Saturday, January 07, 2006

Sharing Your Leader's Burden

This idea of sharing my leader's burden has been floating around in my mind the last few weeks. We have just gone through a process of evaluating why our numbers have fallen off in our attendance at our two campuses. We are further realizing the need for further spiritual transformation as we feel like our people are not renewed, are entangled in the world, and need to be called to repentance. Much of this evaluation was forced onto us by our pastor, as he called our staff to prayer and laid upon us the burden of this situation.

Like it or not, he laid upon us his burden. Most of the second chair leaders on our team didn't like it at first. They thought his rationale for getting us to this place was misplaced. They didn't identify with his burden and couldn't understand this tension. For me, I completely understood where he was coming from, but didn't completely share his burden, because it wasn't as "alarming" for me as it was for him.

In this process, my team of second chair leaders began to discuss and pray about how we might share his burden. We struggled to fully understand it, and much of the way we approached the understanding was clearly a generational difference. With many younger second chairs following an older first chair, there is often disagreement and misunderstanding. Nevertheless, we began to pray that God would help us to carry his burden.

God did!

As we approached this with this spirit, our leader could see that we genuinely wanted what was best for the church, and we were willing to go with him into battle and deal with whatever it was that needed to be dealt with. This gave him a confidence in our counsel, helped him feel like he was not alone, and gave him a place to rest his burden as he grew weary.

I am reminded here of the story of Moses, Aaron, Hur, and Joshua as Joshua went out to fight the Amelekites (Exodus 17:10-13). It states:

10 So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. 11 As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. 12 When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. 13 So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.
These guys carried Moses' burden. They did this because they were following a leader who had a burden for the safety, health, and survival of Israel. One went into battle, risking his own life, while the other two propped up their first chair before the Lord.
One of the things that God continually impresses upon me is that I don't feel what my first chair leader feels. I am not burdened like my senior leader, because I am not the senior leader. I can't fully grasp or understand the burden. But I can ask the Lord to give me what I need to help carry his burden. And when I do, and when the team does, God is glorified and the first chair is strengthened.

4 comments:

Clayton and Kelly said...

Great post, Roger.

I know that when I was just beginning to be a part of the leadership team at our church, before I was in second-chair role, I struggled to understand why my senior pastor could have such a different perspective on situations that I did, or why he thought something was important when no one else could see his side. Now, almost three years later and in a second-chair position, I see that he was helping us see from his perspective as the senior leader, and as someone who was nearly 10 years older than everyone else on the team.

One of the responsibilties that I have is to set sermon topics for the church, since we rotate who on the team speaks. The ironic thing is that I don't preach as of yet, but I'm responsible for setting the schedule of topics! I always ask my senior for his input, reasoning that he's the spiritual head of the church and God would speak to him what we should preach on, but he always rebuffs me and tells me to come up with the topics. This has shown me two things: One, I need to think like a leader, and carry the burdens of the church and listen for the will of God in matters like this, not just rely on the senior to do it. The other thing that I've realized is that there are other situations where I find myself thinking "He's got no idea what God wants!" How can those two dynamics exisit? Because there are alot of times when I'm after my interest, so I rationalize what God does and does not speak to him. I don't want to be soley repsonsible for sermon topics, so I claim God speaks to my senior about that, but when he says God led him a certain way on topics I disagree on, I question his hearing from God.

I need to be consistant to both carry the burden of the Lord for the church, and always defer to my senior pastor. I need to pick up the burdens he has for the church, believing in faith that they are from God. I beleive this is the subordinate-leader paradox? What a great challenge...

Roger Patterson said...

Clayton -- you are starting to get it! Don't you just love the tension of the paradox? A great mark of a secure leader is that he or she will give power away. Apparently, your leader sees something in you to help influence the congregation as a whole in the area of topics/communication. This is a great trust that he is giving you and i would suspect, he is only doing it because he is secure as a leader. He also wants what is best for the congregation, so, he probably knows to be great, you guys need contributors from all over. So, maximize the opportunity. Make the most of it, and other opportunities you are dreaming about will also come.

Roger Patterson said...

Marie -- Wow! Thank you so much for sharing your struggle with us. We knew you were out there when we were writing the book and we trust that you will be able to find that contentment as you wait. Don't forget to be active and responsible (psalm 37) for this time as you wait and find contentment. For me, recognizing and expressing the frustration appropriately are some of the first steps toward liberty even when constrained by my first chair. I am so excited for you and the days ahead. You will learn so much and it will catalyze more of who you are for God's work. Listen to his leading as you wait and look forward with great anticipation.

As an aside, i want to invite you to listen to a message I gave to start the new year on the seasons of life and waiting on God. Much of the message comes from Psalm 37 which we highlight in the contentment-dreaming paradox. Here is the link, and the message is entitled, "Seasons of Life." I hope it adds value to you.
http://www.cpointchurch.org/default.aspx?pid=43

I will be praying for you today.

Roger

Clayton and Kelly said...

Roger,

Glad to see we're getting some traffic on here like we talked about!

I was wondering if you could address this in a blog, or maybe just email me. Because of the "business" of church these days, in terms of the structure and the way it's run, could you address how to deal with your first chair as both a pastor and a boss, and what happens when they're good at one and maybe not as good as the other role?