A reflection for the Solemnity of All Saints
Raise your hand if you were initially drawn to your organization or community because of the mission or a sense of call, and are now a few degrees removed from what initially drew you to that work (e.g. you started in direct service or ministry, but are now managing budgets, supervising people, or overseeing operations). Keep your hand up if you never intended that to happen or were elected into the role.
I hear this story often and particularly as it relates to administrative leadership. People are not sure exactly how they wound up as the Executive Director or Provincial or board chair, but all of a sudden, they are in administrative leadership roles (and sometimes never get out of them).
A funny thing can happen here. Even those who never wanted to be administrators in the first place find themselves slowly morphing into their administrative identity, until over time they seem to become one with the role. They may not admit it, but because administration has become who they are, they start to struggle if they are not in those roles. Some of these folks can also become quite miserable for others to be around.
Have you met these leaders?:
The faithful functionary: Business as usual; checks off the tasks and prayers; day is full of meetings
The righteous bully: Mission and results focused; often harsh to and critical of those around them
The fearful steward: Unable to decide things; overly cautious and worried about doing the wrong thing
And there are others.
For many of these administrative leaders, even if they don’t see it in themselves, the part inside them that initially called them into service withers away. They never intended to be administrators when they grew up and over time the tasks have been so stressful, busy, or dull that the pastoral part of them has totally drained out.
Nobody wants to become this person. Then why does it happen?
Enter St. Walter of Pontoise, an eleventh century French Benedictine monk. St. Walter was a philosopher, utterly uninterested in administrative leadership. So of course you know where this is headed: Walter was appointed abbot of a monastery. The story goes that St. Walter took extreme measures to escape this administrative role, including fleeing to a desert island to hide. When this didn’t work, he appealed to Pope Gregory VII to submit his resignation. Pope Gregory told him to go back to the monastery, accept his administrative role, and to never leave the monastery again.
Pope Gregory also encouraged St. Walter to make good use of the talents God had given him by serving as abbot. I like to imagine this moment for St. Walter and what came after. The most likely thing to have happened here is that he just begrudgingly accepted his administrative role running an abbey and we would never have heard of him. He could have easily become the faithful functionary, the righteous bully, or the fearful steward. But instead, he lived a life of administration and was later canonized a saint. What made the difference?
I can only wonder if St. Walter took Pope Gregory’s words deeply to heart. I imagine him beginning to see his administration as his ministry and vocation, rather than an additional burden that got in the way of his vocation. “Administration” is mentioned by St. Paul in Corinthians among his litany of other spiritual gifts or charisms (1 Corinthians 12:28). If this is the posture one enters with administration: that the administration is the ministry, and not just in service of it or on the side of it, I believe leaders tap into something different inside. They connect with the spiritual gift and charism of administration, and it changes both the way leaders approach the role and also what the role does to them.
St. Walter returned to the monastery and became known as a great administrative leader who addressed institutional corruption. St. Walter confronted clergy who took advantage of people by selling ecclessial privileges and who were engaged in sexual misconduct. Believe it or not, these efforts were so contentious that St. Walter wound up beaten and thrown in prison.
Every account I read of St. Walter highlighted one thing that kept him focused on his work as ministry after he returned to the monastery: time in quiet prayer. Despite the loads of work he had to do, St. Walter spent significant time before the tabernacle. He was often found there asleep after spending the night in prayer.
St. Walter is the patron saint of job-related stress. He reminds us that if we approach administration as a ministry, it can be a path to sanctification for us and those around us.
St. Walter of Pontoise, patron saint of work related stress, pray for us!
Learn about Live Your Mission’s upcoming reflective workshop for leaders on Dec. 8.
Genevieve Jordan Laskey 