{"id":15117,"date":"2017-11-09T14:52:42","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T22:52:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=15117"},"modified":"2017-11-09T14:52:42","modified_gmt":"2017-11-09T22:52:42","slug":"emotional-ecclesia-the-leadership-mystique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/emotional-ecclesia-the-leadership-mystique\/","title":{"rendered":"Emotional Ecclesia: The Leadership Mystique"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body\u2014Jews or Greeks, slaves or free\u2014and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.\u00a0If all were a single member, where would the body be?\u00a0As it is, there are many members, yet one body. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

1 Corinthians 12:1-14, 19-20, 27<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The metaphor of the people of God as a body, the Body of Christ, is a rich one, utilized frequently by Paul (in 1 Corinthians and Ephesians) and referenced commonly within the church as well. Paul describes the various roles of individuals and gifts given by the Holy Spirit for the common good (1 Corinthians 12:7). He likens these different gifts to body parts like eyes, ears, and feet.<\/p>\n

But how much richer our understanding of the Body of Christ might be if we recognized that the \u201cBody\u201d also has an emotional component. As I explored Manfred Kets de Vries\u2019 The Leadership Mystique: Leading Behavior in the Human Enterprise<\/em>, I was drawn to the connections he made between individual and organizational change. \u201cChange is hard,\u201d he asserts, whether for individuals or organizations.[1]<\/a> While that is certainly obvious, his premise is that how we navigate change is both cognitive and<\/em> emotional\u2014 we \u201chave to be affected in both the head and the heart.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

It is the emotional side of the organizational body that I\u2019m intrigued by, as emotional ethos is often overlooked\u2014especially within the church. What are the emotions of the church? How does the spirit of the body respond to change?[3]<\/a> As a person bringing a great deal of change into this congregation I\u2019ve recently joined, just by my very presence, I\u2019m sensing the emotional resistance to change. Repeatedly over the past few weeks I\u2019ve received comments like \u201cmany older folks are having a hard time with all this change.\u201d When asked to pinpoint \u201cwhat changes?\u201d the shift in how communion is practiced is often brought up\u2014a shift that happened a year ago, before I arrived. \u201cTell me more; what other changes have been overwhelming?\u201d I\u2019ve been hard-pressed to be told other specifics. What I understand, therefore, is that just my very presence has been a significant perception of change for many. I haven\u2019t actually done very much to change things yet!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>So how can we help our churches navigate the natural and unconscious resistance to change, the emotional responses, and the way we perceive ourselves and how we imagine that others perceive us? Kets de Vries argues that the same psychological dynamics occur within both individuals and organizations. We need to be able to guide the church to recognize the value to itself in the change process\u2014that a particular change is in their self-interest and supports their values.[4]<\/a> Like with individuals, it\u2019s okay for churches to mourn what\u2019s lost\u2014grieve for and idealize the past. But as with individuals who carry on with life, churches must accept a new reality, and recognize that change is constant and inevitable.<\/p>\n

We often resist change because of fear\u2014fear of the unknown, fear that what\u2019s changed will result in loss\u2014of good conditions, of authority or rights or privilege, fear that the cost will sink the church. But God didn\u2019t give us a spirit of fear (1 Timothy 1:7) but the very Spirit of God. Can we help our churches recognize when fear controls us?<\/p>\n

The process of moving a church through the recognition that changes need to be made, listening to and empowering members to imagine alternatives to the status quo,[5]<\/a> and building in new practices all contribute to the health of the church. I\u2019m grateful for the handy little boxes of questions included by Kets de Vries, and plan to start asking some of them amongst our leadership. Because I recognize that the emotional<\/em> Body of Christ is something that can\u2019t be ignored or overlooked, especially if we hope to build up the body into Christ-like maturity (Ephesians 4:12-13).<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Kets De Vries, Manfred. The Leadership Mystique : Leadership Behavior in the Human Enterprise<\/em>. (Harlow, England: Prentice Hall, 2006) 137.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> I\u2019m not referring to the Holy Spirit here.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid., 146.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> a la Hirschmans\u2019 Exit, Voice and Loyalty<\/em> thesis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body\u2014Jews or Greeks, slaves or free\u2014and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. Indeed, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1070,536],"class_list":["post-15117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ecclesia","tag-kets-de-vries","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/85"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15117"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15120,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15117\/revisions\/15120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}