The Leading from the Second Chair book I was talking about lists three paradoxes of second chair leadership:
Subordinate-Leader - because assistant leaders are leaders, but also followers at the same time. There is responsibility given, but it is given according to set boundaries.
Deep-Wide - the assistant leader often has a specialty, but is often also called to be a utility player in the church organisation. And so, the assistant pastor has to be able to think in terms of his/her contribution to the whole church or organisation as well as develop his/her own patch. In fact, the demands of the whole might mean that the patch become overgrown or untended somewhat.
Contentment-Dreaming - the second chair leader can feel that their dreams are now continually being frustrated because they are subordinated to the dreams of another. And yet, without that freedom to dream, the second chair leader can become stale.
I wish the book had addressed some of the more tricky (and believe me, real, from what I hear) situations. How can the assistant minister help the senior minister who is underperforming, or depressed, or evidently lazy? What if he is treating the laity poorly? What about when you sense that the senior minister is feeling threatened? How can the second chair leader 'manage up'? To what degree is our obedience actually a spiritual discipline, as opposed to merely a matter of being an employee?
And, furthermore, how can senior ministers get the most out of their assistants? What does it take to lead a team of ministers? Why are we so bad at it? Who is actually good at it, and why?
3 comments:
Alan Wood said:
Sorry, this will sound terser than it should. I want to get to lunch.
First:
In the Anglican system, only the bishops will ever be free of the 'subordinate-leader' thing, and then only if they've stopped reading 1 Peter 5 to themselves. It's called Christian leadership.
Second:
"To what degree is our obedience actually a spiritual discipline, as opposed to merely a matter of being an employee?"
To the degree that we recognise that we're not part of a priestly class, who are thereby freed from the situation described in Hebrews 13:17. Instead, one still needs to obey, even one who is obeyed and renders an account. Christian leadership is Christian life + responsibility, not some other form of life.
I'd suggest it has very little to do with the employment relationship. The two will overlap - sometimes obeying your leader and respecting his bossness are the same thing - but you've got to still both be Christ's brothers, surely?
Hi Michael
Thanks for the note on Leading from the Second Chair. I don't know the book but will track it down. The issues resound with me as I reflect on the apparent difficulties and complexities for theologically trained women in ministry roles within churches. It is apparent to me that the very complex role of being a "permanent " assistant minister has not really had a lot of attention paid to it and that it needs to. I can see that the three paradoxes that you have summarised certainly reflect my observation and experience. I am concerned that there be greater dialogue, analysis and discussion on this role. My initial observation that the success occur when there is an adhoc coming together of essentially certain personality types which, would, in any context work well together. When the personality or styles don't mix there is, in my observation not much skill around adapting or changing approaches in order for there to be successful ministry relationships.
I think that some of the causes of the difficulties are a disconnect in expectations between senior minister, assistant and laity and when any of those expectations on the role or the delivery of it are not met the one who suffers is the assistant.
I think this is a serious issue for women in ministry and we need to work hard at continuing to identify the issues, articulating the problems and trying to step through some solutions.
cheers
Gillian Davidson
Oops, I meant to leave my other comment on this post. It seems I agree with Alan Wood - all Christian leadership is also submission due to it being Christian leadership. Ephesians 5.21.
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