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Rector's Blog
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Whether you manage a team at work or just try to keep peace in the family, The Rule of St. Benedict offers wisdom on decision-making you may find helpful.
Living together with a bunch of monks is not as easy as one might imagine. Everyone has to be fed so someone has to keep the farm going. Leaky roofs are not an invention of the 21st century. Neither are waste-water issues (who maintains the outhouse?) And did monks ever fall into disputes over the liturgy? Or is this just a problem for Episcopal Churches in the San Francisco Bay Area?
Victorian poet Robert Browning had some exposure to life inside the monastery. In "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister" he provides this portrait of life among the brothers:
GR-R-R--there go, my heart's abhorrence!
Water your damned flower-pots, do!
If hate killed men, Brother Lawrence,
God's blood, would not mine kill you!
Strong words. Especially for a character dedicated to a life of prayer. But this is the challenge of life in community.
Benedict had plenty of experience with the challenges of leadership. Early in the Rule (chapter 3) one finds a clear and concise description of how decisions are best made in community. Benedict lays out three steps for the faithful abbot to follow.
1. Call the community together and identify the issue at hand.
2. Listen to the views of the community, every voice is equal.
3. Consider these perspectives and make a decision.
Simple yes, but not simplistic. There is a deeper wisdom here at work
The rule points out that wisdom can come from anyone. Experience in the community, age, or perceived expertise does not elevate one perspective over another. After all, in the Book of Numbers (in the Old Testament) the Angel of the Lord spoke through Balaam's ass. Uh, donkey, that is.
In sharing their perspectives, the monks are challenged to share their views out of "humble submission." They are challenged, "not to presume stubbornly to defend what seems right to them." The thrusting forward of personal agendas derail good decisions. A community does well to practice disciplines of prayer if for no other reason than to be prepared to gather in community and be equipped "not to presume stubbornly to defend what seems right to them."
If members of community have a responsibility to share their perspective without undue investment in the outcome of the decision, the abbot has a responsibility to make his decision "in the fear of the Lord" knowing "he will have to give an account to God, the most just Judge, for all his rulings."
Here the authority of the abbot is balanced by his stewardship responsibility for the community he leads. God is looking over his shoulder. Listen very carefully, dear abbot, to each and every voice. Go to prayer. Make your decision. Now stand before God with a conscience clean of the accusation of having thrust forward your own personal agenda over the good of the community.
Joan Chittister says this in her own meditation on the Rule in her book, The Rule of St. Benedict: Insight for the Ages.
In the monastic community, this common search for truth is pitched at a delicate balance. The abbot and prioress are clearly not dictators, but the community is not a voting bloc either. They are each to speak their truth, to share the perspective from which they see a situation, to raise their questions and to open their hearts with honesty and with trust. The prioress and the abbot are to listen carefully for what they could not find in their own souls and to make a decision only when they can come to peace with it, weighing both the communities concerns and the heart they have for carrying the decision through.
The bottom line for me as rector is this. Only a parish where the people follow a discipline of prayer for personal spiritual formation is equipped to make good decisions. Where prayer is neglected one will find competing egos battling in every issue. The voice of the Holy Spirit will not be heard.
Controling egos will dominate the field. The egos numbered in the frey may include the rector if he or she is not a person of prayer. The parish will not move forward. Rather than a church filled with passion for mission, one will find something more along the lines of what Robert Browning found in the Spanish cloister.
"GR-R-R--there go, my heart's abhorrence. . . ."
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Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Looking for a new rector for your church? It might not be a bad idea to read up on what St. Benedict thought about what makes a good abbot. As I continue to study the Rule of St. Benedict as part of my own Lenten discipline, here are some gleanings from what makes for an effective leader of an intentional covenant community that shares faith together. This comes from Chapter 2 of the Rule of St. Benedict.
To begin the word "abbot" comes from the word "abba," the word Jesus uses for God the Father. It essentially means "Father" or better the less formal -- "papa." The rector of a parish is essential the community's abbot. As leader of the community, according Benedict, the rector fulfills the role of Jesus who is the head of the church.
