Learning to follow (again!)

This weekend I ended a one year term as the President of the Standing Committee. This is a churchy term (we really do stand for everyone who comes in the room, but that's a respect thing, not a descriptive thing!) for the Bishop's council of advice. I had to give a report for this wonderful group of people who have served at such a high level over the past year. We were so very fortunate to have Bonnie Anderson, the President of the House of Deputies of the Episcopal Church, with us. She presented the Bishop and me with beautiful tiles to celebrate and symbolize our shared ministry. We were all very moved by Bonnie's thoughtfulness.

But on to the reason for this post. I loved leading the Standing Committee and now I have one more year to remind myself, again, how to follow where I have once led. I will serve on the Standing Commitee for one more year, but not as an officer. I hope to set a good example, and already, only several days into it, I am having to remind myself that I am not the leader now, Paul is.

I know that following after leading is possible, and I know this from my rowing. At rowing, I am very seldom "the leader", that is, the stroke of the boat who sets the cadence and provides the most visible leadership, but I lead the people who are sitting behind me, and I try to lead in attitude and energy for the task at hand, which is normally to beat another crew or crews.

So I am going to take my leading and following very intentionally over the next few days, and keep in mind the picture below, which I love. In rowing there are always people to follow and people to lead, no matter where you are, and since you are going backwards, there is a lot of trust involved. There's an art to doing both these things at the same time, and I feel called to practice that in a very conscious way.