York Minster

Bishops - Servant Leaders

Date: 13th September 2007
Preacher: The Revd David Tilley

What do I know about being a bishop you may say. The image I have is of the football coach who doesn’t participate in the game, but who sits in the dugout and shouts encouragement and advice as an observer. (l hope a little less rudely than I have seen it done on telelvision)

The New Testament is a good place to start when looking at this. Those who exercise authority representatively on behalf of the church are required to study the life and teaching of Jesus and the kind of authority he exercised in his ministry.  Here we discover a servant leadership, which offers us all both a challenge and support.  What does servant leadership look like?

It was said in praise of the great social psychologist Stanley Milgram that he was able to make the familiar strange.  Servant leadership has been around for a long time.  Perhaps it is the preacher’s job on an occasion like this to try and make the theologically familiar strange.

In the first book of Timothy, Paul urges that a bishop must be above reproach, ie in good standing and well regarded by those whom he leads. Then Paul advises that he should be the husband of one wife.   Isn’t this interesting? Paul’s second item is not about leadership qualities or holiness but concerns ordinary intimate human relations.  I think this is noteworthy not because I think Liz, or Margaret, or Veronica might be feeling vulnerable, or Mark particularly tempted, but because of what it says about the humanity of those called to high office.  If Paul were writing for the contemporary church I suspect the second item might be different.  Might he say something about always being conscious of what binds those who are called to leadership to the rest of us?  That is about not being so seduced by the role so that it takes over.  Maybe Paul saw the temptation as – too much humanity, not enough ‘bishop’ – today the temptation might be - too much bishop, not enough human being.  Thus bishops should be engaged in society as participants in human affairs, not just in running the church; and not because it helps them with the job, - but because it helps them to be human. 

The media often enquire of a new bishop what football team he supports, which reminds us that others want bishops to be human as well.  (Local journalists might take a tip from me and ask to which soap opera Mark is addicted.) 

Today we honour St John Chrysostom, and this year marks 1600 years since his death, and so it would be perverse not to refer to what he says about bishops.  John Chrysostom was a reforming bishop.  But he was hardly the right person to deal with delicate politics, and especially with the emperor.  To put it mildly he was hardly tactful in famously calling the emperor’s wife Jezebel and also Herodias, (the mother of Salome).  Result - a long running row which led to his exile.  (But as a person? … I wonder whether we see evidence of preferences for introversion, intuition and thinking? – if so, it would seem there is salvation even for introverted intuitive thinkers.  Phew!  That could be a relief for some of us!)

Some problems: – first I am not a patristics scholar, second I believe that in the 4th Century, dioceses were not much bigger than a single city so bishops were much more like Team Rectors, than chief executives in a complex organisation.  Third it is not always easy to distinguish what John says about bishops from what he says about priests.

Nevertheless St John sees the bishop as having a governing judicial role and exercising pastoral care for priests and their congregations.  He asserts that bishops as leaders must not be party men, but must hold all together in one body.  How relevant; and how difficult! 

John concentrates more on the personal qualities expected of office holders, rather than the job description, and says a bishop should have no ambition for the position because then he is likely to be misled by flattery or to enjoy exercising authority and power for its own sake, rather than for the sake of the kingdom.  He wants bishops to have perception and wisdom (‘having a thousand eyes’ is his poetic phrase) - to be decisive, yet approachable; impartial, yet courteous; humble, but not servile; resolute, yet gentle.  Qualities perhaps of servant leadership?

St John instructs bishops to be tolerant and modest with other clergy lest they forfeit their colleagues’ trust and confidence.  Bishops must also be sober and unpretentious – because “their sins are measured not by the size of the offence, but by the status of the sinner.”  What instructive words for all people in public life today! 

Mark’s leadership style and his dealings with parishes and other clergy, in my experience, fully qualify him for his future work and it is necessary only to urge him, under God’s grace, to continue to develop the strengths which others have so clearly recognised.

Now all that St John says strikes me as not only good advice for Church leaders but is also consistent with contemporary views about leadership and management.  It implies collaboration and consultation, currently highly prized in the church and equally commended in the secular field. 

Pull the first book of Timothy and John’s ideas together with a recent observation of leadership.  Last week - Shane Warne captaining Hampshire.  Very interesting leadership style.  Coaching the slip fielders 15 minutes  before the match began.  Running between overs to speak to different fielders.  Always tweaking the fielding positions.  Very effective.  Difference in attitude and body language of teams very marked.  Hampshire alert, sharp, on their toes.

The Church has much to offer the secular world about leadership, especially about pastoral care; it might also have some things to learn. 

Here are a few ideas:  What would it mean to be led in a diocese by a senior staff who (occasionally) individually sat in the congregation in an ordinary parish church on Sunday mornings?  What might it feel like to belong to an archdeaconry where the Archdeacon occasionally attended deanery synods, not because he had anything to say, but just to be among the representatives offering encouragement and affirmation by his/her presence?  What would it feel like for clergy to be led by bishops who participated in clergy training days, not to lead or because they had anything to offer, but to still alongside those for whom they had a care and concern?  What would it feel like to be part of a Cathedral community where the Dean spent a couple of hours on a busy Saturday serving in the cafeteria or behind the counter in the gift shop?  I commend the sort of thinking which led one bishop, (not present today), to seriously consider offering to help run the youth club in his local parish, and another bishop, present this morning, who spent a night with a police squad car, not just to learn about the difficult job of policing, but to offer support and encouragement to public servants.

But this is a sermon, and lest it appear a lecture that I am insufficiently qualified to give, it remains, to proclaim God’s goodness and to commend the new Bishop of Jarrow, and all our bishops, to God’s grace.  God will supply not only the appropriate gifts and lead us to the right style for leadership, but he will also empower bishops with the ability to model Jesus, not only in the church, but no less importantly, to the world for which he died.

Finally, I would offer Mark the words of Herbert Kelly, founder of the Society of the Sacred Mission and the former Kelham Theological College.  In The Principles of the Society, read to us students at least once a year during silent meals, we heard, “If you are called to high office and spiritual work, you may indeed fear and tremble, but you are not permitted to refuse as though you doubted your own powers, for you ought to be quite sure of your own incapacity – and of God’s strength.”

To him be all praise and glory through Jesus Christ now and always.  Amen