Church Leaders and Benedict

Since stepping into the role as a full time minister at a church, I have been thinking a lot about what it means to be a church leader, a minister of the Gospel. (I have thought about it a lot before, but it is a little different when you are thinking about it in the lab instead of the classroom.) I have also been thinking a lot about the roles of elders and how their responsibilities as shepherds align with and differ from mine as a minister.

This morning I was struck in a different way as I was thinking about leaders. Unexpectedly, I got a lesson from a sixth century monk. In his rule, Benedict writes of leaders of faith communities:

"The prioress and abbot must always remember what they are and remember what they are called, aware that more will be expected of one to whom more has been entrusted. They must know what a difficult and demanding burden they have undertaken: directing souls and serving a variety of temperaments, coaxing, reproving, and encouraging them as appropriate. They must so accommodate and adapt themselves to each other's character and intelligence that they will not only keep the flock entrusted to their care from dwindling, but will rejoice in the increase of a good flock."

As leaders of the church of God, may we remember what we are, human, people who constantly encounter the same struggles and difficulties, the same shortcomings and failures, the same victories and defeats as the rest of humanity. We are not royalty, nor dignitaries, but people who struggle to embody that to which we have been called in Christ, just like everyone else. But we are also called by the names minister, servant, elder, shepherd, pastor, and the like. We must live up to those names as we seek to nurture the flock as her spiritual fathers and spiritual mothers. May we, in humility, recognize our weaknesses and empty ourselves of any pretense of our worthiness or importance to the church because of our position, for our weaknesses provide the opportunity for God's grace to be perfected in us. And may we be humbled by our "difficult and demanding burden" as we struggle to be the midwives of God's people, nurturing them as God spiritually transforms us all into the image of Christ.