Hit and Miss During A Crisis
On December 18, 2016, the church that I was pastoring experienced a devastating church fire. The fire department fought valiantly but the building couldn’t be saved. Unfortunately, the fire was caused by a person in the church who was later charged with arson. As a result of the fire, we had to move a congregation of 500 people to a school gymnasium, in a neighbouring city in about a month. We also had to find new office space. We also had to navigate the challenge of the arson and its impact on the individual, their family, and the people of our church. Then add to that an insurance claim and a fire investigation.
A funny thing happened to me as I watched the building burn. What Dr. David Rock would call my ‘inner director’, or ‘executive function, kicked in. On Sunday night at about 10 pm, I stood in the parking lot observing everything but not in a panicked or nervous state. While I had felt anxiety rushing through my system earlier, my brain managed to switch into a strange calm. In his book, Your Brain at Work, Dr. Rock writes, “The executive function, in a sense, sits ‘above’ your other working-memory functions, monitoring your thinking and choosing how to best allocate resources.”[1] He goes on to describe that the best way to think about the inner director is “mindfulness”.[2] He describes this as, “being aware of experience as it occurs in real-time, and accepting what you see.”[3] Mindfulness is something that can be cultivated and practiced so that it can be activated when needed. Rock states, “By understanding your brain, you increase your capacity to change your brain.”[4] As I watched the building burn, I started to think about the courses of action we might need to take as a church. And even though I did this instinctively, I shifted my focus toward possible solutions that we could move toward.
The unfolding days, weeks and months after the fire were a swirl. Important and controversial decisions were to be made, conflict, grief, Christmas Eve services, conflicting advice, a family in crisis, investigations, criminal charges, talking to the local media, people jostling for positions, staff resignations, staff hires and multiple other matters to handle. Instead of going to work on the Monday morning after the fire, I went into my basement, stretched my sore back, and prayerfully meditated on Scripture. It was an act of survival more than an intentional practice, but I kept up that morning habit for a couple of years after the fire. Even though Sabbath practice was threatened by multiple demands, I practiced Sabbath as a resistance against all that threatened to pull me under. Practicing meditative prayer and a sabbath helped me, inadvertently, become mindful during the rest of the week.
On my worst days, I didn’t activate my inner director and I felt overwhelmed and stressed out. Some days were overwhelming and bad. Other days were some of the best days of leadership. But what made the difference? I found some good answers in this book. He employs the metaphor of a dramatic play to help us understand how the brain works.
In Act 1, Rock addresses how to help the brain function optimally so that we can make decisions and solve problems when we’re suffering from too much information. Rock writes, “There is a limit to how much information can be held in mind and manipulated at any one time.”[5] I realized as I read this book that some of my best practices helped my brain to function optimally in my challenging environment. As I dealt with overwhelming situations, I would get things out of my head and prioritize them. This helps save our limited capacity for the most important functions.[6] I ‘chunked’ things together so that I wouldn’t have to remember everything. He states, “Creating chunks allows you to interact with complex patterns…”[7] Finally, I put things into sequence. Rock notes, “Taking time to work out the right order to make decisions can save a lot of time and energy overall, reducing unresolved issues in your queue.”[8]
Next, In Act 2, Rock focuses on regulating our emotions while under pressure. On one occasion, I lost it with someone because they had created a bit of a mess for me to clean up. I had been trying to stuff down my negative emotions and eventually, they came leaking out from the backstage to the frontage of my life.[9] Rock says, “When the limbic system gets overly aroused, it reduces the resources available for prefrontal cortex functions.”[10] To avoid this blow-up, I should have practiced a cognitive change. A cognitive change doesn’t suppress emotion but rather helps the brain shift from an aroused amygdale toward the arousal of the prefrontal cortex.
Thirdly, in Act 3 of the book, he indicates the need for social interaction with others. Rock uses the acronym SCARF (Status, Certainty, Relatedness, Fairness) to describe the interpersonal rewards or threats that are important to the brain.[11] It reminded me that the period following the fire was characterized by high conflict. I found that I needed to work hard at building relationships and that my family relationships were of utmost importance. When I didn’t have these kinds of relationships I didn’t thrive as a leader.
Finally, In Act 4, Rock addresses how to facilitate change. He states, “Shifting people from a threat state to focusing on what you want them to focus on is the central challenge to creating real change.”[12] This happened for us through a process of corporate discernment. Once the dust settled, I led our congregation through an Appreciative Inquiry process to corporately discern our next steps. We held several meetings in which we identified the strengths that were still part of us that we could build on, describe the dream we had, determine the priorities we needed, and design the path forward. Our board took all this input and developed a strategic playbook described in The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni.[13] This 8-month collaborative process helped turn the focus of the congregation away from the fire and toward the future. When people felt invited into the long-term vision of the church and heard, we could make this important shift. This collaborative process has influenced my NPO significantly as I consider the challenges that leaders are facing in the church in this current season.
