Why Spiritually-Centered Leadership Matters

by Mark Tidsworth, Founder and Team Leader

“We actually respond to one another’s energy more than to people’s exact words or actions. In any situation, your taking or giving of energy is what you are actually doing. Why do I feel drawn or repelled? What we all desire and need from one another, of course, is that life energy. It always draws, creates, and connects things.” --Richard Rohr, Falling Upward

Resonance

Like the reverberations from an old-fashioned tuning fork, leaders are vibrating, sending forth energy ALL the time. Of course, other people are doing the same. It’s just that leaders are given the opportunity to influence the group (church in this case) more than others. We give this to leaders; an openness to receiving the messages they are sending.

In the quote above, Richard Rohr describes this dynamic Family Systems Theory has been preaching for years. Who we are, how we are, significantly influences the system of which we are a part. In fact, the primary intervention of Family Systems Theory is getting ourselves to good, so to speak. Differentiation is strengthening our identity and individuality so that we can remain centered in who we are as the emotional tension rises in relationships. This act, remaining centered, is in and of itself a powerful leadership activity.

When leaders are centered in Christ, abiding in Christ, swimming in the current of God’s energy flowing through this world… then others pick up on this. We sense it, we intuit it, we know it consciously or otherwise. Their resonance with Christ influences the entire church as they lead.

Dissonance

Conversely, we also know it when leaders are spiritually out of sync. The energy they unwittingly send forth includes frustration, angst, and dis-ease. Sure, we all have bad days, moments and times of asynchronous spirituality. Yet, when we realize where we are, we best run to Christ.

Timing

The need to reconnect with Christ in significant ways does not appreciate nor comply with our schedules. Here we are the week before Holy Week and I’m launching a silent retreat at 3:00 PM today. This is not great timing… Pinnacle is SO busy these days. Yet, I recognize the telltale signs, the fraying around the edges, the hints and clues that time with God is calling. Inconvenient, yes. Wholly necessary, more than yes.

I’m teaching a Course these days called The Great ReEvaluation. The heart of the content is practices churches and their leaders can engage that position them for maximizing the transformation opportunities afoot while people are evaluating their lives in this post-pandemic season. The first practice is not so sophisticatedly-named: Getting Ourselves To Good. Perhaps, after all we’ve been through the last three years (exceptional volatility), more of us are ready to recognize at deeper levels that the person of the leader is more influential than the knowledge of the leader. Perhaps now, Matthew’s description of fruits illuminates differently,

“You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.” Matthew 7:16-17, Holy Bible, NRSV

Resonance

Out-sized influence. Why spiritually-centered leadership matters.

May we get ourselves to good, trusting to the current of God’s energy flowing through this universe, abiding in Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, living into the Way of Jesus this day and ever more.