Monday, May 23, 2011
The Perils of Priestly Leadership
St. John Chrysostom’s On the Priesthood offers, amidst a vast and wonderful array of pastoral advice, a vivid and frightening picture of the perils of ministry that every congregational leader will face, in similar vein with Dr. Wardle’s statistics and lectures. He writes,
“I know the importance of ministry and the great difficulty of it. More billows toss the priest’s soul than the gales which trouble the sea…And what are those beasts? Anger, dejection, envy, strife, slander, accusations, lying, hypocrisy, intrigue, imprecations against those who have done no harm, delight at disgraceful behavior in fellow priests, sorrow at their successes, love in praise, greed for preferment, teaching meant to please, slavish wheedling, ignoble flattery, contempt for the poor, fawning on the rich, absurd honors and harmful favors which endanger giver and receiver alike, servile rear fit only for the meanest of slaves, restraint of plain speaking, much pretended and no real humility, failure to scrutinize and rebuke, or, more likely, doing so beyond reason with the humble while no one dares so much as open his lips against those who wield power.” (III.7-8)
I found this list more staggering than even some of the most grave of statistics shared in Person in Ministry. I include the entirety of the list not to state this as the definitive list of pastoral perils, but rather to make the point of totality. St. John Chrysostom clearly had a discernable grasp on the particular temptations of priestly ministry that he experienced. He understood primarily the totality of Satan’s fiery bolts hurled in his direction consistently throughout his service to the Kingdom. He understood his enemy, and in that knowledge, he found victory.
Interestingly enough, we have had little talk about the ethics of leadership in general and the pastorate in particular. While we have had significant discussion on the major areas of weakness and temptation for persons in ministry under Dr. Wardle’s leadership, we have not breached much of the critical terrain of leadership ethics. The ethical use of power, influence, authority, trust, encouragement, and accountability are areas of serious critical consideration that we each must wrestle with before engaging in leadership. If we have not, as St. John Chrysostom seems to indicate, we may find ourselves falling prey to one of these subtle but powerful beasts listed above. Have you similarly created your own personalized list of beasts, the billows that threaten to capsize your ministry on the sea of life?
N.B. – Quote not meant to be considered part of the post for the word count.
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I call this.
ReplyDeleteOf course you do LaDow.
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed interesting that many of the problems listed on the board by Dr. Wardle can be found in John Chrysostom’s list. As you point out, this list even goes beyond that of Dr. Wardle’s. This seems to indicate that the ethical perils of leadership are not new to today, but are rather characteristic of pastoral leadership across the span of history. In light of last week’s lecture, it is interesting to note that there is no mention of the deep wounds and false beliefs held by the person in leadership that could lead one into these moral failings. Without having access to the entire source, or from the rest of Chrysostom’s body of work, I would want to know if he addresses issues that are more fundamental in the life of the leader or if he just leaves the discussion at the level of behavioral correction. Even if he does not address these issues, it would be interesting to analyze other early Church leaders to see what they have to say. If they only address behavioral issues, then they cannot really tell us much about transformation in the life of the leader. If, however, they do address core issues, then we would do well to listen to them.
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