Ragamuffin Leadership

I was an RA at Anderson University, and I remember the chance to revisit the campus I worked.  Upon the visit, I was able to hang out with the ragamuffins who lived on my floor.  What a great time of fellowship!  I have often said that fellowship is when the mighty descend and the lowly rise, but I also think fellowship happens when the lowly congregate. Anyway, it was wonderful to be with the men I lived close to for a year and see where their lives were then and now.  My mind went back to a conversation I had with a friend of mine on campus.  She said, "Ya know!  They say the floor almost always becomes reflections of their RA."  I thought to myself, "Oh no!  That cannot happen.  Nobody wants that.  One P.C. is bad and crazy enough."  Then I went back to visit them and realized how true that is of ANY LEADER on ANY LEVEL.  If you are like me, you realize how ridiculously humbling it can be.

I went back to find freshmen and sophomores then sophomores and juniors who were IN LOVE WITH THE GOSPEL.  I went back to see the craziest guys on campus then...still crazy...but almost each and every one of them filling some sort of leadership role.  I saw several of them in raw honest accountability groups [ash trays included].  I saw a group of guys who pursued God with all their hearts.  I got to see a group of guys in love with Jesus at the very core of their being but who are looked down upon as the "unorthodox" group.

My last day there, one of the guys came up to me before I left for the airport and said, "PC, I just went to an interview for [a large Christian summer camp], and the guy asked me, 'Who is one leader in your life you have respected the most and why,' and I said, 'PC Walker, my RA last year."  He said it was because I lead in a way that built a relationship he respected, and then it was as though I stepped back to watch them grow.

I had no idea.  I was just getting close to my guys and letting them get close to me...the real me.

No matter what level of leadership you are in...even if you do not think you are a leader (you ARE), WE ALL PASS A BIT OF OURSELVES ONTO OTHERS.  That is the great inevitability of relationships.  We all have INFLUENCE to give and receive, to pass on and take on.  Its as easy as creating relationships.

DEEP: a word for the year

Last year, I chose a word to focus on instead of setting a list of goals or resolutions I would not have followed through on. Last year, that word was "restoration". This year, that word is "DEEP".

I learned a valuable lesson when I spoke at a small Christian college in the United States (You can thank me later for narrowing it down for you.) This lesson may well apply to most Christian colleges, universities or churches you visit. I learned never to stand before a crowd containing students, faculty, and administrators of a Christian college or university and state that you are about to “go really deep”. If you ever find yourself before a crowd matching this description, and these words are on the tip of your tongue, bite really hard. I do not mean to use an ambiguous cliché, I mean to quite literally bite your tongue. Perhaps biting it will keep the words ‘go really deep’ from exiting your tongue through the small opening that is your mouth and setting you up for a situation very reminiscent of…oooh??…the Titanic! Slow sinking at first followed by a plunge toward the end! I would say that is a pretty accurate depiction of how it felt. As I was introduced, I made my way up on stage, took the mic in hand and said "Once I get started, I am going to take us real deep real quickly. Is that okay with everyone?” This was the puncture, which started the leak in the ship that day. I talked about the masks we wear in Christian culture and how they often cover up our wounds, which can only heal with exposure.Conversations about our wounds and healing appear deep to me, but I was clearly mistaken. I later realized the problem was not fully in our definitions of ‘deep’ but in my lacking clarification. I should have clarified, “deep in what?’

Two hours had not gone by before I received comments in passing. “I thought you were going to go deep!” “You were not very easy to follow.” “You may need to work on your points a bit more…but good job though.” I received a few emails as well with their fair share of, what should I call it? Feedback? “PC, you and I both know your theology is very weak.” “How can you call yourself an expert or theologian?” (This one is particularly comical, because I would never dream of calling myself either.) “You said at the very beginning of your talk that you were going to ‘go deep’ and you never did that once.” “I checked out the college you went to and…blah, blah, blah…something bad about my Alma Matter…blah, blah.” Notice how the disconnected emails were a bit more abrasive.

PLEASE allow me to make a few things clear right away. It is fully my intention this year to expose things I have seen and done. These things may be offensive and cutting. You may expect my thoughts and writing to be irreverent and theologically shallow. I give my personal guarantee the words you read will be ‘deep’, but deep to an honest place in my heart and not into the recesses of exegesis and five detailed points.

It is promising you will read things that will make theologians sick and scholars angry. It is likely that Armenians and Calvinists alike will be gravely frustrated. I am an equal opportunity annoyance. This will be a collage of stories and reflections that have impacted my life and faith, and of these two things I consider myself an expert. I am not a professional scholar or renowned theologian, but I am an educated and trained expert on the topic of my life and faith. It is my hope you will enjoy what you read. I hope I am entertaining, witty and dessert to your brain. But most importantly I hope my exposed life and faith stirs something within you that has been left unattended or forgotten. I hope my reflections are refreshing even if at times refreshment comes cathartically. So are we clear? For the sake of my inbox, I hope so.

My digital bumper

But I know the band!

Attending a university with an excellent music business program meant there are several friends who eventually started being people I now hear all over the radio. So I thought I would mention a few of those here. 1. Sidewalk Prophets [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8BBCYFAYRI&w=560&h=315] 2. Jon McLaughlin (and his band) [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcDdso4rzXc&w=560&h=315] 3. Tenth Avenue North (one of the guys) [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwtcwQwgdsA&w=560&h=315]

Where'd you guys meet

Poetry got me married. I was a member of Novus Dux. We were a group of guys dedicated to service and various other things.

There were a lot of things we did together with our sisters in  L’Amifidel. The connection between Novus Dux and L’Amifidel was pretty strong.  As a result, we would periodically have days set aside dedicated to serving the L’Ami girls.  We asked all the girls to wear their T-shirts as we didn’t know ALL of them.

The goal throughout the day, whenever you saw a L’Ami girl, was to serve them in that moment.  Most of the guys resorted to the easy way out by opening doors or taking up their bright orange lunch tray.  I chose a more interesting path…more creative…more...tenacious?

I went to the library to check out a few books of sonnets and various other poetry and went out to The Valley. I sat in a patch of grass with books at hand, and at first glance of a L’Ami T-shirt, even if it were the length of the valley, I would recite poetry from the books in my most dramatic fashion.

At one point, I looked up and saw a stunning blond girl walking toward me in a blue T-shirt with the yellow letters ‘Alpha Episilon Pi’. I saw her from a distance, and I flipped quickly to “a good one”, and knelt down. I screamed as loudly and dramatically as I could. I didn’t even know her name. She gave a wry smile and eventually a hearty laugh at my idiocy that was both ridiculous AND charming.

Years later, that stunning blond would be my best friend through our 5^th year of college when we started a dating relationship for a year before getting engaged to be married.

We are frequently asked the common question, “Where did you meet?” It wasn’t on a road trip with friends.  It wasn’t a shared mailbox. It wasn’t a magical Freshman Hike moment.

She would be sure to let you know it was on a day when he read me poetry loudly and inanely in The Valley at Anderson University.  Poetry got me married!

* this is a snippet from a piece I wrote for our alumni association at AU. So it does assume a reader who knows AU