STIRRERS AND SAINTS:
Forming Spiritual Leaders of Skill, Depth
and Character
By Brian Harris
Paternoster Press. 199 pages. £16.99
ISBN 978 1 788 933 605
I first met Brian Harris when he was on his six-month sabbatical at Spurgeon’s College and was impressed by the freshness of his voice on issues related to church and church leadership.
Skill, depth, and character are the three words that Harris underlines as vital features in the formation of spiritual leaders. There are so many stories of leaders whose ministries have been car crashes because they could not lead, or led in ways that highlighted their character flaws and lack of wisdom. Too many church leaders know how to preach, but do not know how to lead. A person takes more lessons to pass a driving test than the average church leader has had input on how to lead.
Written from experience
Harris writes from a long experience of leading in a variety of contexts in local church settings and academia. He has lived and worked in many countries and is honest enough to admit that he has had to learn from his mistakes.
This book is divided up into three main sections:
Spiritual practices to form us; Role models to guide us; Leadership practices to follow.
What the author makes clear is that being a good leader is not primarily about what we do, but about who we are. It is said that a church will not rise above the quality of its leaders; it might be added that Christian leaders will not rise above their character. Harris suggests that character is formed by five areas:
1. Life
2. Community
3. Scripture and Prayer
4. Mindfulness (embracing the term but not the philosophy), Reflection and Watchfulness.
5. Conflict, Disappointment and Failure.
It particularly impressive that Harris is openly honest about his own leadership missteps and shows what he has learned through them.
Biblical role models
The role models that Harris suggests are Moses, Daniel, and Mary. Moses is seen as a leader who is prepared for leadership by getting to a stage where he didn’t want the job. Daniel is seen as a model of principled leadership. There is something a bit left field but extremely helpful about seeing Mary as ‘leading from the second chair’. This is not the same as being a backseat driver, but it traces the way that Mary contributed to the shaping of the ministry of Jesus, while stepping back and leaving Him to be Himself.
The final section has three practices to follow:
1. The Seven S’s: Stirrer, Saint, Servant, Shepherd, Steward, See-er, and Sage.
The idea of a leader being a stirrer is an interesting one. Being a stirrer tends to have a negative connotation, but Harris reminds us that leaders to sometimes need to be impatient with the present and can see what changes are needed. Yet the stirrer also needs to be a saint, i.e. godly. Excellent leaders know how to lead and do so in a godly way.
2. Leading Quietly
‘Quiet leaders ask: ‘What are we missing? What have we failed to see? These reflective questions might slow the pace, but if they are asked, the quality of decisions made is likely to be higher.’
3. Leading Without All The Answers.
‘We are all born into a story that started without us … As leaders we are chapters not the whole book … If we don’t know our strengths, we may not use them, and if we do not know our weaknesses, they will undo us.’
Reflection and action
Each chapter concludes with invaluable points for reflection and prompts for practical action.
Brian Harris suspects that this is the most important book he has written. It is a book that helped me; I wish I could have read it 50 years ago. It might have taught me earlier that it is important to learn the art of listening carefully if am to lead well.
Leaders are supposed to be confident in God, but that can easily descend into a short-sighted self-confidence.
‘No one challenges our blind spots, usually because they are shared. Church becomes an echo chamber where what we have always believed is repeatedly reinforced. It is both comfortable and reassuring, but bears little resemblance to the church originally founded by Jesus.’
