Leading Ideas – Lewis Center for Church Leadership – Wednesday, 22
January 2014
Nelson Mandela — A Leader for His Time by Lovett H. Weems, Jr.
Late last year, the world paid tribute to the remarkable life of
Nelson Mandela. Some said there had been nothing like it since the death of
Winston Churchill. Such would be appropriate since any short list of great
leaders of the last century would have to include both names. One commentator
said that when notable public figures die, it is common to say that we must
wait for history to write their legacies, but not so with Mandela. His legacy
is known. His place in history is secure and gigantic.
Nelson Mandela was a likely leader and an unlikely leader. On
the one hand, he came from a royal heritage within his tribe, was
intellectually and physically strong, and was educated. On the other hand,
because of the color of his skin, he had few opportunities within South Africa
under apartheid, a system of political oppression of non-whites considered by
many to have been even more pervasive and violent than its counterpart in the
United States. In addition, he spent twenty-seven years of his life as a
prisoner of the government, during the time when most great leaders are
bolstering their credentials, experience, credibility, and connections.
It was as if those years prepared him for leadership in ways he
could not have imagined at the time. He drew from all the resources he brought
with him to prison not only to survive but to grow. He kept a self-confidence
that came from his royal heritage. He drew from his education in mission
schools. He kept hope by knowing or learning that the cause of justice in his
country had to go beyond freedom for any one person or group. The magnanimous
Mandela was hewn in the midst of certain anger and resentment that could have
crushed him and his spirit. Bishop Desmond Tutu speaks of a “transformation”
that took place in Mandela during the prison years. While suffering can make
someone bitter and hard, Tutu said imprisonment toughened Mandela but in a
particular way. Adversity made him strong but paradoxically more compassionate
and gentle. (Interview by John Carlin, PBS Frontline)
Mandela managed a feat exceedingly difficult for anyone. He
maintained hope while not winning. This hope and his ability to stay focused on
the goal of justice while continuing to learn and grow made him just the leader
needed for his nation and his time. He was ever mindful of his failings and
imperfections and never claimed to be more righteous than others. However, he
managed to set a standard of spirit and actions that will serve as a rarely
achieved but always present model of a nation at its best.
In the 1990s, the world watched with admiration and celebration
as a racially inclusive government replaced the oppressive system of apartheid
in South Africa. The election of Nelson Mandela as president, following his
many years of imprisonment, marked the beginning of a new era. Rather than
seeing his election as the reward to be enjoyed and savored to the fullest
extent, Mandela knew that as monumental as his election was, it was only one
step that had to be followed by many more. He did not stop when victory was
declared. Rather, he celebrated and then took up the multitude of new
challenges.
Great leaders are driven by a moral vision. Mandela’s moral vision
had many sources but surely the influences of mission schools and other
Christians contributed much. Peter Storey first met Nelson Mandela fifty years
ago when Storey was chaplain at the prison where Mandela was held. Storey tells
how hard it was to conduct worship since the prisoners were not allowed to
gather but had to remain in their cells. Preaching was particularly challenging
since Storey had to walk along the cells. Developing a sense of group worship
was difficult. However, singing was another matter since virtually all knew the
hymns from their mission school experience. Their vigorous singing, said
Storey, “echoed powerfully through the hallways, their melodies often taken up
by prisoners in other blocks.” (Christian Century, January 8, 2014)
Leaders who change the course of history are not only driven by
a moral vision; they understand that such change can never be achieved in one
or many lifetimes. Given the persistent gap between God’s will for the world
and current circumstances, a leader’s journey never ends. Mandela put it well
in his autobiography, “I have walked that long road to freedom. … But I have
discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that
there are many more hills to climb. … I can rest only for a moment … for my
long walk is not yet ended.” (Long Walk to Freedom, Little, Brown & Co.,
1994, 544)
Lovett H. Weems, Jr., is professor of church leadership and
director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological
Seminary. His latest book (with Tom Berlin) is Overflow: Increase Worship
Attendance & Bear More Fruit, published by Abingdon and available at
Cokesbury and Amazon.
