{"id":26307,"date":"2020-03-09T18:11:02","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T01:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=26307"},"modified":"2020-03-09T18:11:02","modified_gmt":"2020-03-10T01:11:02","slug":"the-undefended-leader-of-jamaica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-undefended-leader-of-jamaica\/","title":{"rendered":"The Undefended Leader of Jamaica \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Simon Walker\u2019s The Undefended Leader <\/em>trilogy, Walker seeks to lay out various challenges found within leadership.\u00a0 In the study of leadership, the question is often trying to discern a definition of leadership that is both applicable and makes sense.\u00a0 Walker writes, \u201cLeadership is about who you are, not what you know or what skills you have.\u00a0 Why is this?\u00a0 There are two reasons: Leadership is about trust and it is about power.\u201d[1]<\/a>\u00a0 As I reflect on the leaders who have had a major impact on my life, I would I can see the reality of this statement.\u00a0 Leadership without trust devolves into coercion, which creates unhealthy environments for all involved.<\/p>\n

The leader who has had the strongest impact on my life is my former pastor in Kentucky, Charles Linhart.\u00a0 Charlie was the one who presented many opportunities for me within the church growing up: He gave me the opportunity to preach for the first time when I was 16, he encouraged me to look into the university I attended for my undergrad, and was always willing to listen and provide advice about ministry.\u00a0 Although I always respected Charlie growing up, it wasn\u2019t until I traveled to Jamaica with him on a mission team from my church that I truly appreciated the man he is.<\/p>\n

Charlie and his wife, Lavon, were missionaries in Jamaica during the 80s.\u00a0 Our denomination, the General Baptists, used to run an orphanage there until the government closed it down and put all of the kids into foster care.[2]<\/a>\u00a0 One evening, our team was sitting out on the beach talking and we asked Charlie about his time in Jamaica.\u00a0 We had always known he served in Jamaica, but had never actually asked him about his experience.\u00a0 He told us about the kids at Faith Home[3]<\/a> and some fun stories about befriending the local drug dealer (who became the protector of Faith Home) and sharing goat\u2019s head soup with airport officials in order to gain access to supplies being flown in from the US.\u00a0 But one story struck me more than any other: The time Charlie had a contract on his head to be killed.<\/p>\n

Charlie explained that the president at the time spoke on national television about how the United States wouldn\u2019t hesitate to use foreign missionaries as spies.\u00a0 In the blink of an eye, the relationships that Charlie and Lavon had built in Jamaica were gone as they were put under watch as prospective spies.\u00a0 Charlie soon found out that the Jamaican government had put out a contract to have him killed.[4]<\/a>\u00a0 Charlie called the General Baptist headquarters and was asking HQ what he should do.\u00a0 They told him, \u201cYou need to get out.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t worth staying; you can always come back later.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But Charlie felt God\u2019s prompting that this wasn\u2019t what he was supposed to do.\u00a0 He argued with God, saying that they thought he was a spy and that he was going to be killed.\u00a0 He was alone; no one would come to his aid in this.\u00a0 In the midst of this turmoil, God spoke to him and he came to a realization.\u00a0 He looked me in the eye and said to me, \u201cDylan, I realized in that moment that one day I\u2019m going to die.\u00a0 That\u2019s the simple fact of life.\u00a0 The question for me wasn\u2019t whether or not I would die, but if I was willing to die serving God.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 So I decided to stay.<\/em><\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tears welled in my eyes as he explained that as soon as he made his decision, he discovered he wasn\u2019t alone.\u00a0 The relationships he had built went to bat for him.\u00a0 He said, \u201cThey went to the government offices and told them, \u2018This man has never taken anything from us.\u00a0 He has only given and at great personal cost.\u00a0 We can vouch that he isn\u2019t a spy.\u201d\u00a0 Because of the trust that Charlie built among the people of Jamaica, the government took the contract off of his head and they continued their ministry in Jamaica.<\/p>\n

Trust is the all important factor of leadership.\u00a0 Too often we try to lead out of who we think we should be rather than who we are.\u00a0 How can expect people who follow us to trust us when we don\u2019t trust ourselves to lead as<\/em> ourselves?<\/strong>\u00a0 It\u2019s so easy to put on a mask of leadership, but it\u2019s exhausting to keep it on.\u00a0 It\u2019s exhausting pretending to be someone you aren\u2019t.\u00a0 But part of that reality is the idealistic notion we have of leaders and refusing to let them let their guards down.<\/p>\n

This is why it\u2019s so important to have a network of people to whom a leader can process what\u2019s happening.\u00a0 Leadership is lonely.<\/strong>\u00a0 In my previous organization, it used to be that all of the team leaders kept to themselves and did not have people to process the conflicts their teams were facing.\u00a0 However, toward the end of my time a great effort was made to connect the team leaders.\u00a0 This gave us a chance to process and to show that we were not alone in our struggles.\u00a0 To this day, I have a small group of friends who are in leadership positions and we make an effort to check in with one another.\u00a0 Alone, we may be undefended.\u00a0 But just as Jonathan\u2019s armor bearer had his back no matter the circumstance[5]<\/a>, so we to should find an armor bearer to protect us as well.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*The photo was taken in 2012 during our second trip to Jamaica together. Featured, from left to right, my friend Daniel, myself (let’s all take a moment to mourn the bowl cut and thank God for growth), and Pastor Charlie.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Simon P. Walker, Leading Out of Who You Are,<\/em> Carlisle: Piquant Editions Ltd (2007), loc 202.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> For the entirety of their story, you can check out Lavon\u2019s book, Memoirs of a Missionary Mom.<\/em><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> This is the orphanage the General Baptists ran in Jamaica. The orphanage has now been relocated to San Pedro Sula, Honduras.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> It should also be noted that according to Charlie, at this time Jamaica was considered one of the most dangerous places to live as it had an extremely high death per capita rate.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> See 1 Samuel 14.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Simon Walker\u2019s The Undefended Leader trilogy, Walker seeks to lay out various challenges found within leadership.\u00a0 In the study of leadership, the question is often trying to discern a definition of leadership that is both applicable and makes sense.\u00a0 Walker writes, \u201cLeadership is about who you are, not what you know or what skills […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"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":[555,551],"tags":[1718],"class_list":["post-26307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drama","category-thriller","tag-walker","cohort-lgp10"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26307","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\/129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26307"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26310,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26307\/revisions\/26310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}