It has been my honor and pleasure to serve as your Executive Director for the last nine years. As I count my blessings, so many people – so many faces – come to mind. Some we have worked together for years. Others, for only a few moments. All graced encounters.
Very early in my tenure as your Executive Director, I began to use “Together in Mission” as my salutation. It has served me well over the years and, I believe, will continue to serve me through the next chapter of my life.
One of the most important lessons about leadership I have learned is that leadership is a process, not a person. Yes, our communities will identify a person to “lead” mission, or formation, communications, or development. Those are vital roles for a community. Those roles do not belong to us. They belong to the community. To the Church. Please God, there was a person in your role before you took it on and, by the grace of God, there will be one afterwards. Fr. Jack Nuelle held this position before I arrived and, thanks be to God, Kevin Foy will hold it after I leave.
And that role – whatever it is from bishop to volunteer – is totally lifeless until someone picks it up and puts it on. Just like Elisha when he “picked up Elijah’s mantle.”
When I served with the Catholic Leadership Institute, we defined leadership as “an act or a process of arousing, engaging, and satisfying the needs and motives of followers, in an environment of conflict, competition, or achievement, which results in followers taking action toward a mutually shared vision.” No one leads in a vacuum. We are all followers, and we are all leaders. But that is too generic, too bland, too beige.
Leadership is an act … that leads others to action toward a mutually shared vision. Fr. Tony Gittins really helped me understand what we mean by vision. Our vision is a belief about God’s vision for us. God has a plan for us. We – as individuals and as a community – have a unique role to play in God’s grand and glorious story of salvation. Our job is to discern what God’s vision is for our community. How are we called to serve God’s Reign of love, salvation and justice?
As people who “do” leadership, there are two deadly extremes. One, is to try and be the one and only leader. Leadership is too big of a job for one person to shoulder it and, since it leads to others acting, it, by necessity, involves others. The other extreme is deluded leadership – where “we” claim shared leadership, and no one takes responsibility for acting. As the old Japanese proverb says, “Vision without action is a daydream, and action without vision is a nightmare.”
This is what is so exciting about USCMA’s new leadership structure. The work of the association is generated, sustained, and harmonized by the Board while the real work is done in committees that develop strategies, policy, and procedures for membership, program and services, finance and development, and governance. The shared vision, and the mutual discernment, encourages creativity, ownership, and accountability. Leadership is a focused process, shared among many, in service to a mutually shared vision.
To be effective leaders, we need a community of leaders – perhaps just 3-5 – who come together to discern God’s vision for their community, envision what that looks like, create a plan to implement that vision, assess how well the vision is working, and make changes along the way. None of us begin with nothing. We are all building on something, however fragile or modest. And none of us are finished. None of us have “arrived” as the fulfillment of God’s vision for us. Day by day we take a step forward into a grace filled future God is birthing through our service, our leadership.
I firmly believe that God has a plan for us, for humanity. I believe there will be a grace filled future for humanity and that missionaries will be its handmaid. God has called us to be together in mission. May we be clear and intentional about God’s vision for our role in birthing a Synodal Church in Mission and then, as members of a wider community of practice, learn from each other, join forces to animate mission, and create meaningful formation opportunities for those new to mission as well as those experienced in mission.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve with and for you. Thank you for being together in mission.
Don McCrabb, D. Min. Stay in touch: [email protected]. Cell 202-669-4997.