{"id":29399,"date":"2022-11-05T17:34:12","date_gmt":"2022-11-06T00:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=29399"},"modified":"2022-11-05T17:34:12","modified_gmt":"2022-11-06T00:34:12","slug":"heroes-and-undefended-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/heroes-and-undefended-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"Heroes and Undefended Leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been having some fun trying to convince the people in my Sunday School class that they are on a Hero\u2019s Journey. We are looking at the life of Moses, and inspired by A Hero with a Thousand Faces [1]<\/i>, I have invited them to consider the journey Moses was on in the first half of Exodus. I not only want them to recognize the journey that Moses was on, I have also invited them to see that they are on a Hero\u2019s Journey. While they embrace the significance of the idea, they are struggling to articulate what this means unless they are whisked to a galaxy far, far away. That is until I read Simon P. Walker\u2019s book, Leading Out of Who You Are<\/i>. [2] <\/i>Walker describes how the undefended leader acts as a guide to the \u201cunknown.\u201d [3] <\/i>This is where the Hero\u2019s Journey and the undefended leader meet. The guide becomes the trusted leader that can chart the course inviting multiple people into the Hero\u2019s Journey. To be a guide on the journey, one must be an undefended leader. I believe the people in my Sunday School class can be undefended leaders that guide those in their sphere of influence into the Hero\u2019s Journey. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Which made me wonder if I have ever known an undefended leader? If an undefended leader can be an average, every-day person, than I should know plenty of undefended leaders that can guide other people. So what makes a person an undefended leader? Walker describes the undefended leader as one who leads out of \u201cmoral authority\u201d, a term that he borrows from Jim Wallis, to describe a leader who leads out of their character. [4] <\/i>This is a different kind of power than is welded by most who are in power or even the examples of leadership that come to mind. It is the kind of leadership forged in struggle and loss. [5]<\/i> It is also the kind of leadership that Jesus modeled. [6]\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The best place to spot an undefended leader that can serve as a guide is to look at how they interact with other people. One can look to those who carry themselves with generosity toward others to see the potential leadership qualities that can guide others. [7] <\/i>I experienced this recently when a group of women from the church invited me to lunch. While this can be an opportunity to air the latest grievances, their invitation came with the question, \u201chow can we most help the church right now?\u201d Not only were they true to their invitation, one of the ladies offered to be a volunteer coordinator to help more people get involved. Her reason for doing this is: \u201cI have been blessed and I want to help others receive the same blessing.\u201d This made me think of Walker\u2019s observation that undefended leaders \u201cget the right things done.\u201d [8]<\/i><\/p>\n

I believe that she has been blessed and will do a good job as a volunteer coordinator because she has suffered loss. She has suffered from back pain the past few years and is on the road to recovery and her first act experiencing improved health is the desire to give back by helping others find their place. She is making the choice to turn her suffering into good by seeing her health as a gift to help others.[9]\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

It is suddenly obvious that I have known undefended leaders. The undefended leaders I know are those who selflessly serve others out of their love of life and by turning their struggles into good through the choices they make to help others. These \u201ceveryday people\u201d serve as guides for those they encounter by encouraging them to trust God on their own journey. Now I am wondering how many I have known. It is not just the great heroes like Moses, it is also those people in my Sunday School class who faithfully demonstrate their willingness to do whatever it takes to help other people know that they are loved by God. That makes them the best guides to have.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces<\/i> (1949; repr., Mumbai, India: Yogi Impressions, May, 2017).<\/li>\n
  2. Simon P Walker, Leading out of Who You Are : Discovering the Secret of Undefended Leadership<\/i> (Carlisle: Piquant, 2007).<\/li>\n
  3. Ibid., 6.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Ibid., 7.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Ibid.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. Ibid., 4.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  7. Ibid., 117.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  8. Ibid., 125.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  9. Ibid., 141.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I have been having some fun trying to convince the people in my Sunday School class that they are on a Hero\u2019s Journey. We are looking at the life of Moses, and inspired by A Hero with a Thousand Faces [1], I have invited them to consider the journey Moses was on in the first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":163,"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":[2347,1718],"class_list":["post-29399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp01","tag-walker","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29399","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\/163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29400,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29399\/revisions\/29400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}