In 1999 I was invited to participate in the Summer Leadership Institute, sponsored by the Center for the Study of Values in Public life, Harvard University Divinity School. There were about forty of us primarily from the United States and one Canadian. The most important lesson I learnt at this ‘international’ event was the difference between ‘managing’ and ‘leading’. Also I discovered the fact that most well known spiritual and political leaders of our day and age such as Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Desmond Tutu, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela etc. perhaps never attended a workshop on leadership. It reminded me of Sister Helen Preteen’s ( who became famous for her novel “Dead Man Walking’) profound observation that in most instances an exceptional situation brings forth a leader like frail but enthusiastic Gandhi, solely and soulfully armed with the spiritual weapon of Satyagraha ( desire for truth) in the four hundred-year-old national upheaval in India to oust the corrupt, oppressive British Raj, or World War 2 which made a timid Winston Churchill an outstanding victorious world leader, or the civil rights movement in the United States where a magnetic Martin Luther King Jr. showed up with a Gandhian style personality and philosophy, the Dutch Calvinist device of Apartheid in South Africa which produced an indefatigable Mandela to combat inhumanity and racism, and the squalid gutters of Calcutta demanded a resourceful saintly healer, Mother Teresa. Such spiritual stalwarts as these possessed a porous charisma through which their followers experienced a dimension of the divine.

These men and women, who did not sit by the raging tidal waves of public outcry for justice, political upheaval towards gaining freedom and human dignity like the legendary Danish King Canute and who are not, to use the words of Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, in his book, The Responsibility Virus, caught in “vacillation between over-and-under-responsibility” are the polar opposites of the notorious megalomaniac tyrants of our day and age such as Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, Mao Zedong, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Marcos, Saddam Hussein, Milosevic, to name a few. Conrad Hilton, the founder of the Hilton hotels, in his fascinating biographical narrative, ‘Be My Guest’ tried to relive “ the highpoints, the valleys, the laughs, the sorrows that have woven themselves into many years of eventual living”, acknowledges, “Texans, it would seem, whether distinct or otherwise, are born and not made”. A comparison of spiritual leaders to the effervescent breed of proud Americans of the state of Texas may not be quite fair, but Hilton is right to emphasize the fact a Texan is no upstart; similarly it is clear that spiritual leaders are not fly-by-night clones. Therefore, I, as did most of the participants, attended this seminar with the hope of being enthralled by the likes of the above-mentioned world-renowned icons!

The second book of Samuel begins with the sad story of Saul’s death, the very first anointed king of the Hebrew people. David’s elegy of his nemesis Saul and his best friend Jonathan is well known to the Jewish people as they still read the “Song of the Bow” at the funeral services of all Israeli army officers.

“Your glory, O Israel, lies slain upon your high paces!
How the mighty have fallen! (2 Samuel 1:17-27)

Leadership has become a fashionable word in our culture as we do not have leaders of exceptional moral and spiritual stature. While it is crucially important for us to emulate and learn from unique men and women of impressive moral caliber, it is impossible to produce natural leaders. In the Biblical tradition leaders were called by God, as in the classic examples of Moses, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah and other Hebrew prophets, the disciples of Jesus who became the apostles (the sent ones) of the early church. Saint Paul, who was trained in the male-chauvinistic Greek thought and way of life, cautioned the early church largely controlled by men about a spiritual leader as “ If a man is eager to be a church leader, he desires an excellent work. A church leader must be without fault; he must have only one wife, be sober, self-controlled and orderly; he must welcome strangers in his home; he must be able to teach; he must not be a drunkard or a violent man, but gentle and peaceful; he must not love money; he must be able to manage his own family well and make his children obey him with respect…...He must be mature in the faith….He should be a man who is respected by the people outside the church, so that he will not be disgraced and fall into the Devil’s trap. (1 Timothy 3: 1-7) In other words, unlike political leaders like Abraham Lincoln or Indira Gandhi who were democratically elected or the monarchs who inherit their public offices by birth, the leadership roles spiritual leaders are neither earned by public opinion and popular support or granted as heirs but by a mystical thing traditionally known as God’s call to service. The late Mother Teresa of Calcutta always reminded her followers and admirers of her “call within a call” to be the saintly healer of the poor of the forlorn streets of that city. There is a well known story of an affluent tourist approaching the saintly woman with a cocky, smug desire to help her missionary work: “Please let me know if I could help you in any way?” The reply was blunt and brief. “Go and find your own Calcutta!”

