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Salem Quarter NewsSPRING 2008

Quaker Leadership

Arthur Larrabee
General Secretary, PYM

Shortly before he was appointed General Secretary of Philadelphia YM, Arthur Larabee delivered the 44th Annual Walton Lecture to Southeastern Yearly Meeting. The issue of Quaker leadership was much on his mind, as seven months prior, the Philadelphia Inquirer had run an unflattering article quoting two Quaker leaders as saying, among other things, that “Quakers [are] bogged down by their process,” and “are being hobbled by an institutional disdain for leadership.” Although this newspaper article was the first time the topic was made public, concern around issues in Quaker leadership has been the focus of attention within the RSOF for some time. Here are some excerpts from Arthur’s lecture, published with his permission and under his guidance. The editor of Concord Quarterly Meeting Newsletter, from which this is reprinted, has included some transitions to help the readability of these excerpts.

My bias is that our religious society is in need of a fresh perspective on leadership. The perspective I propose is one that honors the exercise of leadership and the leaders among us without compromising the integrity and spiritual understanding of our religious society.

The Power Model in Our Society

If all we knew about leadership had been learned from what is reported about leaders in business, politics and other areas of human endeavor, we would be quite justified in wanting to have nothing to do with it, or them. Perhaps some of us have disdained the idea of leadership in our meetings because we are reacting to examples of leadership that we see modeled in the larger society around us. Sometimes, in the wider world, leadership seems to be all about the person who is the leader. [Arthur offers two newspaper quotes, one describing a new company chief executive that illustrates the centrality of the leader’s own image to his work, the other quoting a political leader whose words ring of arrogance.]

I want to label this model of leadership the “power model.” There are many other examples of the Power Model, they permeate our society and our culture, and I suspect, when many of us think of leadership, it is the Power Model, or some permutation of it, of which we’re thinking. When I talk about leadership in the Society of Friends, I do not have the Power Model in mind. I have something else in mind. I’m calling it the Quaker Model. But Leadership—before I say more about that, let’s look first at how our Quaker practices and beliefs impact our ideas about leadership.

Impact of Quaker Theology and Culture on Leadership and Authority

It is not surprising that aspects of Quaker theology and culture directly impact our attitudes about leadership and authority... Our theology, our experience of worship, our spiritual beliefs and practices, make it very easy for us to assert a certain individual spiritual authority…We Quakers honor the spiritual authority that flows from our individual and corporate experience of the Light Within. But have we not had the experience of someone exercising his or her spiritual authority in a manner that seemed misplaced? … I’m talking about the phenomenon of someone extrapolating from an individual spiritual authority to claim an authority and a power on any matter, in any venue where he or she has feelings or concerns. I’d like to name this phenomenon “Spiritual Entitlement.”

As I see it, Spiritual Entitlement is a distortion of Quaker belief and practice because it discounts and undermines community authority. It also discounts and undermines those who have accepted leadership responsibility.

Spiritual Entitlement and Leadership

Our religious society is particularly vulnerable to those acting out of a sense of Spiritual Entitlement. To our own detriment, we tend to accept and tolerate this attitude and behavior, rather than assert the authority of the community and its leaders. This is what the two Quaker heads of Quaker organizations were complaining about in the newspaper story with which I opened this talk….

Let’s look at an example at an attempt at leadership. In my meeting, and many others of which I’m aware...it is impossible to make any statement whatsoever, however so simple, of shared belief. So, what do Quakers believe? In my experience this is how the all too common answer to this question starts, “Well, it’s hard to say what Quakers believe, or to speak for Quakers as a whole because we believe so many things, but let me tell you what I believe.” This is the beginning, perhaps, made by a fine individual, but there is not much in it that gives you a sense of collective energy or focus.

But let’s take this example one step further, and persist in our efforts to make a statement about Quaker beliefs which might unite us, and draw seekers to us. So, someone might begin by saying that surely we can all agree that Quakers believe in God as understood and illuminated by George Fox, our Society’s founder. Pretty innocuous, yes?

No, is the answer. “How can you say that that Quakers believe in God? I don’t believe in God, and so you can’t say Quakers believe in God, and I’ve been a Quaker for over a year.” This would be Spiritual Entitlement.

What’s wrong with this picture? The responder has confused his own individual experience and belief with Quaker experience and belief, articulated over centuries. So it is that an attempt at articulating core beliefs at the heart of our religious society is thwarted. If I had been a leader in this cause, I would have been pretty discouraged.

A Quaker Model of Leadership

As I conceptualize it, a Quaker model of leadership has six dimensions. First, a leader thinks globally; that is, thinks comprehensively about the whole… A meeting clerk is leading when he is thinking about the needs, opportunities and possibilities for the whole meeting… Thinking globally means not only dealing with the issues of the moment, but also taking a farsighted view; thinking not only about the immediate situation but imagining the future and what it may hold and require.

Second, a leader shares the fruits of her perceptions, ideas and experience. She gathers ideas and makes proposals to the meeting or the committee. A leader is proactive, sharing what she has learned, and inviting others to understand and to share her thinking.

Third, a leader takes risks, sticks his neck out and is willing to be vulnerable in service to the meeting or to a committee. In the process, a leader realizes that creative and new ideas inevitably encounter resistance. A leader is willing to risk rejection. If his ideas are not accepted, he will release them in favor of new insights, new ideas, and new proposals.

Fourth, a Quaker leader is spiritually grounded, has a spiritual awareness and is open to spiritual guidance…

Fifth, a Quaker leader tests her ideas with others to some greater extent than might be expected in the wider world. We expect that new ideas and proposals will be tested with the wider community (or some portion of it, as may be designated by the community). We expect that the community will have insight, both spiritual and temporal, and that the community’s input is an important aspect of arriving at best possible outcomes.

Sixth, a Quaker leader finds his primary satisfaction in the success of the community, and not in his own personal success. A Quaker leader will be less concerned about his personal legacy than about the strength of the meeting when his or her service is completed. A Quaker leader will find satisfaction in service to the community, not in personal power or influence.

In summary, A Quaker leader: thinks globally, shares ideas proactively, takes risks, maintains and nurtures a spiritual awareness, honors the role of the community and derives personal satisfaction from the success of the community.

My hope is that we might get excited about the role of leaders and leadership within our religious society. Let’s begin to name this role, to call attention to its possibilities, and to respect and honor those who are called to be leaders among us.


Arthur’s pamphlet containing the complete text of this lecture can be obtained directly from the FGC bookstore at http://www.quakerbooks.org

Check the FGC bookstore or look on the web for other articles on Quaker leadership. The following articles are from Resources for Fostering Vital Friends Meetings found on the web at http://www.fgcquaker.org/library/

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