Feb 10 2009
Foreword
The Meandering Way:
Leading by Following the Spirit
This is book that meanders. Now, normally that might seem like a bad thing, as a critique suggesting that the book has no compelling point. Yet in this case, saying that it meanders is high praise. Gary Shockley has written a book that not only describes a way of being and of leading, but he has written it in a manner that draws you into the experience of meandering. This book meanders, and through it Gary welcomes you to a way that living life as it should be lived, to a way of leading people as they should be led. Unfortunately, too few pastors and other leaders are willing to meander. Instead, they live life in a driven way, and that’s why they struggle.
There’s no question that we live in a hectic, frenzied world. Most of us feel set upon by the gods of hurry, gods who command that we rush from one commitment to another in order to appease them. As we rush to appease these faceless, nameless gods, we end up sacrificing our health and our lives. The reality is that these gods can never be appeased because they don’t exist. So what are we really serving? It certainly isn’t God.
Church leaders are not immune to the beckoning call of these gods. Many pastors and lay leaders serve these gods of hurry rather than God. Why? Because these false gods shout while God whispers, and we are attracted to the noise. As a result, too many of us lead in a way that the world deems successful, but not in a way that God would consider successful. We try to lead in place of God, rather than as partners with God. It is in the midst of this question of whom we serve that the genius of the “meandering way” becomes apparent. Gary gives a name to a whole different approach, a way of leadership that is rooted in wandering with God as we discover what God can make possible.
By showing us how to meander with God, Gary Shockley reveals the way into wisdom. This book is filled with wisdom that only comes when as leaders we are willing to wander in wonder with God. What are some of the wisdoms Gary’s work reveals? They are pearls of wisdom that, if polished in our own leadership, will allow us to lead our congregations with grace, love, wisdom, and light. And the wisdom Gary shares with us comes straight out of his experiences, some of which might have caused us to feel humiliated, but in Gary’s life led him to become humble. Drawing on his own experiences as the pastor of small churches in a yoked pastorate, as an associate pastor in a large church, as new church development pastor, as a fundraising consultant, and as pastor of a larger church, Gary delves deeply into his experiences to reveal how God leads us to face ourselves honestly so that we can get out of the way and instead learn to truly lead with God.
Let me give you some examples of what I mean. Using himself as a case study, Gary shows us how easy it is for us to become driven to accomplish success for God, rather than being led by God to do God’s will. He also shows how, in the process, what we do often lacks success because it is focused on us rather than on God. He demonstrates how easy it is for us to promote our own achievements and ourselves rather than what God is doing in our midst.
In the process of exploring how our “success-driven” demons sidetrack us, he offers us a new path—a path that leads to a greater awareness of where God is in our lives. For example, he reminds us that God led the Israelites to wander in the desert for 40 years so that they could learn to trust and follow God no matter which direction they went. In the same way, he reminds us that God calls us to wander in a way that allows us to discover and follow God’s markers and to become transformed through our following. He reminds us that instead of driving ourselves and others toward a goal, we can learn much by taking side trips off the well-trod path—trips that lead us to discover wonders and beauty. And when we lead congregations to take these side trips, we invite them to discover undiscovered territory where God’s beauty is really apparent.
He reminds us of how much we need to move to that place where the time we spend truly reflects what we most deeply value in life, rather than wasting time appeasing those false idols that forcefully drive us to… to… where? He reminds us that we shouldn’t be wasting time trying to figure out what the right path is. Instead, all we are called to do is to walk with God wherever God leads, and to trust that whatever path we are on is God’s path. In the end, meandering isn’t just about wandering with God; it is about the relationship we form with God when we are willing to trust God.
This book, and Gary himself, is a reflection of a new style of leadership that is emerging in the mainline church. It is a leadership approach that cares less about the church as an organization and an institution and much more about the church as a community of people following God wherever God will lead. It is an approach that cares much more about leading people to experience God directly in their lives than it is about maintaining the status quo or tradition. It’s an approach that I share and that connects Gary and me, that has connected us ever since we studied spirituality together as part of a doctoral program at Duquesne University in the early 1990s. We have shared a passion for creating congregations that are more focused on following where God is leading rather than focusing on where the church has been. And this book is a reflection of that passion.
There is so much wisdom for leaders in these pages, if we are willing to meander with Gary Shockley as he teaches us how to wander with God. In a world in which people feel the constant need to rush, hurry, achieve, accomplish, do, and get somewhere fast, we are reminded that there is a way of leading that imitates Moses and Jesus: meandering with a purpose.
This is a book that gently meanders, and as it does, it teaches us to lead with a much wiser spirit.
N. Graham Standish