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April 2001
Give into your hopes,
not your fears...
As we come once again to the drama
of Holy Week, I realize that during this past year my life has
been significantly touched and shaped by three Jews - Ron Heifetz,
Helen Spector and Jesus...and in some sense they have been telling
me the same thing...each with their own particularity. Ron Heifetz
is a doctor, musician, and currently professor and director
of the Leadership Education Project at the John F.ÿKennedy
School of Government, Harvard University.ÿ He is considered
one of the world's leading authorities on leadership and author
of Leadership Without Easy Answers.
Our paths crossed last year when Ron was invited to spend
two days with the House of Bishops, where his passionate style
of teaching provided much in content and practice for the
bishops to consider with regard to leadership.ÿ This
year in March, he returned for two more days with the bishops,
where he modeled the style of leadership about which he was
teaching last year.ÿ In his provocative and engaging
way, Ron challenged this group of Christian bishops about
the Great Commission and our church's campaign to double our
numbers by 2020.ÿ He called us to re-examine our mission,
suggesting that doubling our numbers is an insufficient measurement
for the effectiveness of our work.ÿ He also asked us
what truth we are hiding from in the battles we are choosing
to fight.
In all of this, I saw Ron inviting us again to sort out the
adaptive and technical challenges we face, responding to them
in different and appropriate ways.ÿ The hope in this
leadership style is to see positive movement taking place
as the leader works to create a suitable holding environment
in which this work can be accomplished.
Helen Spector came to us as consultant, helping us to look
at the work of our diocese and to approach this task from
a model of appreciative inquiry or a model of problem solving.ÿ
As we concluded this part of our work with the Visioning Convocation,
and we asked, "Where do we go from here?" Helen's
response to the management team was, "Give in to your
hopes, not your fears."
As we enter into this drama of Holy Week, Jesus is surrounded
by a group of followers who are much more inclined to give
into their fears, and for them the cross becomes a discerning
moment that shattered any remaining hope, leaving them to
be overwhelmed with fear.ÿ The Easter event is a magnificent,
life-giving proclamation of the risen Christ, inviting us
for all time to give in to our hopes.
We are a resurrection people...a people filled with hope.
May our life together in this Diocese bear witness to that
faith and that hope.
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