Christian Leadership with Depth and Authenticity

The new President of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, Rev. Matthew Harrison, has a degree of theological depth and a personal authenticity that I admire greatly. I have just listened—again—to his first media interview on the day of his election.

The interview occurs on a formerly sanctioned but now “independent” Lutheran radio program called “Issues, etc” (The story of how this happened is found in this Wall Street Journal column.).  I am not as regular a listener as I would like, but—now and then—I turn to www.Issuesetc.org for important reflection on key issues that affect us.

For those who want to hear an excellent example of depth and humility in Christian servant-leadership, click here.

Great Teams Change Lives

A Facebook post by my high school team mate, Jim Shields, got me thinking about what a difference being part of a good team can be for someone’s life…

I graduated from Frankenmuth High School (Frankenmuth, Michigan) in 1988 and had the honor of playing on two of the finest boys teams in Frankenmuth High School history. Both the football and basketball teams went to the state semifinals after outstanding seasons. For now, I focus on the football team.

Jim Shields (mentioned above) was our all-state punter and kicker. While we were crushed by eventual state champion Grand Rapids Catholic Central in the state semis at Alma College, I will never forgot the busloads of CC kids getting out, coming in to the stands, and gasping as Jim Shields rocked pre-game practice punts into the stratosphere.

Jim was just one of several outstanding athletes on that team. Scott Jacobs was an all-state wide receiver. We had a fine quarterback in Myron Mauer, a great compliment of linemen (One of whom, Troy Reinert, still (I believe) holds as sack record at FHS and another, Steve Heinlein, who went on the Air Force Academy.), and all-conference caliber players all over the field.

One of our running backs, Paul Sica, gave one of great out-of-body athletic performances I have ever seen in that state semifinal. I’m confident he didn’t show the coaches before the game, but Paul opened his mouth in a pre-game huddle and showed us tonsils the size of golf balls. I don’t know how the guy could breath! He was totally miserable and played his guts out. Many of us remember Michael Jordan’s famous “flu game” against Utah (1996?). Respectfully, I’ll put Paul’s effort that day up there with Jordan’s or anyone else’s for that matter. There was no money on the line, no scholarship, just the commitment to us—the team—and to excellence that competition provided us.

If you click here you’ll see a web page with a single game playoff interception record at FHS. It has my name on it. Elsewhere my name appears for a single season total of six. Some historian of FHS football years from now might look at these records and come to a silly conclusion. The fact is that I had little business being on that field.

My “backup” was a superior athlete named Scott Jackson, who went on to start the following year as a senior and set all kinds of records. Scott could dunk at basketball when he was 5’6”. He was a great athlete, and he played sparingly because I was a senior, the student body president, and because I worked hard in practice. (Our head coach, Ralph Munger, tried to reward guys like me with playing time because he believed it was best for the team in the long-run. He’s now become a Michigan high school legend at Rockford High School.)

I got six interceptions that season, in part because nobody wanted to throw anywhere near all-stater Scott Jacobs, who played defensive back next to me, and because we had a tremendous defensive line and linebacker corps who made life miserable for the opposing offenses. At least two of those six interceptions almost literally fell into my lap. One was a tipped ball that was stupidly thrown by the quarterback at the end of the game. I got a touchdown for that one. (Thanks for the block, Jim Frank.) Another was a “Hail Mary” at the end of the first playoff game against Cheboygan that the quarterback just heaved into the air and I ended up being the one in the pile who came up with the ball.

There are many lessons from all this, but the high school football experience, especially, was life-changing for me, giving me confidence and a sense of accomplishment as I ventured off, away from my family, for my tumultuous college years. I had some success in high school football because I was a decent athlete on a team of great athletes that had coaches that expected us to maximize our potential and gave us every opportunity to do so.

Our coaches, knowing the talent we had from the time we were in elementary school, spent years encouraging, cajoling, and developing both the talent and the commitment to one another that would allow us to achieve personal and corporate successes that most of us could not have imagined when we were on the playground as little children. That team did not just “appear.” It was molded and shaped over many years, and it changes all of our lives for the better. 

May God give us who are now in leadership the vision and commitment to personal and corporate excellence, to develop and use our God-given gifts for the good of our neighbor, that we might mold and shape great teams in our families and workplaces, for great teams change lives.

The 2009 GM Bankruptcy and Childhood Lessons on Leadership and Responsibility

I think there is a lot that I should not say right now, so I will be brief, but the collapse of General Motors makes me want to SCREAM!!!!

Pictured to the left is an image of the Pontiac "J Car" that I lifted off wikipedia. I was just a kid when my father, a mid-level General Motors manager-executive, bought a new one of these for my mother and her long drive to and from work. It was a piece of #%^$ from the moment he brought it home, and that is a charitable statement coming from a pastor.

Look, I know that a lot of innocent people are going to be hurt by this, including MANY in my own family, but I can't see these headlines and ponder what is going to happen to my mother with the potential loss of my father's pension, and not think of the string of explitives that poured forth from my father's mouth when his brand new J car was falling apart. I can't help but think of the lessons on leadership that he gave that day. I was just a kid, but I vividly remember my dad talking about the better way of quality that he had learned while stationed in Japan in he early 1960s. I remember him being really *&^(& about that J car and telling me, basically, that union and management leadership failed in their moral responsibility to put the systems in place to build a better car when they knew it was possible. 

Leadership makes a difference, and though I'm not an auto industry insider, it's impossible to avoid the conclusion that over the years the labor AND management leadership failed. To be sure, the quality of GM vehicles has improved markedly since that wretched J car, but any eejit with half a brain knew that the rise of the Eastern economies would at some point drive up demand for gas and that fuel prices would spike.  Yes, all these manufacturers are being hit by a big storm, but some are weathering it better than others, in part, because they had the foresight to invest in less profitable products in the short term because it would better help them to prepare for the future or other eventualities.

To see a future problem and look the other way, or to know a better way and choose to ignore it, is not just a "mistake," it is a moral failure--dare I say?--a sin.  This lesson applies in all areas of life. In fact, it's interesting just how often I think of that J car example in my pastoral work. It can be very easy for a pastor to see issues in his congregation and say to himself, "I'll leave it for the next guy to clean up." There is no faithfulness and love of neighbor in that sentiment. 

Whether as a pastor or a parent or as a worker on the line or as a senior executive, part of our responsibility to our neighbor whom God has called us to serve is to--in the words of Martin Luther--"help him to improve and protect his possessions and income." The collapse of General Motors will be an abiding lesson to me about the consequences of bad leadership. It reminds me of how my father passionately rejected my occasional --to use his words-- "half-@#!" effort at my childhood chores and always encouraged me to "do it right the first time."

We have a moral responsibility to do the best we can at what God has called us to do. There is no other way.