Paddle Paddle Paddle

by Dan Holloway

Some years ago my wife Carol and I traveled to Prince Edward Island as a part of my first church sabbatical. It was a wonderful gift from the church and we were determined to try new things and experience life in a fresh way. One of the ways we decided to do this was by learning to paddle a kayak. This was something I had never done before but what better time to try something new than on sabbatical? So a few days after arriving on PEI, we found ourselves joining a guide in our rented kayaks on the still cold waters of the local river.

Carol took to the experience like a duck to water. She quickly and easily found both balance and rhythm in her boat and was soon paddling with great joy. My experience was decidedly less pleasant. Within ten minutes of entering my boat, I had managed to turn it over and had to be fished out and helped back into my kayak by our very patient guide.

The problem was that upon returning to my boat, I became absolutely frozen with fear. Having failed once (and being both cold and embarrassed as well), I was determined not to do it again. And so I just sat, as perfectly still as I could, determined that at the very least I would not tip the boat over again, until I was finally several minutes later convinced to try it again.

I take this as a parable of what happens to many church leaders these days. We try new things and sometimes they don’t work as well as we had hoped. Sometimes, in fact, they fail miserably. And because we don’t want to be embarrassed by our failures, we make the decision not to stir the waters any more. We make the decision that we won’t rock the boat, won’t initiate any change, believing that if we all stay very still in the boat, it won’t turn over. But as I learned, it won’t go anywhere either.

Leadership in our day is always marked by risk-taking. It involves change and holy experiments and faithfully seeking the new thing God might be doing. To be a leader is to understand that there are no guarantees of success. But it is also to understand that staying safely in the boat is not our ultimate calling. Our calling is to follow God across the waters and to new shores of adventure. And if that occasionally means we get a little wet, maybe that’s what it means to be baptized.