Although my parents instilled in me a special reverence for those in authority and in leadership, my very first somber encounter with the concept of ‘leadership’ goes back to my ‘Abnormal and Social Psychology’ class where we were taught the virtues of ‘leadership’ and also how to acquire some, if not all, of the lofty ideals of leadership in my own formative years in order to better serve the society and eventually the world. The Roman Catholic archbishop belonged to our family and he exuded remarkable humility and moral stature in our community; in fact, he was the only accessible quintessence of leadership that I ever came to know, appreciate and emulate on a very personal basis. And we were encouraged to observe the lives of great men and women such as Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Schweitzer, Helen Keller, Father Damien; and still remember the lines which taught me the intrinsic worth of burning the midnight oil:

“Heights by great men (women) reached and kept
were not attained by sudden flight,
but they, while others slept, were
toiling upwards in the night”.

One of my teachers Robert Coles in his book ‘The Call to Service’ (in a chapter on leaders and their satisfactions) catalogues five specific items, namely

1. Something done, Something reached,
2. Moral Purpose
3. Personal Affirmation
4. Stoic Endurance and
5. A Boost to Success

Coles refers to the influence of reading Middlemarch and War and Peace in his younger days where he learned “the effort of George Eliot and Tolstoy to render a time, a place, a series of events, through the concreteness of character portrayal, through narrative attention to ordinary people, as well as the exceptional ones, those with money, power, privilege.” (p.74). On a personal note, I recall my mother’s words of encouragement as she prepared me to seek ordination in the Church and my father’s influence in my own decision to become a servant of the servant of God’s people. Here I find Henri Nouwen’s affirmations:

“When I know that I am chosen, I know that I have been seen as a special person”, (p.52) “We are God’s chosen ones, even when our world does not choose us”, (p. 59) “When we keep claiming the light, we will find ourselves becoming more and more radiant” (p.63) “The real question is not, “What can we offer each other?”, but “Who can we be for each other?” (p.112) and “We are called to become bread for each other—bread for the world” (p.120) and so forth very positive and helpful.

Therefore, I am pleased to state that my understanding of leadership does not derive from Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’: we are born in a cave shackled from the neck, incapable of facing the light but watching the depressing shadow of my pathetic existence. I would rather the narrative in the Hebrew Scriptures where God calls a fugitive murder called Moses, where God keeps calling a little boy named Samuel as Israel’s very first prophet, where the Psalmist seriously plays up his claim to be noticed and claimed by God : “You are the one who put me together inside my mother’s body, and I praise you because of the wonderful way you created me. Everything you do is marvelous! Of this I have no doubt. Nothing about me is hidden from you! I was secretly woven together deep in the earth below, but with your own eyes you saw my body being formed. Even before I was born, you had written in your book everything I would do.” (Psalm 139:13-16) I vividly recall the formative maternal spiritual nudging I received from my devout mother, who was more instrumental than any one else in my calling to be “a letter written by Christ”, as I was reminded of St. Paul’s unambiguous words of authority by one of my great teachers and the preacher at my ordination in the United Church of Canada thirty years ago. “You yourselves are the letter we have, written on our hearts for everyone to know and read. It is clear that Christ himself wrote this letter and sent it by us. It is written, not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, and not on stone tablets but on human hearts.” (2 Corinthians 3: 2- 3). Martin Luther’s words are appropriate in this context:

“This life, therefore, is not righteousness
but growth in righteousness;
Not health, but healing;
Not being but becoming;
Not rest but exercise.
We are not yet what we shall be,
but we are growing toward it.
The process is not yet finished
but it is going on.
This is not the end,
but it is the road.
All does yet gleam in glory,
but all is being purified.”