A little biblical understanding comes in handy at this point. In chapter five (verse 21 and following) of the New Testament Book of Ephesians one finds what has become -- in a feminist age -- that controversial passage about wives being subject to their husbands. The point here is not really about keeping women oppressed. It is about a leader's responsibility. The passage drives toward this point:
"Husbands love your wives, as Christ loved the church, and give himself up for her. . . "
The passage is equally relevant to wives and husbands, abbots and monasteries, rectors and parishes. And we may take this one step further -- leaders and the organizations they lead.
Leaders "give themselves up" for their communities. Benedict points out the depth of the responsibility the abbot has in the community.
In case you miss the point Benedict adds a little eschatological focus:
"Let the Abbot always bear in mind that he must give an account in the dread judgment of God of both his own teaching and of the obedience of his disciples."
Yikes! I'm ready to stand before God in judgment for my teaching, but am I responsible for your obedience too???!!! Wow. Okay, now I'm motivated.
But, wait. There is relief for abbots and rectors leading a particularly obstinate flock:
"He will be blameless, if he gave all a shepherd's care to his restless and unruly flock, and took all pains to correct their corrupt manners. . . ."
Whew.
The responsibilities of the abbot are two fold. Teach a godly life by word and deed. Of these two, teaching by deed is the more important, but teaching by word must not be neglected.
The abbot must not play favorites. Parishioner who comes to your rector threatening to withhold you pledge be warned. Everyone in his or her care must be treated equally and fairly.
But again, here is an important exception to the rule:
"Although he may demonstrate favor toward those who are exemplary in good works and obedience."
This makes sense. Recognizing the faithful serves to inspire others does it not?
The abbot must also be skilled in both encouragement and rebuke. Rebuking rectors are not popular these days. But no one said the abbot's job was easy. This is where the skill comes in. The abbot must be a perceptive student of human nature and a prudent manager.
"Let him so adjust and adapt himself to everyone -- to one gentleness of speech, to another by reproofs, and to still another by entreaties, to each one according to his bent and understanding -- that he not only suffer no loss in his flock, but may rejoice in the increase of a worthy fold."
Finally, the abbot/rector must care more for souls than have "too great a concern about fleeting, earthly, perishable things."
A better job description for the rector who can find?
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Wednesday, February 02, 2005
In preparing for our Lenten discipline this year I have been studying the Rule of St. Benedict, the classical text of the monastic tradition.
In the first chapter Benedict identifies four types of monks he calls: Cenobites, Anchorites, Sabarites, and Landlopers. The first two he affirms; the second two criticizes. The types are of course artificial. Benedict uses them to make a point about spiritual formation.
Cenobites are learning to live under a rule of life and are advancing in faith. Anchorites are spiritual masters who through long practice living under a rule of life have matured sufficiently in faith that the rule becomes second nature.
The positive point here is that living under a rule leads to spiritual maturity. Fine. Of greater interest is the negative point.
Sarabites are self-indulgent. "Their god is their belly," Benedict says. "They are soft like lead." They live aimless lives without purpose or direction. His tone clearly signals his disdain.
But as great as his contempt for Sarabites, his greater scorn he reserves for Landlopers. "It is better to pass all these over in silence," Benedict says, "than to speak of their most wretched life." What is so wretched about the life of a Landloper? Landlopers are mobile. They keep moving from one community to the next. One gets the impression that they stick around long enough to take advantage of the community, but never remain long enough to take responsibility for life in the community.
What is wretched seems to be a function of the shallow quality of their lives. Mobility means not having to be truly known. Not being truly known means genuine friendships cannot be formed. Lacking friendships, the Landloper need not ever face the challenge of addressing the gaps, or weaknesses, or shortcomings in their characters that only genuine friends can know. These shortcomings (and we all have them) limit our quality of life.
Landlopers don't hang around long enough to hear the truth about their lives. They fail to grow, to mature. Never having the opportunity to become childlike in their faith, being formed by the push and pull of covenant community, living within both the nurturing and challenging relationship of faithful friends, they remain forever childish.
Wretched life indeed.
Here is the challenge.
It seems to me that we live in a society that consists mainly of Landlopers. Mobility is the norm. When relationships get tough, why stick around to work through it? Just move on.
In our generation it takes an intentional decision, an act of the will, even an act of courage, to join a community and stick it out through thick and thin. According to Benedict, this is the first challenge of faith: Don't leave. Work it out.
The Holy Spirit seems to work through those who hang around long enough to be transformed.
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