Servant leadership
Those who are in position of power can seem out of touch with those they govern. Powerful people have their own agenda while ordinary people just want to get on with their life, living in reasonable harmony with those around them. Those at the top seem to have little connection with the mundane and ordinary. I have noticed in many organisations that the leadership has a habit of drawing up schemes that they think will solve all the problems of the body which they head. Often such schemes are ideas produced by some management consultant with little knowledge of what is really happening on the ground. Sometimes the new programme has already been tried in a slightly different form and is already working quite happily or, more often, has already been tried and found wanting. That was often my experience when I was working as an incumbent in parishes. I felt that the grassroots did not always receive the respect they deserved from those at the top of the pyramid.
A very wise bishop when he came to retire kept on saying all I have done in this diocese is to allow good things to happen. I would add he was also rather modest about what he managed to achieve. Those whom he had some hand in appointing were trusted to get on with the job that they had been given. I was always aware that I would be supported in any difficult situations that I encountered. There was a mutual trust and respect because I knew he was there to help and support those to whom he had given responsibility and he listened to them. When such leadership qualities are absent resentment grows and no organisation can function effectively.
Dare I say it? This servant leadership model is profoundly Christian.
Anthony Ellis