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Matthew's Leadership

 Chris Farrelly reflects on Matthew’s leadership style 
Chris Farrelly

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Matthew's Leadership

Transcript
Two Italian. He he a whole new day hey Gloria key to add to our he momoiro Mochi to whenua. If a cow pie, kingitanga Taka, Taka Te ururoa at the very top. Ooh a two-night, an aqua, eternity routine, a family Helen technically it's a final fantasy or teenage body Colour keyer, could time I attend a at Tena koutou Tena character, tena koutou katoa Good morning, everyone. I acknowledge you all like, knowledge, the church. I acknowledge Helen and her team acknowledge in a special way my colleagues Linda, and we'll find Helen and Gavin who are standing with me this morning. And I acknowledge you always family and friends. I want to personally. Thank you Helen and the Vestry and the community for this invitation. I'm really personally humbled and honored to be with you this morning on this, very special day in the life of Saint Matthew in the city. I also want to thank you and acknowledge you on behalf of the Auckland City Mission as City. Commissioner Some weeks ago, our general manager, Helen Robinson, spoke to you and spoke of the relationship between the City Mission and st. Matthews. And spoke of our gratitude to this community for being such wonderful, and caring neighbors, to those who are homeless and to our mission. And I just want to Echo those words of Helen this morning and thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The city of mission is our mission. It's our Collective mission. It's wonderful to be your neighbor. Like many of you, I was surprised to walk into this church, this morning and seeing see it being put back to its beautiful form. After seeing it after midnight on National Television last night and I thought it was an Irish party. Actually, there was so much green around and certainly the events of last evening probably close to our mind and heart and our prayer this morning. And the events of the past few weeks, have particularly been very much in our minds and in our prayer. For me, the last five weeks have been about four peas. Politics. Personalities, performance and Promises. No doubt the outcome of the election. When it is fully known. Will be seen differently by different people. But what we have seen over the last five weeks or so is something quite special and incredible for our country. The soil has been tilled and lifted and what was underneath has been brought to the surface. The issues that really matter to us as New Zealand does have been brought very much into the light of day from the Shadows where they frequently exist. And so the issues of course have been. How will we address these things in the future? So much of what we have seen in the last few weeks has been about leadership. What we saw last night was about leadership. And what? No doubt we will see over the next week or two will be about leadership. And so today, I wish to focus on leadership. Firstly, we pray for good leadership in our country. We pray for that wisdom, that was alluded to in the Book of Proverbs. Which we just heard. Secondly, we focus this morning on the leadership, way of Jesus, who we follow. Thirdly we focus on. Jesus has 12 disciples who he called to be his leaders. especially today, the leadership of the disciple Matthew And fourthly, we focus on our own call to leadership. In terms of our focus on Jesus, our liturgy this morning, our prayer, our beautiful music, the words of our hems, the scripture, Our reflection, our contemplation, the very Eucharist itself Keeps Us. Focused on Jesus Keeps Us sharpened keeps the edge. Keeps the Jesus leadership way before us. In terms of the leadership qualities of the 12 disciples one could presume that they in themselves. Must embody the very blueprint for model leadership being that they were called by Jesus. And model of the prerequisites for leadership which we can then emulate. And so, in preparation for today, I searched historical records way back on. What exactly were the leadership qualities of and characteristics of the 12? I was very fortunate to come across some rare archival material from a particularly interesting source, and I'd like to share that with you this morning. It's a memo. And the source is the Jordan management, Consultants based out of Jerusalem. And the memo is addressed to Jesus. Son of Joseph. Address Woodcraft. The carpenter shop Nazareth. And the memo is dear sir. Thank you for submitting the resumes of the 12 men you have picked for management positions in your new organization, All of them have now taken our battery of tests. We've not only run the results through our computer, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologists and Vocational aptitude consultant. It is a staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background education and Vocational aptitude for the type of Enterprise you're undertaking. They do not have a team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proving proven capability. Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership. the two brothers James, and John, the sons of Zebedee Place, personal interest, above company loyalty, Thomas demonstrates, a questioning attitude and could tend to undermine morale. And we feel that it is that it is our duty to tell you. That Matthew has been blacklisted by the greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau for extortion and Corruption. James, the son of alphaeus and thaddaeus definitely have radical leanings and they both registered a high score on the manic-depressive scale. One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He's a man of ability and resourcefulness meets people, well, has a keen business mind and has contacts in high places. He's highly motivated. Ambitious. Responsible, we recommend Judas, Iscariot as your controller and right hand man. All of the other profiles are self-explanatory. We wish you every success in your new Venture. Well, I think that might say it all. These 12 were ordinary men. Seven were fishermen. they all had weaknesses, impulses history emotions and they had their fears And yet as far as we know, apart from Judas, Iscariot who took his life and John who lived to an old age and died, a natural death, the other 12, other 10 were all martyred. Our man st. Matthew was a particularly loathed and hated Man by the Jews. Remembering that Palestine at the time was under occupation by the Romans. Nephew worked against his own people for the Romans. He was a collaborator. We first meet Matthew in kept and I am in his text booth on the main Highway, he was collecting duties on imported goods bought by Farmers Merchants and Caravans and under the Roman Empire's system at the time, Matthew would have paid a tax in advance to the Romans. And then collected from the citizens and travelers to reimburse himself and cover his expenses. Tax Collectors were notoriously corrupt because they extorted far and above what they were owed to ensure their own personal profit. And their decisions were enforced by the Roman soldiers brutally. And so it would have been quite scandalous and offensive for Jesus to pick a tax collector synonymous with oppression as one of his closest followers. These