The last couple of days have been unlike anything any of us have ever been a part of before. As I’ve watched TV and the list of events that have been canceled or postponed has grown—sporting events, schools, conferences, cruises, all manner of large group gatherings—I think I’ve heard the two words “uncharted territory” more than ever before in my life. The coronavirus has disrupted the normalcy of life for most of us more than we ever imagined it could.
As I reflect on the events, a number of thoughts are swirling in my head. While some of them have to do with not being able to fill out a March Madness bracket … or hoping the baseball season isn’t too terribly delayed … or thinking a cruise may not be the best plan for a summer vacation for me and my wife (although my guess is prices will be really, really low because they’re trying to attract folks back to the industry), there are a couple of issues surrounding the coronavirus pandemic that I believe are worthy of some extended thought and consideration.
First has to do with the nature of leadership in our day and the unique context in which those of us who have leadership responsibilities are called to lead. A helpful concept is the one popularized by Ron Heifetz of “adaptive leadership.” Heifetz basically says that the primary responsibility of leaders is to solve problems, some of which can be anticipated. But in times of tremendous cultural change, the issues you’ll encounter and the problems you’ll run up against can’t always be anticipated. The leader needs to be flexible, adjust on the fly, and tap into new learning in real time in order to successfully solve these problems. The ability to do that is what he calls “adaptive leadership.”
Tod Bolsinger, in his incredible book Canoeing the Mountains, speaks to this at great length. He draws upon the story of Lewis and Clark and their search to find a waterway to the Pacific. Their team trained for a voyage along waterways, believing their journey would enable them to uncover a heretofore unidentified waterway to the Pacific. Imagine their shock when they came to the headwaters of the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains sprang up before them! There was no immediately apparent waterway that would take them to the Pacific, which meant that the learning that had served them up until this point in this journey would not serve them going forward. The landscape they would encounter going forward was very different than the landscape they had dealt with up until this point. The training and skills they’d relied upon in the past, which were essential for navigating waterways, would not serve them when it came to navigating mountains. If their voyage was going to continue and they were going to realize their goal, they must adjust to a new reality and adapt accordingly. If they were going to solve the problems associated with traversing mountainous terrain, they must rely on and tap into new learning. That’s what the phrase “uncharted territory” is all about.
The coronavirus situation is an uncharted territory circumstance and is requiring people from a variety of different fields—government, education, academia, etc.—to make decisions about something where they have no relevant past experience to guide them. These decisions are hard because you’re never fully sure whether you’re right—whether time will affirm that the decision you made was correct or incorrect … whether it was prudent and judicious, or whether it was rash and reckless. But you make the best call you know to make at the time you believe you need to make it, knowing that the situation is fluid and dynamic and you may need to alter your decision sometime down the road as new information is brought to bear upon the matter.
The emergence of the COVID-19 virus is demonstrating for us what I believe will be the primary understanding of leadership for the future. The only thing we can say about the future in North America, particularly for those of us who are followers of Jesus and involved in leadership in the local church arena, is that it won’t look like what it has looked like in the past. While we don’t know what it will look like, I think we can safely say what it won’t look like—the past! We are in a new day. And while we must always respect and honor the past (as well as make sure that we don’t veer from the foundational tenets and beliefs that the past has entrusted to us) we must also not allow the past to stifle and prevent us from embracing the future that is before us.
The second thought that comes to my mind about the coronavirus issue is that it places a tremendous opportunity before us as followers of Jesus. When the world presents what is perceived by many to be a crisis, the church is given a chance to shine. People looking for assurance, understanding, and a sense of surety are receptive and open in ways that typically isn’t the case. For that reason, I think the coronavirus issue gives us a unique opportunity to impact the world around us.
Granted—one of the challenges of adaptive leadership is trust. As Tod Bolsinger said in Canoeing the Mountains, “People won’t follow you off the map unless they trust you on the map.” And unfortunately, the church has not been the most trustworthy of institutions in recent years. The moral failings of high profile leaders … the cover-up perpetuated by the Catholic church in light of abusive behavior perpetuated by a number of priests over a period of years … our preoccupation with political power to where evangelicals are perceived by many primarily as a political faction rather than a spiritual entity … all these things contribute to a diminished sense of trust in the church on many people’s part. But if we can step up and respond to this situation the way Jesus would—doing what we can to insure the health and well-being of everyone without evidencing a spirit of fear and/or panic—we can perhaps begin to recapture a measure of the eroding sense of trust that has ebbed away. And when the next crisis comes along—and make no mistake, it will … in a fallen world it’s not a matter of “if”, but “when”—perhaps we can be perceived as a viable place to find solace, and serve as a beacon of hope, at a time when people are looking for such. May God help us manifest the transformed kind of life Jesus imparts and leverage this opportunity so we can be used of Him in this uncertain and unpredictable world, where unforeseeable things happen, that we’re a part of.
Jesus himself said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27 – NIV). While I would never want to minimize the grief and/or pain of those who have suffered or lost loved ones at the hands of COVID-19, if the church of Jesus Christ can truly be the church and respond in the way He’d respond, this pandemic can perhaps be a blessing in disguise.