By Kathryn McElveen-
It started as a simple project. I wanted to build a raised garden bed and try my hand at organic vegetable gardening. Within a short span of time one bed grew to seven; vegetables grew to include herbs, three types of berries, grapes, flowers and apple trees. The result has required the help of my husband and children, wisdom from local farmers and gardening books, and quite a bit of work.
Seeing the juice of fresh strawberries dripping off the wide grin of my two year-old has made it worth the effort. Formerly, my yard had a difficult time growing grass, but seemed a very suitable environment for growing weeds. Now it has become a place of fruit-bearing.
Because I work with leaders, I am often asked, “Are leaders born or made?” With gardening on the brain, I recently answered, “Leaders are grown.”
Leaders don’t exist, thrive, or fail to thrive in a vacuum. Just like the seeds in my garden, leaders excel or wither within an ecosystem. A tiny seed contains enormous potential. Unlocking that potential depends on factors too numerous to name.
Not only do different seeds turn into different plants, they all have unique requirements for things like nutrients, water, light, dormancy, support, air circulation and soil conditions. Each is vulnerable to different diseases or pests. The “companions” with whom they are planted will either help or hinder them. As the gardener, I can choose to treat all my plants like tomatoes. And only the tomatoes will thrive.
A sower went out to sow . . . some seed fell on the path . . . the rocky ground . . . among the thorns . . . other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain.
Agricultural metaphors abound in scripture and bring to mind powerful questions: How are you uniquely gifted? When you are healthy, what fruit do you produce? What are you producing now? What feeds you? What are your “requirements” for space and rest? How do you manifest the signs of “disease” and stress? How can you amend your environment to make it hospitable for growth?
Kathryn McElveen is an ordained United Methodist minister and President and Founder of inVision Ventures, a faith-based coaching firm, in Greenville, SC.
By Bill Lamar-
We exist in a culture that hawks self-improvement incessantly. There is never a dearth of folks promising to make you better. He promises a smaller waist and firmer pectorals in 90 days. She promises that implementing the strategies in her book will improve your credit score by 100 points. They promise that in 90 days you’ll become closer to God and your purpose in life will emerge from the foggy recesses of your soul.
Don’t get me wrong, self-improvement is not bad. I am skeptical, however, of those in the self-improvement business who promise too much and play upon our fears and inadequacies. I am skeptical of those who offer linear, scripted
solutions to messy, entrenched personal and communal challenges. And purveyors of self-improvement don’t just exist on infomercials and in book stores and on talk shows. The church is bombarded by those who would sell her the tools she needs to reach her maximum potential.
During my nine years of pastoral ministry, I received as many invitations to ministry and pastoral improvement
seminars as I did credit card offers. The slick advertisements featured smiling preachers with gleaming white teeth promising me that that they had found the secret to growing their churches, raising more money and perfecting youth ministry. I was promised that the marketing propaganda I had received was the key that would unlock my inner mega-church pastor. I was seduced. I fell for it. I signed up for a few seminars.
After attending a couple, the desire to attend more vanished. There was some good technical knowledge. There were some inspiring stories. I even sensed that God had done great things in the ministers and ministries that led the meetings. I would go back to the church I served all fired up to implement what I had learned. And every time I went to a new seminar, I abandoned the ideas from the old seminar for some shinier, newer ideas. The outcome was herky-jerky, two steps forward and one step back.
I realize what was missing. I was. The ideas of others are valuable. But ministry is profoundly local and deeply contextual. What worked for the ministry I served had to grow from the soil of that ministry. This is the genius of Project Rising Sun. PRS takes seriously who participants are and where they serve. PRS does not promise amazing results if a set formula is followed. PRS promises that if participants fully engage, their roots will sink more deeply into the soil of the ministries where they find themselves. PRS embodies this quote from Warren G. Bennis, “Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult.”
SMITH Magazine has published beautiful six word memoirs from many interesting authors (www.sixwordmemoir.com). I attempted to create my own six word pastoral memoir: Became better pastor by becoming me. Think about it.
Bill Lamar is a managing director at Leadership Education at Duke Divinity School, in Durham, NC.
