New DS, DCM urged to provide leadership, not management

The Rev. Dorothy Waston Tatem looks over the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry display at the ministry fair. Photo by Vicki Brown.

New district superintendents and directors of connectional ministries should be critical boundary negotiators who can help local churches, districts, and conferences align with mission, said a senior consultant for the Institute for Clergy and Congregational Excellence.

But the Rev. Gil Rendle warned the new group of leaders not to expect to make anyone happy. “Don’t forget you are not going to be rewarded, and when you get done no one is going to be happy. Take satisfaction off the list as a criterion for leadership,” Rendle told the group attending a training event conducted by the Council of Bishops, the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, and the General Board of Discipleship at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina.

The Rev. Gil Rendle talks about leadership during the DS/DCM training event at Lake Junaluska. Photo by Vicki Brown.

“It is no longer only a managerial role. You are no longer called to make appointments that will make clergy and churches happy,” Rendle said Monday. Instead, good leaders should ask if churches and clergy are doing the right things.

Superintendents oversee the total ministry of the clergy and churches for ministry and mission within their district. Directors of connectional ministries oversee the program development for the annual conference.

“Like it or not, leadership has been redefined for us,” Rendle said. He said the church is moving from a managerial style of leadership, which seeks to answer the questions, “Are we doing things right?” to a leadership style that seeks to answer the question, “Are we doing the right things?”

That means “you are no longer asked to replicate the work or style of your predecessors,” Rendle said. He asked the group to imagine the difference if rather than expecting leaders to influence the community to follow the leader’s vision, we look for leaders who influence the community to face its problems.”

Rendle, the first of four speakers who will discuss the Four Areas of Focus affirmed by the 2008 General Conference, talked about the first Area of Focus, developing principled Christian leaders.

District superintendents in particular have a powerful tool in the ability to set the agenda, Rendle said. “You can walk into a church and a conference and take them to the less comfortable place,” Rendle said. And that less comfortable place is where change happens, he added.

“You have the power to help people find a better story to live,” Rendle said, a story that moves from the “safe middle” we all like to live in.

Rendle said when he was a pastor in The United Methodist Church, he was taught how to make members, not how to make disciples. And making disciples can be uncomfortable for churches, because it’s going to intrude upon the relationships that are important in the church.

“If I make a disciple and that disciple has a good suggestion, then things are going to change,” Rendle said.

In helping churches align with mission, Rendle told the group they won’t be seeking conformity. “You will be continually raising the question of purpose. Alignment is helping everyone find their own spot.”

Bishop Jane Stewart Allen Middleton, episcopal leader of the Central Pennsylvania Annual Conference, told the group that many of the points Rendle made were reflected in the ministry of Jesus, who consistently moved into different settings and found a way to speak truth to those on the boundary.

She said Jesus always asked if the mission field was being served.

Kristina Gonzalez, associate director of Connectional Ministry: Leadership Development for an Inclusive Church, said one difference for ethnic congregations is that there is a tendency to be hierarchical, particularly in churches of new immigrants. “The role of the pastor is different,” she said.

The Rev. Dorothy Watson Tatem, a new district superintendent from Eastern Pennsylvania, reported that her small group decided in their discussion after the speech that listening is key to good leadership.

“How do you move and act if you have not heard?” she asked.

The Rev. Mary Ann Moman, associate general secretary of GBHEM’s Division of Ordained Ministry, told the group that the church’s general boards and agencies are represented by staff during the week’s event, and she hoped they would take the opportunity to meet them. “Our task as general board staff is to help you with the resources and assistance you need,” she said.

*Brown is associate editor and writer, Office of Interpretation, General Board of Higher Education and Ministry.