We Need Leadership, Not Control

by

United Methodist Insight Exclusive

The people of The United Methodist Church at all levels have been calling for the bishops of the Church to provide leadership in troubled and turbulent times, and that call came to a point of crisis at General Conference 2016. Unfortunately, our bishops have confused and conflated leadership with control and the exercise of power. This is what is happening with the work of the Commission on A Way Forward.

It is often the case that leadership, power, and control are found together, but power and control grow out of authentic leadership, never the other way ‘round, and that can be for good or for ill, either benevolent or malevolent. Abraham Lincoln ended up exercising a great deal of power and control during the American Civil War, but that grew out of his original exercise of his leadership ability. Adolf Hitler infamously exercised dominating power and control over the people of Germany and its conquered states during World War II, but that grew out of his spell binding exercise of his leadership abilities.

In response to our call for leadership in the process of finding a way forward in the resolution of our dilemma over human sexuality, the bishops have demonstrated, instead, the exercise of power and control. Control of information is the control of power, and the bishops have resolutely and unilaterally decreed that the deliberations of the Commission on a Way Forward will be closed, and that the report of the Commission will be delivered solely to the Council of Bishops. Now the Council says it will not release the report until it has shaped it to its own taste.

What the Church needs is leadership, not the exercise of dominating power and control.

United Methodist layman Lonnie D. Brooks of Anchorage, Alaska, has served as a delegate to General Conference, conference lay leader and on church-wide boards and agencies. Currently he’s serving as Secretary of the Leadership Team for the Alaska United Methodist Conference.