Spirituality is the interface of the human spirit at its best. Spiritual life is breathing life which is known as jivaswasa (Sanskrit), Manitou (Ojibway), pneuma (Greek), ruach (Hebrew).

Undeniably, in government, education, business and religion, we are indeed facing an unprecedented crisis in leadership in the turbulent world in which we find ourselves today. We look to leaders for quick-fix answers and solutions to our economic uncertainty, urban problems such as crime, poverty, youth unemployment, political turmoil in Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Bosnia, East Timor and too many places where millions of people live in a culture of fear and terrorism.

Not long ago, I was one of the forty church leaders invited to attend the Summer Leadership Institute at Harvard University’s Center of the Study of Values in Public Life. I learned that besides the socio-economic and political messiness around us, our religious communities are also mired in mumbo-jumbo theologies and new age spiritualities, struggling in the game of survival. A closer examination of these volatile situations teaches us a lesson: most of the men and women entrusted to lead us are not leaders, but managers. The main-line church has been relegated to the sidelines, the margins of our society and the world. We need leaders with heart, who know the history and tradition. Sadly we are left with an over-managed and under-led church which has lost its core, its soul and its Savior.

Israel’s first king, Saul, had charisma and wealth. But he lacked something vitally important for a king: a good heart. Therefore, the prophet Samuel had to go into a tiny village called Bethlehem looking for a good candidate. David, a shepherd boy, taking care of his sheep, was anointed as the new leader with heart.

Leaders offer a goal and a vision to a people, as did Moses at the beginning of his 40-year career in the wilderness. But he was reduced to a managerial role when his followers challenged God by saying, “Can God provide food out here in the desert?”. Moses became preoccupied with day-to-day survival and on Mount Nebo, God brought in a new leader named Joshua to help the children of Israel cross the Jordan to the Promised Land.

Leaders offer direction, passion, moral stature, courage and wisdom. Managers are negotiators, heads of departments, good at manipulation and strategy. In fact, leaders and managers are two types of people. To ‘manage’ means to control. Managers are trained regulators and conservators of existing system. Leaders help people choose their goals. Management is coping with complex situations. Leadership is all about coping with change.

In our churches, most bishops and clergy are ‘micro-managers’, as are their counterparts in education, politics, business and health services. Our society desperately needs leaders with strong relational skills, spirit of entrepreneurial energy, team players with solid self-esteem and flexibility, self-starters and very strong finishers. We need leaders who spend uninterrupted, quality time with God and God’s people in all faith communities, who eat healthily, get proper rest, exercise regularly, have a mentor/counselor, coach, love family and friends, take vacations annually, take a day off weekly, enjoy at least one hobby routinely, and take commitment seriously and take themselves with a good sense of humor.

At this crossroads of human history, as we stand at the threshold of the third millennium, we are truly blessed with a host of role models in all nations and all religious traditions – from Sarah and Hagar to Saint / Mother Teresa, from Moses to Mahatma Gandhi, from George Washington to Martin Luther King Jr.

At the Summer Program in Theology held at Christ Church College, University of Oxford Episcopalian bishop Carolyn Tanner Irish of Utah suggested five ingredients of the spiritual life of spiritual leadership.

1. Spirituality and Prayer: Meanings
2. Word and Spirit: Journaling
3. Discernment: Realities and Possibilities
4. Solitude, Silence, and Sabbath: Contexts
5. Sin and Morality: Forgiveness and Healing

And I would add a 6th theme to her list, and that is the Role of Spiritual Values in Public Leadership. In order to emphasize the remarkable role of contemplation, we included a traditional prayer, which we traditionally use in the funeral services:

“O Lord, support us all the day long
of this troublous life,
until the shadows lengthen,
and the busy world is hushed,
and the fever of life is over,
and our work is done.
Then, in your mercy,
grant us a safe lodging, a holy rest,
and peace at the last;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

