At the end of a seminar on contemplative spiritual leadership, one person said what I was feeling: How special it is to be with not just one, but a whole group of people who value this kind of leadership. There was a palpable sense of kinship around leading from within. Not controlling, top-down leadership, but collaborative, creative and compassionate leadership. It was relational, rooted in prayerful attentiveness and open to the overflowing energies of the Loving Presence.
Jesus demonstrated that contemplative leadership becomes social artistry: imaginative, free, and illuminating. In teaching with parables, he embodied a countercultural paradigm shift which chose enlightened compassion over self-centered or socially conditioned power. This shift from dominating, controlling power to the power of love acknowledged the ultimate Author of life. Coming from within and beyond at the same time, he was collaborating with the very Source of love.
In today’s Gospel,* Jesus tells his group about how the kingdom (kin-dom) of God is hidden in plain sight. Tiny as a mustard seed, when it sprouts into a wild invasive plant, it can overtake the garden. Or like yeast in bread, it expands beyond imagining. Or it is like a treasure buried in the field that discoverers joyfully give up everything for. All these things are hidden, yet present and offering expansive possibilities. All are see-able, find-able.
And this time, after following Jesus for a long time and listening to his teaching, when Jesus asks them if they understand, they say YES. That’s it. Simply yes. They are no longer scratching their heads in befuddlement. They finally have eyes that see and ears that hear. They get it. They get him. They know the kin-dom of God is at hand.
Such revelation inspires reverence. It inspires deeper commitment and radical action. I believe they went forward newly invigorated, with eyes shining. They were now open to divine possibilities in everything and everyone. And when I left the group of folks focused on contemplative leadership, our eyes were shining, too, and my heart was full of fresh hope.
— Ann Dean, Dayspring Church
- Where do you experience creative, compassionate, collaborative leadership?
- What spiritual practice has helped you see the present reality of God’s kin-dom?
Further reflection…
From “The Teacher’s Vocation” chapter in Evelyn Underhill’s The Mount of Purification:
…Now those sheep-dogs that afternoon gave me a much better address on the way in which pastoral work among souls should be done than I shall be able to give you. They were helping the shepherd to deal with a lot of very active sheep and lambs, to persuade them into the right pastures, to keep them from rushing down the wrong paths. And how did the successful dog do it? Not by barking, fuss, ostentatious authority, any kind of busy behaviour. The best dog that I saw never barked once; and he spent an astonishing amount of his time sitting perfectly still, looking at the shepherd. The communion of spirit between them was perfect. They worked as a unit. Neither of them seemed anxious or in a hurry. Neither was committed to a rigid plan; they were always content to wait.
What did that mean? It meant that his relation to the shepherd was the center of his life; and because of that, he enjoyed doing his job with the sheep, he did not bother about the trouble, nor get discouraged with the apparent results. The dog had transcended mere dogginess. His actions were dictated by something right beyond himself. He was the agent of the shepherd, working for a scheme which was not his own and the whole of which he could not grasp, and it was just that which was the source of the delightedness, the eagerness and also the discipline with which he worked. But he would not have kept that peculiar and intimate relation unless he had sat down and looked at the shepherd a good deal.
