Leadership Among Friends

There is a leadership crisis in Quakerism today. It is a strange crisis, though, for Quakerism as a society trains people in leadership as well as any organization. Our emphasis on individual conscience balanced with social conscience sends forth from our society many persons with uncommon vision and courage – the seeds of leadership. But within our society we do a masterful job of holding back vision and courage and thereby discouraging leadership. In some meetings the word leadership is almost a dirty word. Much pressure to listen and keep the peace among us dilutes the simple assertion, "Let's do it this way." More often than not, Friends will say, "We could do it this way," as if questioning whether or not it is appropriate to lay firm claim to an idea without the group's approval. The very thing we value the most, waiting, has become that which bogs down our meetings and inhibits leadership. We have become a society afraid of leadership.