twelve ordinary men were called Disciples. They were chosen as disciples and the word disciple from the Greek mathetes. Means students or apprentices. One committed to following a great leader and passing on her, or his teaching. Not just a matter of passing on teaching and information. There were two other significant components to discipleship. One was to imitate the teachers life. The second in coquetting the teachers values. Imitating the teachers life in co-creating. The teachers values as well as we producing the teachers teachings. From the 12 disciples emerged, 12 Apostles. The word Apostle comes again from the Greek. Meaning one, who is sent out? And here, we have the transition from discipleship to apostle, from one information to one in leadership and Mission. My personal experience from being your closest, and perhaps dearest neighbor for the last 16 months. One, who has watched you worshipped with you listened to you, talked with you received from you. Is that this church? This community and you as individuals are leaders in the tradition and spirit of Jesus and his disciples, one of whom is Saint Matthew. This morning, I stand here and acknowledge your courage. I also acknowledge your fragility. I acknowledge your convictions and your doubts. I acknowledge your inclusivity, your openness to change your hospitality, your generosity. I acknowledge the boundaries you set. I acknowledge your willingness to challenge when necessary and your openness and humility. To be challenged when necessary. You are leaders in our city. You are leaders in the Anglican diocese and you are leaders in our community. As I affirm you and affirm your leadership. I also acknowledge the other side of the coin and that is the responsibility that goes with leadership. A lot of what I have experienced from you and know of you. That I've been privileged privileged to learn through the relationship. We have can be summed up in three core principles of towel Mari, which were taught to me. Tica porno and aloha. In you, I see these three components. Starting with porno porno is knowing what is right? Knowing what truth is. In all honesty. It is the motivation to action. Tikka is putting their right and that truth into action. It is doing what is right in the right way. Holding people responsible for what they say. In our English language, that's possibly best defined as Integrity living what you say. And therein lies the challenge. As City missioner, I speak a lot, and sometimes too much. We as Church speak, people speak a lot, the challenge, of course, has the more you speak, the more is demanded of us in terms to act out what we say. Sometimes it's easier to be silent. And the third component is our Aloha, it is the way in which we put the truth into action and for us is the way is love and compassion. So your leaders and how do we lead? How do we lead? Well, there are leader leadership courses by the thousands. There are leadership's leadership books written by the tens of thousands. So, what is leadership all about? Over my lifetime. I've reflected on this, as I have lived in worked in leadership positions, and observed. Many, wonderful leaders who have inspired me and from that life experience, I have sifted out eight components of leadership from a Christian perspective, I'm not going to delve into each of the eight today. For there's many hours in each but like Yates I will lay them gently, under your feet tread softly for you tread on my dreams. The first I believe for a leadership is trust creation. If there is no trust. If there is no relationship, they cannot be leadership. I believe the heart of leadership is having a relationship and building a trust. And from there, that place true leadership can take can exist. Where there is no trust leadership, can be very fragile. It's interesting in Jesus call to Matthew and to the disciples, the call was follow me. And there there was another piece of scripture, follow me that they may be with me. The colder, the society people's was to be with Jesus, and this surely to develop intimacy to develop trust, to develop a relationship and from that sprung leadership. The second component of leadership is giving direction, a leader. Must give direction We must know where we're going. If we don't as the old saying, goes any Old Road will do We must know where the compass is pointing and follow in that direction. You will notice that in the last little while, the Auckland City Mission, which is your mission has set a clear Direction and challenged the new government of New Zealand to follow in that direction to set a course. Way a pulse, a pathway, a strategy for ending homelessness in New Zealand. That is the direction. We asked the government to sit that strategy to point the compass needle in that direction. Not two men, aged homelessness not to react to it in wintertime, but two ended in our country. The third component of leadership today, I believe is integration the ability to work together. No one, no one Organization. No one movement can can bring about change alone. We must work together and has often been said today, we must find common ground with others. This is not about compromising. This is about enlisting, unleashing, the spirit of, and the potential of synergy, with a whole can become greater than the sum of its parts. The third, the fourth component is mediation. Once you begin to work closely with others differences. Emerge conflicts emerge. Not always bad but they emerge. A leader, must be a skilled mediator. We As Leaders must find the third way all the time. The fifth component is something that we're really used to in our church and that's education, the sixth is motivation. How do we keep the vision alive? How do we keep the fire in the hearts burning? The 7th component is 1, this church and the City Mission next door shared together and that's the component of advocacy. As Leaders, we speak for those who have no voice, we speak for those who are most marginalized. The role of advocacy is essential in leadership and the last, which I am struggling with a little today and I'm working on, for me, is it's hard to find the word. It's, I'm the word. I'm discovering, his humility and the play, and what I'm looking for in leaders today is humility. Preps and Compass by those beautiful words from the prophet Micah. This is what Yahweh asks of you to act justly to love tenderly and to walk humbly with your God. Humility is difficult. It demands emotional intelligence, it demands, self-awareness it demands and ability to recognize and understand our weaknesses, our moods, our emotions our drivers. I'm sure that was a big part of the disciples formation. The need to self-regulate. The ability to control disruptive impulses and to suspend judgment to suspend judgment, not to frame, not to stereotype. But listen, listen to the stories before you make judgement It demands sympathy to walk in the footsteps of the other. so trust creation Direction integration mediation education, motivation, advocacy humility when all wrapped together for me form, the cloak of leadership, And when they are all wrapped together, can best be described in the words of from The Book of Proverbs today as wisdom. If we have those all together, we are indeed wise. Happy are those who find wisdom and those who get understanding.