost will have been too high.
In Summary: In this brief article I have sought to invite administrative leaders who hunger for greater spiritual maturity to invest time in reflection on their lives and work. The questions and suggestions raised here are only a beginning. As a result of your own personal examination, perhaps with the assistance of a spiritual guide, this reflection can be expanded until it becomes a unique life-changing performance evaluation. Here again, the Ancient Ones have recommended this kind of reflection as a helpful spiritual discipline for which one saves time at the end of each day. The use of a personal journal will create material for future pondering. When administrators conscientiously seek spiritual maturity, people around them will notice and be blessed.
David J. Lawson is Bishop in Residence at Perkins School Theology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas.
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