I learned again in a business event that a personal experience can be made so strong for persons that they use it to delay or advance the action of a group. It is comforting to know that the principle may be used for good, as it was in the defense by Gamaliel, noted in Acts 5, that not only ended a riot, but made fiery emotional persons more cerebral in decision-making. One man, the revered Gamaliel, swayed the action of a mob. His perception prevailed – for the good of all. But, in the dramatic case before me, the unhappy experience of one, perhaps two or three persons, was projected to the whole body experience of perhaps 500 persons for negative results.
We were invited to present our proposal for the construction of a new church campus. The limited preliminary information was encouraging – significant land acquisition, adequate numbers in the healthy congregation, general high level of enthusiasm, and a clear need for relocation. We, the visiting delegation, had no clue about any hidden agenda. The congregation engaged fundraisers a year or so earlier. The experience was an unhappy one, deemed unsuccessful, and left several wary people in the congregation. The agreement with the consultants was terminated. In the first meeting arranged for us, I caught something, and stated in my summary of the meeting that there were wounds from some earlier experience that needed to be addressed and healed before the group could go forward with confidence. I made points related to possible other barriers. The two other obstacles could, with care, be managed, and would not become barriers.
There were several meetings scheduled. The primary host leader entered and left the meetings on his personal authority, which necessitated repetitions when he returned. He seemed to take a somewhat adversarial stance. Words said by our team were taken as said by the person who had disappointed him a year or so earlier. On occasion we were addressed as though we were interlopers. We were their guests, present by their invitation. And, we were not fundraisers. More and more we became aware that the unhappy reaction for one person to an event of recent history held the entire group at a closed door. The experience made me flit back over the life experiences I have had in church ministry, in college administration, in counseling couples, in consulting for groups, even large corporations – where the personal negative of one or a few persons was made into a corporate negative. It caused families to fail, companies to stumble along, a college to close, and churches to settle into formal mediocrity. What a blessing are those who rightly sense how large is the influence of a leader in a situation, and use that force for good in their support, argument and loyalty. How cursed it seems when the unhappy experience of a person is permitted to shade the vision, the possibilities, the faith of a group – a group that needs its leaders to accomplish that needing to be done. Leadership, a factor necessary for effective societies, may cause either advancement or retreat in the creative options. A pastor friend of mine took a small congregation to a level of a mega-church over a period of decades. An even larger sanctuary was needed, and he wanted to move forward, but there were a number of persons opposed. He stopped further action until unity could be gained – the shelves cleared so that progress would follow, and that in a spirit of joy in accomplishment. He guided the reviews, won the point, and built magnificently for even greater ministry than that before. I watched him: what a humble but clear thinking fellow he was. When the congregation proceeded it seemed like everyone was on board. The result was magnificent. It continues. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020