In our post-modern age, with the relegation of religion to the margins of the society, it has become strikingly clear that more and more people choose to ignore the traditional religious paraphernalia and deliberately search for the ‘spiritual’. As a religious leader I have worked hard to nurture the religious community for over thirty years; therefore, it is disheartening to watch the post-modern trend of millions of seekers pursuing the “spiritual”. In my opinion, the spiritual does not exist without the “religious”. Perhaps it is a matter of commitment and integrity. In order to highlight my case in point, in the following paragraphs, I would like to focus on the important role of religion in the lives of the people.

Spiritual leaders demonstrate a personal authenticity deeply engaged in their own respective faith traditions. Henri Nouwen has a unique manner in which he describes a spiritual person, “to identify the movements of the Spirit in our lives, I have found it helpful to use four words: the beloved, who is ‘taken’, ‘blessed’, ‘broken’ and ‘given’ “; (p.49) here he uses the sacramental metaphor of the Holy Communion or Eucharist where the elements are ‘taken, blessed, broken and given’ so that the recipient of the holy elements may experience a mystical transformation. Referring to the believer on his/her towards a role of leader, the author describes the incipient stage as a time of restlessness quoting Augustine’s well know words, “My soul is restless until it rests in you, O God”. Such a person is “always searching for God, always struggling to discover the fullness of Love, always yearning for the complete truth,….a taste of God, of Love, and of Truth” (p.44). Nouwen elaborates his idea of ‘becoming the beloved’, which means ‘letting the truth of our Belovedness become enfleshed in everything we think, say or do’. (p.45). Nouwen also summarizes the life of a Christian, “I am called to become bread for the world: bread that is taken, blessed, broken, and given.” (p.49). This assignment, in fact, does address the spiritual life of Christian leaders and does not deal with the spiritual life of spiritual leaders who belong to other faith traditions as their understanding of spiritual life and leadership would be drastically different. I feel it is important that in our multicultural and multi-faith contexts, we do not have the final word on most things other than our own. Therefore, we Christians need to exercise premeditated generosity of the spirit when we address these topics of concern and interest to all humankind. In fact, Nouwen abundantly demonstrates that generosity of the spirit as he adds, “these four words have become the most important words of my life. Only gradually has their meaning become known to me, and I feel that I won’t ever know their full profundity. They are the post personal as well as the most universal words. They express the most spiritual as well as the secular truth. They speak about the most divine as well as the human behavior. They reach high as well as low, embrace God as well as all people. They succinctly express the complexity of life and embrace its ever-unfolding mystery. They are the keys to understanding not only the lives of the great prophets of Israel and the life of Jesus of Nazareth, but also our own lives.”. The only quarrel I should pick with Nouwen is his intriguingly peculiar use of the word, ‘secular’. As do nearly all his scholarly colleagues trained in the Western thought, he mistakenly attempts to distinguish between the sacred/spiritual and the secular/mundane! The only two Western scholars who, after extensive personal debates, finally agreed with my insistence on the continuum of spiritual-secular are Diogenes Allan and the late Wilfred Cantwell Smith. I would hope that Paul Tillich would have understood my position after his exposure to and immersion into both Indian and Japanese ways of thinking. It is fair to conclude that all major spiritual leaders of all religious and cultural varieties held on to such an all-encompassing perception of spiritual leadership.

Let me conclude this paper with the words of T.S. Eliot who was enthralled by the Upanishadic vision, which I believe all spiritual leaders are able to relate to in some measure,

“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time”.

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De Mello, Anthony. Sadhana A Way to God. St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1983
Merton, Thomas. Contemplative Prayer. New York:Image Books. 1971
Palmer, Parker J. Leading from Within: Reflections on Spirituality and Leadership (Pooter House Book Service)
Nouwen, Henri, J.M. Life of the Beloved, Spiritual Living in a Secular World, The crossroad Publishing Company, 1992
Martin, Jerry. The Responsibility Virus