A familiar saying is, "You cannot see the forest for the trees." That is one way of saying one is too close to a problem to be able to see a possible solution, or a different means of operating. Organizational theorists encourage top level leaders to maintain a 30,000-foot perspective rather than being lost in the weeds. Maintaining a 30,000-foot perspective is difficult for pastors and other church leaders. In fact, it is difficult for leaders of any organization. I believe one of the reasons Jesus periodically withdrew from others was to regain a higher perspective on his ministry.
The immediate past president of the board of the International Coach Federation (Leda Turai Petrauskiene, MCC) points out the difference between being a local leader and a leader of an international organization.
If we spend our whole life in one community or congregation our perspective on "normal" becomes limited to that particular order of things. Regardless of where I have lived, I have known people who had never gone to the closest big city, nor worshipped in another congregation. Life looks so very simple from inside the cocoon of the local community or congregation. If required to step away from that which is most familiar the world can feel chaotic, complex and disorienting. It is difficult to function in the new environment.
I had such an experience in my younger years. From first grade through high school I went to the same school, and for a while, the whole school was housed in one multilevel building. My graduation class had 82 members. My first experience of higher education was a freshman year at Ohio State University with 15,000 members of that freshman class. I had been a fairly large fish in the small pond of my high school but was as small as a newly born guppy in the Ohio State University environment. I was totally overwhelmed and at the end of the year was invited not to return for my sophomore year.
Such is the experience of many people from smaller membership congregations who are chosen to serve in the more inclusive councils of the church. There are more people, more complex issues, even issues which were never dealt with or mentioned in their home congregation. Frequently they become disoriented and overwhelmed. A colleague wonders if we are asking folks to function at a higher level of Maslow's hierarchy than they are equipped to function. Another colleague speaks in game theory language of assisting people to "level up."
There is a way to help people make the transition, to level up, to gain a larger perspective. It is not forcing them to climb and dive off the 10-meter diving board. The view can be overwhelming from that height if one has never been there before. Neither is it to insist they stand at the poolside and attempt to describe what can only be seen from the 10-meter board. The ideal would be to increase the height and asking them to describe how they feel and what they see at each successive level.
According to the Urban Dictionary "leveling up" is defined as, When a player of a video game has earned enough experience points to acquire a new level in a skill or skills. Often is accompanied by the ability to wield new weaponry, access new places, or begin new assignments.
Early in my ministry, I served on the Council committee which dealt with pastor/ congregation conflicts and strategic planning. The staff member for that committee frequently took me with him. At first, I merely observed. On the way home, we would debrief the meeting. He was helping me articulate my observations and what lessons I was gaining from the observation. After a while, he began giving me part of the meeting to lead. Again, on the way home, we would debrief the meeting. After some time of leveling up, the staff member put me in lead for the whole meeting with him as the observer. The debriefing of the meeting happened on the way home. Finally, he would send me out with another member of the committee. The methodology was that he worked with me to "level up," and I then worked with others to "level up" them.
Pastors and other church leaders, who are new to their position or when facing new issues, can "level up" with effective coaching. Those newly chosen to participate in the more inclusive councils would find their service less overwhelming with coaching in their first months or year of service.
