Dropping the baton

In my visit to The Potter's House (see last blog entry), my host mentioned that the mother institution, Church of the Savior, had closed down and sold its building as the founder, Gordon Cosby retired. In an exchange with philosophy professor and Christian author Dallas Willard, Cosby posed the question, "Why do churches and ministries so often lose the essence of their founding vision, to the point that the resulting institution, years later, is quite unlike the original dream? What happens along the way?" Willard responded there are exceptional people with a strong vision who start something new. Then,

Organization of their activities takes place, and other organizations spin off from them numbers of talented individuals are drawn to them and make their lives in their wake. But these other individuals - usually, but not always, very well-intending - do not carr the "fire" the "certain something," within them. The mission or missions that have been set a foot begin a subtle divergence from the vision that gripped the founder, and before too long the institution and its mission has become the vision.

Certainly this happens. But Dallas Willard is describing rather than explaining. What he is describing is one of the earliest milestones of every institution: passing the baton from the founder to the next leader. The passing is fumbled in many ways. In some cases, the founder holds onto the baton too long, resisting the release of control. In other cases, the founder simply gives no thought to who should lead next and how. In Africa Rising, this is one of the challenges we see in each of the African organizations - how to manage that first succession of leadership.

Examples of failures to manage the transition litter the roadside. Willard gives a few prominent examples. But our societies are built on examples of successful transition. These are the institutions that managed that first transition and reached heights unimaginable to the original founder. One example might be the Ford Motor Company. Another would be the university where I teach: The University of North Carolina.

I consider leadership transitions to be fundamental to leadership. To that, I would add leadership development. In the case of Gordon Cosby and the Church of the Savior, I wonder what emphasis he gave to raising up new leaders. Within the Church of the Savior, there is the Servant Leadership School.  But as you can see in their website banner, their mission is largely classroom teaching. Passing the baton from a founder to the next leader is a specific task that takes place outside of the classroom. It requires relationship development, mentoring, and the gradual transitioning of responsibilities.

Combine the closing of the Church of the Savior building with the lack of young people in the church's missional communities, and it looks to me like they failed in practical leadership development. It saddens me when I think of what they could have sustained, or how they could have multiplied, with attention to the raising the next generation of leaders.