These Heels are Killing Me

We just elected a new bishop in our South-Central Synod of Wisconsin (ELCA).  Pastor Mary Stumme Froiland will do a fine job and I look forward to her ministry with interims.  Along with the excitement and suspense of the election process, the assembly was also privileged to hear Bishop Jessica Crist of the Montana Synod speaking on the role of leadership.  Bishop Crist raised a theme that especially struck me:  leadership is accompaniment.   Leadership is neither pushing nor pulling but walking alongside.  These words are especially true as I see things from the perspective of interim ministry.

For nearly 25 years I accompanied vocal students for solo and ensemble contests. A piano accompanist is much different than a piano soloist.  As an accompanist for high school vocalists, I especially understand what it means to be walking alongside that petrified mezzo soprano.  The accompanist usually has to ride the “soft pedal” through most of a kid’s solo because adolescents don’t have much volume.  (It’s not “cool” to breathe from the diaphragm when one is 15.)  The piano accompanist might be able to pull the soloist if he or she is dragging the tempo.  The pianist might be able to push the soloist by exaggerating the phrasing, etc.  But, for the sake of the soloist’s success before a judge, the accompanist walks alongside the vocalist.  Thank you, Bishop Crist.  I think I am starting to get it.

Of course, there are the biblical references of accompaniment as leadership. 

·         On the Road to Emmaus, Jesus accompanied those befuddled disciples about what must happen to the Son of God—being neither doctrinaire nor apologetic but walking alongside. 

·         Ruth decided to accompany Naomi even though Ruth came from a different country and upon the death of her husband, had no other reason to be with Naomi.  But, as widows they had an unspoken bond that accompanied them for the support they could provide each other side by side.

·         Young Mary traveled to visit her cousin Elizabeth who was also pregnant.  The two expectant women accompanied one another for the support they could provide each other because they were on the same page.

The wonderful ministry of hospice care also is an example of accompaniment.  Hospice care is not the same as acute care.  There are no therapies.  There are no target dates for discharge. Rehabilitation is not in the care plan of the patient.  Hospice care is accompanying the patient towards the reality of death while providing comfort and relief.

I think about all the other possible venues where leadership could be improved by a sense of accompaniment.  The austere workplace does not foster accompaniment.  Micro-managing certainly is not an example of walking alongside.  Leadership by Accompaniment is embracing the same goals and ideals and traveling together on the same path.  Successful accompaniment leadership requires parties to be able to accommodate and to roll with the punches as needed.

Leadership by Accompaniment becomes a necessary tool for interim ministry.  It is walking alongside a congregation while slightly nudging them and redirecting them to leave old things behind to behold a new thing.

It has been said that John the Baptist is the unofficial patron saint of interim ministry to whom it was said, “Are you the one or shall we look for another?”  I think we might lift up Ginger Rogers as the patron saint of Leadership by Accompaniment for it was said of St. Ginger she did everything Fred Astaire did except backwards and in high heels.