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2007-10-16 issue:

Getting started in leadership

Leadership column

by Marlene Kropf

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I was a fortunate young adult. When our pastor saw leadership potential in me, he invited me to coteach an adult Sunday school class with him. I was a high school teacher with experience in designing curriculum and creating lesson plans but without formal theological training. As a seminary graduate, he had studied Scripture and theology. Together, we made an effective team.



Later we worked together in a variety of congregational and area conference settings leading spiritual formation retreats. Eventually Marcus Smucker and I became faculty colleagues at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind., where we continued to coteach courses and guide the spiritual formation program of the seminary until his retirement several years ago.

The gift of collaboration. I owe a great debt to Marcus for my early formation as a congregational leader. Rather than just giving me a task and turning me loose, he took the time to collaborate with me. That meant we met to do our planning and then met again to evaluate what we had done. We discovered which parts of the teaching ministry were my strengths, and he freely handed over responsibility to me. At the same time, I valued what I was learning from him, especially his skills with group dynamics.

An important question. Marcus did something else that was critically important. Occasionally in our planning sessions, he’d pause, push back his chair and ask, “How are we doing together?” With that question he created space for both of us to reflect on our working relationship and to openly examine any obstacles or unfinished business.

It was only much later that I realized what a significant gift that question was. By working together as a lay-ordained team, we needed to face the power differential of our partnership. He was always the pastor, and when I needed him to be my pastor (as I did on numerous occasions), we were both able to move back into those roles. It was the regular evaluation of our working relationship, however, that created freedom for me to be both collaborator and parishioner.

The issue of gender. Way back then—in the 1960s and ‘70s, it was not so common for women and men to lead together in truly collaborative partnerships (it still isn’t all that common in the church). Though we both enjoyed the support of our spouses for our common work, it was still   necessary for us to be attentive to appropriate boundaries.

What was just as important, however, was our respect for and trust in each other. Marcus always treated me as an equal. Because of my professional background in public education, I also expected to be treated as an equal.

I’ve since come to believe that male-female collaboration in leadership has potential for much stronger, more creative teams than single-gender teams. When women and men have healthy self-images and truly respect each other as equals, an energy is released that enhances and strengthens the work of ministry. We miss the fullness God intends when either women or men work alone as leaders in mixed-gender settings.

Developing leaders. No matter how congregations choose to develop leadership, what is essential is that the path be clear. Everyone should know how new leaders—both women and men—are called and equipped for ministry. The ongoing growth of each community of faith is dependent upon Spirit-led leaders who guide the congregation’s ministries of worship, witness, peacemaking, pastoral care, teaching, serving, finance and care of creation.

Because of their role, pastors often have the broadest view of the leadership needs of a congregation. Thus a key task for pastors is giving oversight to leadership development—paying attention to spiritual formation as well as training people in the arts and skills of leadership. Depending upon the size of the congregation, pastors may not be able to personally collaborate with each lay leader. But the oversight of the leadership development system is clearly in their bailiwick. Whatever the leadership needs, pastors are called to pray, look for signs of leadership potential and create a hospitable environment in which the gifts of all the saints will flourish for the sake of God’s reign in the world.

Marlene Kropf is minister of worship, congregational and ministerial leadership for Mennonite Church USA.

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