{"id":30735,"date":"2023-02-02T17:32:30","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T01:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=30735"},"modified":"2023-02-02T17:32:30","modified_gmt":"2023-02-03T01:32:30","slug":"the-danger-of-refusing-the-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-danger-of-refusing-the-call\/","title":{"rendered":"The Danger of Refusing the Call"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When I was a young girl growing up in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, I spent endless hours playing outside in the woods behind our house. Most times I was with the neighborhood children exploring the trails, paths, lakes and forests building forts and, if we were lucky, collecting turtles. If I wasn\u2019t out exploring the woods or practicing the piano, I would live in an imaginative world literally for hours: teaching imaginary students in my bedroom closet or since my mother led me to Jesus, spending endless hours talking to a God I couldn\u2019t see but could imagine. Then one day I watched a show called Wonder Woman who captured my heart and imagination in such a way that during 3rd grade math classes, I methodically took a deep breath, turned my Girl Scout bracelet around and around on my wrist and instantly glided into my imaginary world where I was the Heroine for whatever story I created that day. For me, imagination was power.<\/p>\n

In his book, A Hero With a Thousand Faces, <\/em>Joseph Campbell takes us through the journey a hero faces as they unlock their inner potential.[1] When my idyllic childhood was shattered by tragedy that destroyed my stability, I no longer had the innocent powers of imagination where I was the heroine. A separation and initiation began for me, as it does with all leaders at some point on their journeys and as Campbell writes, \u201cThere is nothing we can do except be crucified and resurrected, dismembered totally and then reborn\u201d (16).<\/p>\n

Each one of us in this program can look back and name the point of separation when we started our character development journey. So what does this hero\u2019s journey have to do with a Doctoral Leadership Program? From what I am reading about the hero and how inner potential is unlocked, I cannot help but think about our current leadership crisis and ask the question: Why have so many of our current leaders missed the process of their own Hero\u2019s Journey?<\/p>\n

Could a Lack of Separation Be the Reason?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A significant number of well-known leaders grew up in unhappy homes. By God\u2019s grace, many of these women and men developed into healthy leaders. Others, however, have remained in emotional and psychological bondage as adults. How do we know this? The Roys report covers the news about Christian leaders who are failing in their roles in churches and nonprofits.[2] While a recent Barna study conducted in partnership with World Vision, data show that young adults perceive deep, wide, systemic problems facing the world\u2019s future. Four out of five affirm\u2014and nearly half strongly affirm\u2014that \u201csociety is facing a crisis of leadership because there are not enough good leaders right now\u201d (82%). This is one of the most widely endorsed statements in the entire global survey, which suggests its significance to this generation. In addition, one-third believes that \u201cwhat it takes to be an effective leader seems to be changing.\u201d[3]<\/p>\n

What this tells me is that a leader\u2019s shadow undermines their success. So what is needed?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It has been said, \u201cIf knowledge is power, then self-knowledge is superpower.\u201d[4] Joseph Campbell\u2019s assertion that all heroes journey from separation, call to adventure, refusal of the call, meeting with a mentor, crossing the threshold, facing trials, allies and enemies\u2013all the way to the return\u2014is missing something for our day. Our leaders don\u2019t know themselves. We have too many leaders either not taking their journey or missing key character development.<\/p>\n

Might the real problem lie in the very first process of a hero\u2019s journey\u2013the separation piece?<\/p>\n

Consider Desmond Tutu.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When we were in Cape Town, South Africa visiting the Tutu museum, we heard about a hero\u2019s accomplishments while walking from room to room. I was mesmerized by the public hearings we watched on the large screen TVs where Tutu mediated between Mrs. Mandala and the family she oppressed. I heard the gentle tone of Tutu\u2019s voice, I saw the humility in his eyes and I felt the power of the Spirit work through him. And then I discovered through reading his books and listening to his colleagues, that Desmond Tutu spent 5 hours a day in prayer. Despite his prominent position as the ArchBishop of Cape Town, He chose to separate himself to \u201cmake himself like a child of God in a fetal position.\u201d[5]<\/p>\n

As much as I love the power of storytelling, literature and hearing how character is born of adversity, one of the greatest limitations for today\u2019s leaders is their inability to separate from anything\u2013including themselves. Why is there an inability (with leaders) to understand and acknowledge how their past cripples their current effectiveness? My guess is that Desmond Tutu understood his emotional and spiritual need and sought healing through Christ in those 5 hours of prayer each day. He understood that only birth can conquer death\u2013\u201dthe birth, not of the old things again, but of something new.\u201d[6] His life of prayer was his mythology, his poetical fantasy, a hero\u2019s journey.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned above, a separation and initiation began for me when I was very young and as Campbell writes, \u201cThere is nothing we can do except be crucified and resurrected, dismembered totally and then reborn\u201d (16). Reading through Campbell\u2019s book and thinking of my own NPO leads me to questions about our current leadership crisis:<\/p>\n

What part of their journey did leaders today stop taking? And if they did refuse the call and not cross the threshold, then how did they get the leadership position to begin with? I strongly believe we must answer these questions for the generations to come.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was a young girl growing up in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, I spent endless hours playing outside in the woods behind our house. Most times I was with the neighborhood children exploring the trails, paths, lakes and forests building forts and, if we were lucky, collecting turtles. If I wasn\u2019t out exploring the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"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":[1036,2318,2505,2105,921],"class_list":["post-30735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cape-town-advance","tag-desmond-tutu","tag-georgefoxuniveristy","tag-joseph-campbell","tag-wonder-woman","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30735","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\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30735"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30738,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30735\/revisions\/30738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}