There is risk in offering leadership:
it can be perceived incorrectly,
it may not be valued,
you feel people's projections and expectations on you.
The bigger the issue, the more stuff is kicked up.
But if you're in the community committed to each
other,
I hope the assumption is that
we all are trying to offer something
to build our common life.
If certain possibilities don't come off,
it does not mean necessarily that you were wrong,
or that some have not benefited.
It may be simply that we do not have enough people
ready now to respond to what you are offering.
When hurt or misunderstanding come,
we must trust there are resources present to heal it.
We need to talk about these difficulties openly
in the presence of caring supportive people
and usually we can come up with a deeper truth if we stay with it.
In order for everyone's leadership to flourish,
we have to trust and value each others' gifts
and assume they have something to bring
that perhaps has not been offered before.
It is important to give recognition
to both the individual and the collective present
at the same time and
not get so invested in our own perceptions.
The challenge for any leader is to learn
to be tough:
to listen to the intensity of someone's comments
and not wilt,
to receive heavy emotional stuff
and stay with it,
to refuse to deal with second hand criticism
but ask the critic to speak directly,
to realize many interpretations
may be present at one time,
to be open to challenge, confrontation, and accountability.
As leaders we all bring the faith that we'll find our
way,
the gifts will come forward, we can all make it work.
Servant leadership is also an opportunity
to give expression to love
which means wanting to see that the best that can happen
for each person happens.
Sometimes that means doing something
or not doing something, stepping away.
That has been hard for me at times,
because there are things I would like from certain people.
To keep myself balanced
I ask, to use Hollis' term,
"What's the loving way in this?"
Part of leadership for me has been presence,
trying to be a fully present person,
to an individual, a situation, the whole, to kids.
I have also tried to be fully present and championing
of the four categories of our call:
citizenship, family, vocation, mission.
My way of being a leader
has been to use my own gifts to the fullest.
Since I have had the opportunity to do that
I have wanted the same for other people.
Listening and mirroring people into their calls
and experiencing appreciation from others for my call -
that is the mutual dimension of leadership.
In my role as leader,
I have had the opportunity
to do all the things I love doing
and to be all the ways I love being.
That has been the great gift of Seekers
for me.