I managed to navigate that time reasonably well but optimizing my brain for performance was unintentional and therefore hit and miss. Understanding how the brain functions and how to change it could help someone become the kind of non-anxious, self-differentiated leader that Friedman describes in A Failure of Nerve.[14] Not only will this make you a better leader but at the end of the day, your brain will be happier for it.
[1] David Rock, Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long, Revised and updated edition (New York, NY: Harper Business, 2020), 88.
[2] Rock, 89.
[3] Rock, 91–92.
[4] Rock, 96.
[5] Rock, 20.
[6] Rock, 15.
[7] Rock, 27.
[8] Rock, 41.
[9] Simon P. Walker, Leading Out Of Who You Are:Discovering the Secret of Undefended Leadership, The Undefended Leader (Piquant Publishing, 2007).Kindle.
[10] Rock, Your Brain at Work, 108.
[11] Rock, 198.
[12] Rock, 203.
[13] Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business, 1st ed (San Francisco, Calif: Jossey-Bass, 2012).
[14] Edwin H. Friedman, A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix, ed. Margaret M. Treadwell and Edward W. Beal, 10th anniversary revised edition (New York: Church Publishing, 2017).
About the Author
Graham English
I was born in Cape Town, South Africa 30 minutes from Table Mountain, the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. My family immigrated to Vancouver, Canada where I spent my teen years, met Wendy, and got married. We now live on the Canadian prairies in northern Alberta. I think God has a sense of humour. I'm a follower of Jesus, work in leadership and church development, love my family and walk a lot.10 responses to “Hit and Miss During A Crisis”
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Wow… what a tragic, yet, beautiful example of what we just read put into real-time action. Thank you for sharing this story. I unfortunately read every once in a while about a church burning down and always wonder what the pastor, leaders, and congregation go through.
How or would you change things if you had to do it again, based on what you learned?
That’s a great question, Chris. My board was super supportive and I was blessed with some great mentors. For example, I had an approved sabbatical months after the fire. I turned it down but the board insisted that I take it. If I had not had my board enforce certain health practices, I would have burned out.
I think, I would have supported and worked with staff more. Our staff went through significant turnover and I didn’t take enough time to build relationships and develop team.
Graham, what an amazing story. My childhood church burned down – though I was living several states away at the time. I can’t imagine what it was like to stand there and watch it.
With all that in mind, what’s your biggest takeaway from Rock’s book, the one thing you won’t forget to employ?
Great question, Debbie. It’s hard to narrow it down because there’s so much good information in there. I think the most important sections for me would be managing information by writing things down, chunking, sequencing. I become overwhelmed when I don’t practice these. I currently use Asana to make lists and manage projects. When this lapses, it impacts everything else.
Hey Graham! Your story of how you took leadership amidst the fire was really inspiring.For many would never arrive at the inner director but you showed us the way! Thanks! Out of all of Rock’s writing which presents the biggest challenge to you and why?
Thanks Daren. I was blessed with great people around me. I couldn’t have done it alone. There were so many days I didn’t have a healthy brain. I think the most challenging for me is regulating my emotions under pressure. I tend to suppress emotions and then blow up if I don’t deal with them.
Hi Graham,
Wow! That must have been a very challenging time. Interesting response to the fire! That’s something I would have done—the calm part anyway.
How did you find that being helpful in the days, weeks, and months afterward? I love that you practiced sabbath as resistance. It reminds me of the book Sabbath as Resistance by Walter Brueggeman. In Chapter 5 (Resistance to Multitasking) he mentions “The restfulness of Sabbath is an act of resistance to commodity acquisition. But in acquisitive Israel, so well represented by Solomon, Sabbath became a fake occasion, an official act of work stoppage, it was in fact a festival shot through with anxiety and aggressiveness fed by commodity acquisitiveness to which Israel had become enthralled” (p60-61).
What did you learn about God and yourself during that time?
Thanks, Nancy. Sabbath was definitely a lifesaver for me.
What did I learn about God and self? Often our prayers are for safety, comfort, stability etc, However, the most challenging situations are opportunities for holiness, personal growth and faith building.
Thanks for the reflection on this challenging season, Graham. I think you lead well in the midst of what I’m sure was a difficult season.
Your quote, “Practicing meditative prayer and a sabbath helped me, inadvertently, become mindful during the rest of the week.” is something that I’ve found as well in Sabbath practice.
How have you invited others in practices of Sabbath and mindfulness? What have been some roadblocks you’ve experienced from people resistant to these practices. Asking for a friend…
Hi Ryan, I have definitely taught on Sabbath, communicated the value and impact on my own life and celebrated it with others. For example, when we led a short-term missions team to Cambodia we taught on Sabbath one day and spent the day in sabbath rest. Initially, some people were resistant to the idea. “After all”, they argued, “we had raised money to be here, we should be productive with our time.” However, when we did a debrief following Sabbath, it became one of the highlights of the trip for most people. Sabbath helped people process what they had experienced, deepened relationships and helped them connect more deeply with God.