A headline in Bottom Line, a respected management newsletter, announces, “The best advice I ever got.” Here are some samples from the article.
Sirio Maccioni, owner of Le Cirque, New York’s super-chic restaurant: “Do your best, your very best.”
Cameron Meraj, president of the top-selling Century 21 firm in the country: “Working hard isn’t enough-you have to work smart.”
Betty Friedan, feminist, author, lecturer: “The best advice I ever got? ‘This above all: to thine own self be true.’ Hamlet, Act I, Scene 3.”
Do your best. Work smart. Be true to yourself. By now you may be questioning my psychological health, or at least my intellectual depth, for printing such cliches. They seem inappropriate to an issue devoted to pastoral transitions. At first brush, I would agree.
Just last week I sat with a pastor who has been offered an exciting, challenging opportunity quite different from his present successful situation. He is in agony over his decision. If he accepts, he suspects the transition and new responsibilities will bring considerable change to his life and his family. If he declines, he refuses what may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
As we talked, I was at a loss for meaningful words. Well-worn phrases would have been insulting; well-known Scriptures would have been . . . well, well known. “My wife and I will be praying for you” seemed trite. What advice would help a friend staring toward transition?
In spite of the dilemmas this issue’s theme articles present, I find myself returning to the cliches of the “best-advice-I-ever-got” column. Let me share some thoughts.
Do your best. Seldom have I met a pastor or Christian leader who wasn’t doing his or her best. However, most were spending a disproportionate amount of time worrying about what they weren’t getting done instead of enjoying what they were. Many kept second-guessing their efforts and decisions. Yesterday, Harold Myra and I were reviewing a management decision we helped make two years ago that has turned sour. Harold remarked, “No, I refuse to feel bad about our decision. We did our best. Given the same context, we would still make the same decision.”
By definition, doing one’s best precludes anxiety over what didn’t get done or didn’t turn out very well. In major-league baseball, doing one’s best includes seven or even eight out of ten trips to the plate for nothing. In corporate management circles, it means bad judgment calls at least 30 percent of the time. Doing one’s best does not preclude ashes in the mouth, but it does stop you from poisoning yourself by ingesting them.
In his book Instrument of Thy Peace, Alan Paton tells a powerful story of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. When asked what he would do if Pope Paul IV dissolved or otherwise acted against the Society of Jesus, a cause to which Ignatius had devoted all his energies and gifts, he replied, “I would pray for fifteen minutes. Then I would not think of it again.”
Work smart. Be true to yourself. A lot can be said about working smarter. Concepts such as strategic planning, organizing, training, delegating, and implementing are all vitally important to the pastor. But these are a house of cards if not built on a foundation of self-awareness and acceptance. Comfort with ourselves is the basis for personal stability and security. Peter Drucker, the dean of management theorists, once said that when he consults, he tries to make people more effective the way they are, not the way somebody else is.
In the last three months, I have heard a lay person glowingly describe a minister I know to be a great preacher but a poor pastor. Within days, I heard another lay friend use almost the same glowing language to describe a minister who is a poor preacher but a great pastor. Both churches are doing exceptionally well, and both lay friends are growing spiritually.
Bravo for ministers who are true to themselves, understand and build on their strengths, and willingly let others shore up their weaknesses.
If you’re a veteran reader of LEADERSHIP, you will be familiar with the questions on our Reader Survey (p. 94). To the query “What do you like least about LEADERSHIP?” a pastor recently responded, “Not having freedom to legitimately Xerox a specific article and distribute it to the church board for an upcoming meeting. By the time I see some articles, get the time to read them, and decide to use them in a board meeting, there’s not enough time to write for permission to copy.”
Well, we deeply appreciate the conscientiousness of this reader. Furthermore, we want to solve this problem once and for all by granting blanket permission to photocopy any original article in any issue of LEADERSHIP at any time for distribution in local-church meetings. Yes, you read correctly. (The only exception: articles we have reprinted from another source.) We encourage readers to use photocopies as a resource for any meeting of your church if the content might be of help. All we ask is that you indicate on the copies that the article was taken from LEADERSHIP and is used by permission.
If you want to use it beyond your local church, however, or offer it for sale, then you need to ask us in advance for authorization.
Paul D. Robbins is executive vice president of Christianity Today, Inc.
Copyright © 1983 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
