Irrelevant or Dangerous

Learning leadership lessons in light of church scandals

08/02/2018

Matthew 13:47-53 Jesus said to the disciples: "The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth." "Do you understand all these things?" They answered, "Yes." And he replied, "Then every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old." When Jesus finished these parables, he went away from there.

I’ve just started a new book simply called Management by Peter F. Drucker, a well-respected leadership expert. It begins with a comparison between leaders and managers, and asks the provocative question, which of the two would you like to be? Clearly, everyone aspires to be a leader. We read: “Leaders are inspired. Leaders are large. Leaders are the kids with the black leather jackets, sunglasses and sheer unadulterated cool. Managers, well, they’re the somewhat nerdy kids decidedly less interesting, they lack charisma.” But then, surprisingly, the book turned that assumption on its head. It continued: “We could not have been more misguided and juvenile in our thinking…the very best leaders are first and foremost effective managers. Those who seek to lead but fail to manage will become either irrelevant or dangerous, not only to their organizations, but to society.”

In other words, there is an inherent connection and even a co-dependency between leadership and management such that you cannot be one without the other. The best leaders are excellent managers and vice versa. The same person must use each eye – sort of say – to see two things simultaneously: the one eye to see the big picture, and the other eye focused on the small details. To take an eye off one or the other makes a person in charge of an organization either “irrelevant or dangerous.”

Jesus wraps up Matthew 13 with a similar admonition to his apostles: be good leaders but do not stop being great managers. In the whole of Matthew 13, Jesus presents an array of profound parables – the sower and the seed, the weeds and the wheat, the pearl of great price, etc. – and ends by asking the apostles: “Do you understand all these things (these parables)?” They answer, “Yes.” Then our Lord draws the lesson: “Then every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven will be the head of a household who bring from his storeroom both the new and the old.” Notice Jesus ties together leaders and managers by indicating the connection between scribes and heads of households. A scribe’s occupation was giving attention to detail, the drudgery of the day-to-day work – like a manager – while the head of the household beholds the big picture – like a leader. Jesus’ contention, like that of Drucker, is that an apostle must be both, and if fails in one or the other area, “he will become irrelevant or dangerous, not only to his organization, the church, but to society.”

In this context I would like to say a word, with no little trepidation, about the scandal caused by the credible allegations against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the retired archbishop of Washington, D.C. On July 28, Pope Francis accepted Cardinal McCarrick’s (he’s 88 years old) resignation as a cardinal. The pope further restricted him from exercising any public ministry as a priest as well as requiring him to remain sequestered for a life of prayer and penance until the church can examine the accusations brought against him in a church trial. You have probably read the nature of the allegations in the news so I will not recount them here. It feels like someone has punched me in my stomach, and my heart breaks for all the victims, for the Church’s reputation, and also for Cardinal McCarrick. The scandal reaches various levels and dimensions: the moral, the emotional, the psychological, the social, the spiritual, and even the eternal, not to mention the criminal.

But I contend it is also a scandal of leadership, at least in this one respect. Just as Jesus and Peter Drucker warned: you cannot be a good leader without also being a great manager. You cannot be the head of a household without also being a scribe. One cannot ascend to the heights of the hierarchy without also attending to the day-to-day duties of a disciple: prayer, confession, love of the poor, humility, and holiness. “Those who seek to lead but fail to manage will become either irrelevant or dangerous, not only to their organization, but to society.” We have witnessed a very sad example of the truth of that statement today.

There’s a popular proverb that teaches: “Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.” My sincere apologies if it appears I am casting stones or condemning; I am very well aware I also live in a glass house. That’s not my intention. Rather, I just want to remind all of us, especially those called to leadership, not to forget to be also able managers. And the main person we must manage is ourselves, lest we become irrelevant or dangerous.

Praised be Jesus Christ!