Fostering compassion in pastoral leadership

Church leadership authority Cindy Tutsch states, “As a person provides for the needs of the poor, he or she develops the kind of compassionate character that God desires every leader to demonstrate.”¹ The Seventh-day Adventist Church is committed to the mission of fulfilling God’s instruction to go and make disciples. This core mandate requires the church to be people-centered (Matt. 28:19, 20). Indeed, if the church abandons its compassion, it forfeits its mission.

Church leaders play a significant role in shaping compassion in the church.² Computerization and the demand for productivity and profit put pressure on the human resource.³ Pastoral leadership must become adaptive in an ever-changing world, especially in a technological age where knowledge is accessible to all, and machines perform quicker than people. But technology should facilitate and not replace pastoral roles. In this pressurized context, leadership has the duty to nurture and prepare members to engage in a compassionate spreading of the everlasting gospel.⁴

Compassionate leadership can serve as a tool to balance productivity and safety. It can offer a sensitivity and concern not found in technology. The imperative for pastors is to model a compassionate leadership approach—one that aligns with biblical patterns—in accomplishing the mandate of salvation. This is a concept worthy of study.

Mentoring

Studies on compassionate leadership appear to be recent, even though these traits might be exhibited in individuals across the centuries. While Jan Vermeire takes credit as the pioneer of compassionate leadership, the field claims such mentors as Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mahatma Gandhi.⁵ Compassion in leadership is essential for nonprofit and profit organizations. Identified as a trait regularly found in females, compassion in leadership is often exhibited in sectors where stakeholders are vulnerable.⁶ This trait encompasses vulnerability, but also open-mindedness, equilibrium, doing and being, humility, spirituality, focus, nurturing differences, and fostering safety.

Compassionate attributes have some connections with emotional intelligence, empathy, virtue, and altruism, but the differences are apparent. Others draw elements from compassion to suggest a benevolent leadership model; however, compassionate leadership outcomes are best described as “empathy plus action.” Traits of such a leader may include learning, mentoring, unity, humility, appreciation, encouragement, impact, inspiration, and support.⁷ The skill to take oneself, people, teams, and establishments to a higher level of achievement and well-being in a compassionate and motivating way, particularly when the pressures mount, is a sought-after characteristic in leadership.

Modeling

The biblical understanding of compassion is profoundly entrenched in the covenants of the Old Testament and New Testament. While biblical compassion appears similar to the psychological understanding, the difference may come from the theological perspectives attached to the term.⁸

Compassion is derived from two root words from the Bible: raham (Lam. 3:22), meaning the womb, and slen, meaning the spleen. The former is a Hebrew word denoting compassion in the sense of cherishing the fetus and by intimation a maiden, bowels, compassion, damsel, tender love, mercy, pity, and womb. The latter word is a Greek word that implies the idea of an intestine; figuratively pity or sympathy, which suggests bowels, inward affection, and tender mercy.⁹

Jesus’ demonstration of compassion is evident approximately 11 times in the Gospels, reflecting a thoughtful index of love and sympathy. Consistently moved by compassion, He showed compassion on the weak, the sick, the hungry, the distressed, the oppressed, the impure, the rejected, the vulnerable, the hurt, the lost children, the sufferers, and the sad, as documented in such passages as Matthew 9:36; 14:14; 15:22; 18:33; Mark 1:40–42; 8:2; Luke 7:11–15; 10:33; 15:20; John 11:33.¹⁰

Jesus’s ministry, life, death, resurrection, and ascension could suggest a basis of compassionate pastoral leadership model.¹¹ Jesus’ example is fully embodied in His compassionate and servant leadership outcomes. His compassion knew no limit. Jesus’ first instinct was compassion. He then identifies the need. He ministers to the need based on the person’s cooperation. This then becomes a base for the respective persons to follow Him.¹²

While the plan of salvation perfectly illuminates compassion, the Trinity perfectly models compassionate leadership. Thus, the foundation of compassionate leadership should rightfully be ascribed to God. This kind of compassion should not be understood as an afterthought—a mere strategy, disregarding sin, or because of vulnerability—but as an attribute of God, clearly expressed in His love (John 3:16).¹³

Mirroring

The elements in Jesus’ model of compassionate leadership include sincere love, assessment and knowing, dealing with the task, and followership. The basis for pastoral leadership should be genuine care for members, the lost, and roles. Every pastor-leader should know the task and people they are working with, which should come with a deep assessment. This then forms the basis to draw all the resources together to achieve the common goal. On this basis, the members or workers would follow to accomplish the task. This act of leadership is love and mission in action. The relevance of using Jesus’s method is to replicate the love that He has shown. Without the other person feeling that the leader has compassion toward people and the task, there could be elements of inefficiency, mediocrity, and spiritual abuse.

Karen Lebacqz and Joseph Driskill, professors at the Pacific School of Religion, highlight what manifests itself in the absence of compassion. Abusive “churches are characterized by a perversion of power on the part of the leader, disruption of families and other healthy relationships, unhealthy dependence of members on leaders, and spiritual confusion in people’s lives.”¹⁴

Great leaders leave people (institutions or situations) better than they were before the leader entered their lives.¹⁵ Compassionate leadership pre­sents the task of harmonizing empathy with firm decision-making, preventing emotional exhaustion, approaching challenging issues with care, fostering accountability without compromising kindness, aligning with organizational objectives, and fostering team cohesion, all within the dynamic and diverse landscape of a swiftly evolving workplace.

In essence, leaders must strike a balance between distractions, sound judgment, and managing fear.¹⁶ Pastoral leaders are required to exemplify Jesus’ approach. The ministry of being, doing, and telling should be based on genuine love and care of guiding the church, field, or institution to fulfill the gospel mandate.¹⁷

Ministering

There are several leadership models that pastoral leaders could emulate (authoritarian, participative, delegative, transactional, and transformational leadership); however, apart from being adaptive and selective to the styles, Jesus’ compassionate model could serve as a check to guide in Christian leaderships, nurturing, and missions.¹⁸

The Christian leader should bear in mind that while effective practices of leadership will be displayed in the world, acceptable principles of leadership will be derived from the Word. Two statements of Scripture lay the foundation for what compassionate leadership ought and ought not to be: “as I have loved you” (John 13:34) and “it shall not be so among you” (Matt. 20:26). Church administrator Calvin Rock affirms, “The leadership virtue that most embodies the genius of Christianity but is least compatible with the modern spirit is disinterested love—love that has no ulterior motives, that seeks no praise, that demands no rewards, that asks no favors, that has no selfish angles. Love—unfettered, unencumbered, unconditional.”¹⁹

Appropriately, “Jesus is called the Chief Shepherd, and ministers to His under-shepherds. He is the minister’s model.”²⁰ Compassionate leadership does not compromise His Great Commission mandate. Indeed, “If we would humble ourselves before God, and be kind and courteous and tenderhearted and pitiful, there would be one hundred conversions to the truth where now there is only one.”²¹ We have seen compassion bear fruit in Jesus’s life—Jesus now wants to see that in ours.