Trevor Archer highlights the serious blessings of merriment in ministry
The middle of an epidemic feels a slightly inappropriate time for an article on humour in leadership! However, the Editor was keen to still run with it and I was further persuaded by reading Rachel Jones on a recent Gospel Coalition blog: Three Ways Humour Can Help in Hard Times.
Many things in life are very sad and solemn and always will be – disease, racism and death to name but three. More so, nothing is more serious than the gospel. However, it is vital in leadership to make distinction between taking the gospel seriously whilst not taking myself too seriously. Knowing ourselves, our failings and sins and inconsistences, how can there be a place for self–importance or pretension?
After 35 years in Christian ministry (and 15 years in business before that) encountering all sorts of men and women in leadership, I am convinced that the issue of humour is a serious matter! Its absence in a leader often breeds a culture of fear, a harsh, judgemental spirit; its presence, a spring of life to those we work alongside. Spurgeon had it right: ‘I do believe in my heart that there may be as much holiness in a laugh as in a cry’ (The Art of Illustration).
Here are three brief thoughts as to why humour in leadership is so important:
It is good for you!
One of the joys of life is that the Lord has created us each with our own unique natures and dispositions. Extrovert or introvert, thriving on the company of others or happy to be on our own, our distinctiveness is reflected in the things we laugh at or find amusing. Laughter is triggered by a kaleidoscope of different factors and in turn is conditioned by our various cultures and backgrounds. Yet what is common in the purest form of laughter is that it is best served at our expense, devoid of malice or crudeness, but magnifying life’s idiosyncrasies to invite a shared amusement.
A defensiveness that won’t allow others to laugh at our own foibles is a worrying sign in a leader. Underneath that often lies a deep insecurity. Leaders who have little humour, who are quick to take offence, or can’t readily see the funny side of things, have a very weak grip on their identity and worth in Christ. Insecurity fears letting people come too near, dropping our guard the danger of losing some imagined ‘status’ or gravitas. The Scriptures warn us that this is not good for your health. If ‘a cheerful heart is good medicine’ (Prov.17:22) the converse is true and opens the door to the dangers of both mental and physical health problems.
A good hold on who we are in Christ is immensely liberating. I don’t have to try to live up to some imagined role or pretend to be somebody that I’m not. I am a child of God, loved with an everlasting love, made with my own unique personality and my own story of His grace and forgiveness. Spurgeon captured this wonderfully: ‘There are times if I sit and think of the grace of God to me, the most undeserving of all his creatures, I am ready to laugh and cry at the same time for joy that ever the Lord should have looked in love and favour upon me!’ (According to Promise).
My advice to younger people in leadership is to get a strong grip on the sovereignty of God; the fact that the church belongs to Him and He has given us some small part in leading one small part of it. Moreover, whatever comes our way He has ordained, whatever challenges we face – and I say this reverently – they are ultimately His problem, not mine! Yes, I will seek with His help to use whatever gifts and responsibilities He has entrusted to me with wisdom and grace, but at the end of the day He will build His church – even in spite of me! To grasp that is immensely liberating.
To hold lightly to our ‘reputation’, to readily see that leading a bunch of sinners saved by grace (myself included) will throw up all sorts of curved balls in your direction and to have a ready sense of the ridiculous will not only keep you sane, it will keep you humble and approachable.
It is good for the team
I have had the joy and privilege of serving in two church leadership teams (at Chessington and The Globe, London) and numerous committees organising Schools Ministry, Youth Camps, Men’s Conventions and FIEC events. There is something about laughter which cements people together and creates a happy working environment, so vital when things go wrong and challenges arise.
Biblical leadership is first and foremost relational, not transactional – a lesson I fear many have not yet grasped. We are together ‘unprofitable servants’, a bunch of men and women whom God has brought together at any given time and place to serve Him. The leader will always set the tone and culture for a team. A harsh, overbearing spirit is a killer to teamwork and as foreign to the example of Christ as it’s possible to imagine.
The ability to laugh at yourself, not to take yourself too seriously, to see the funny side of things, creates an environment in which a team can grow and relax and build trust. It debunks pretension and is a natural expression of a humility that ought to be a given for all in leadership. In this regard having meals and downtime together are so important. Sharing stories, laughing and celebrating, weeping and mourning together, help build love, affection and trust. The happiest teams that I have been part of have given time to these vital aspects of relational leadership.
For 20 years, John Tindall and I worked together as the Co-Pastors of Chessington Evangelical. John from Manchester, me from London. It was Les Dawson meets Del Boy! Our shared humour was a precious gift that often led to uproarious Staff and Elders meetings. We regularly tested the patience of colleagues, who would sometimes view us with headmasterly disdain whilst the two of us were convulsed with laughter. Their disapproval only fuelled our chuckles!
But it created a ‘band of brothers’, a readiness to challenge one another whilst remaining deeply committed to each other. In God’s goodness many of those men, and their wives, themselves went off into pastoral ministry around the country. Many of them would say today that humour created an environment for folk to thrive in – and with it, fond memories that years later are taken out and dusted, moments relived, and joy shared. (I am still trying to persuade John that we could earn a retirement living doing a Roadshow à la David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd recounting a host of stories and funny incidents from our collective 80 years in ministry!)
It is good for the church
Mid-May saw the farewell at All Souls Langham Place for Hugh and Clare Palmer, after 16 years of leadership. The lockdown prevented the church meeting together so the ministry trainees put together a wonderful video featuring scores of people from the congregation thanking Hugh for a whole variety of things: his preaching, servant leadership, friendship, example… ‘and not taking yourself too seriously’ (there it is again!). The tribute reflected many of the qualities mentioned in this article.
As with a leadership team, so the whole church; they will capture the ethos and spirit, the example and humility of their leaders. Self-deprecation invites people in, it gives permission to laugh at ourselves as a church and celebrate our inconsistencies and foibles. It is so healthy and is a safeguard against self-importance and the cult of personality. It implicitly keeps us grounded; it never travels alone.
In life there exists, in close proximity, joy and sadness, laughter and weeping – the ‘tragicomedy’ of our experience as human beings which all the great comics and playwrights have exploited to great effect. Tears of sadness and tears of happiness are close cousins. The apostle Paul counselled: ‘Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn’ (Rom.12:15). Church life will reflect both. Or as Ecclesiastes puts it: ‘There is a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance.’ There is health in grief and there is health in humour. Both are part of Christian experience and discipleship for any church.
In all churches, sooner or later, deep tragedies will be a painful part of our journey home. It is my experience that those best equipped and able to cope with such heartbreaks are those where a deep joy in the Lord, expressed and exampled by its leaders, has prepared the ground for the ‘day of trouble’.
The Bible calls God, the ‘blessed God’ (1 Tim. 1:11) and that the fruit of His Spirit in a believer is to share in His joy. At the danger of overkill, let me give the closing word to Spurgeon: ‘If anyone’s mouth ought to be full of laughter, it certainly should be ours, cheerfulness is the sunshine of the heart’ (The Salt Seller).
