In our last blog we paused to celebrate the privilege of partnering with God in filling so many significant leadership roles in our Church Schools in the last academic year. However, we also want to recognise that the nature of the recruitment process (if it is a good one) means that there will be multiple applicants for each role and therefore not everyone will have cause to celebrate every time.
Whilst this is incredibly exciting and affirming for the successful candidate, for those of us who have taken the courageous, and often vulnerable step of throwing our hats in the ring without such seeming “success”, it can be both discouraging and disorientating.
At Emmaus Leadership, we feel a profound sense of calling to journey with and draw out the leadership potential in each and every candidate, not just those who are appointed the first-time round. This is a process, and it requires patience and perseverance, humility and courage. It requires a readiness to walk through the following stages of the human experience, described by Old Testament scholar Walter Bruggeman in his book “Psalms and the Life of Faith”:
Stage 1: Orientation; a place in which everything seems right with the world. Faith/life/work is good and steady, we feel relatively settled and secure.
Stage 2: Disorientation; a place in which we face losses and setbacks. Perhaps like the psalmist we feel we have fallen into a pit (Ps 88:4) . This is a place of disappointment and confusion with many seemingly unanswered questions.
Stage 3: Reorientation; as we journey with God through the hurt and the questions, we discover that He is Faithful and we are able to grow through the process. As such, we are able to move into a place of gratitude and a deeper awareness of both ourselves and God.
At Emmaus leadership, we are here for the whole journey. We trust that whilst not everyone can be “successful” every time, that is not to say that our efforts are wasted or that God is not able to use the experience, if we let him, for our good and His glory. To move us from a place of Disorientation to Reorientation. That’s why we are committed to helping you reflect and learn from each application, to walk and talk with you through the highs and lows of the recruitment process so that you might continue to put your best foot forward. Our hope is that in so doing, you will discover a deeper awareness of your unique gifts, skills and areas of growth as a leader, and our Church Schools will in turn be blessed with a growing pool of resilient, humble, faith filled leaders who are able to overcome setbacks and patiently stay the course, come what may.
God knows we need them!