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Leadership Qualities of Nelson Mandela by Lovett H. Weems, Jr.
Magnanimity. “It was during those long and lonely (prison) years
that my hunger for the freedom of my own people became a hunger for the freedom
of all people, white and black. … When I walked out of prison, that was my
mission, to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor both. … For to be free is
not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and
enhances the freedom of others.” — Long Walk to Freedom, 544
Grand Gestures. “(The 1995 Rugby World Cup) was a defining
moment in the life of our country. He has a knack of doing just the right thing
and being able to carry it off with aplomb. It was just the right thing. This
sport being so white and really so Afrikaner, and with everybody baying for the
Springbok emblem to be destroyed, and that he should come out wearing a
Springbok jersey. It was an electric moment. It’s not anything that you can
contrive. It was quite amazing how many of those present were white, mainly
Afrikaner, who had known this man to be a terrorist, that the government had
done one of the stupidest things to have released him, and to have them
yelling, ‘Nelson, Nelson, Nelson.’ Quite unbelievable. It had the effect of
just turning round our country.” — Bishop Desmond Tutu interview by John
Carlin, PBS Frontline
Grace. “Even in the grimmest times in prison, when my comrades
and I were pushed to our limits, I would see a glimmer of humanity in one of
the guards, perhaps just for a second, but it was enough to reassure me and
keep me going. Man’s goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never
extinguished.” — Long Walk to Freedom, 542
Vision. “We enter into a covenant that we shall build the
society in which all South Africans, both black and white, will be able to walk
tall, without any fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right to
human dignity — a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.”
— Inaugural Address, May 10, 1994
Justice. “And so it has come to pass that South Africa today
undergoes her rebirth, cleansed of a horrible past, matured from a tentative
beginning, and reaching out to the future with confidence. Our pledge is: Never
and never again shall the laws of our land rend our people apart or legalize
their oppression and repression.” — Comments upon approval of new South Africa Constitution,
New York Times, May 9, 1996
Lovett H. Weems, Jr., is professor of church leadership and
director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological
Seminary. His latest book (with Tom Berlin) is Overflow: Increase Worship
Attendance & Bear More Fruit, published by Abingdon and available at
Cokesbury and Amazon.
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Quotable Leadership:
The time is always ripe to do right.--Nelson Mandela
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Save the Dates:
In March, the Lewis Center will present two valuable learning
opportunities for church leaders. On Saturday, March 22, in Washington, DC, we
will offer Serve Your Neighbor: Engaging Local Schools, our inaugural
conference on the subject of mission. The following Saturday, March 29, we
bring our Funding Your Congregation’s Vision conference, Increase Generosity in
Your Church, to Charlotte, NC. Watch for additional details and registration
information very soon.
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The Right Question
Leaders do not need answers. Leaders must have the right
questions.
As with all success, the reasons often go back many years. So it
was for Nelson Mandela and the movement he led for so long. In 1954, the
African National Congress decided that a description should be written of what
life would be like in a democratic South Africa in which all races shared
governance. This document — the Freedom Charter — was to be developed by all
the people. For two years people throughout the country — people who had
virtually no rights or reason to believe things would ever be better —
participated in small groups, painting this picture of what life would look
like if freedom ever came. The Freedom Charter, adopted in 1955, became for
them a guiding vision over all the coming decades of struggle, death, and
imprisonment. The questions used at all the gatherings that formulated the
Freedom Charter were:
If you could make the laws …, what would you do?
How would you set about making South Africa a happy place for
all the people who live in it?
Want more Right Questions? Check out “Right Questions for Church
Leaders: 2013 and 2012 Collections.”
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Lewis Center for Church Leadership
Wesley Theological Seminary
4500 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20016 United States
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