Why Rick Perry Probably Won’t Be President

This morning I saw the news Rick Perry will be the first to drop out of his White House run because he’s stopped paying his staffers.

What does this have to do with the Leadership Summit? It helps us see some of the shape of modern institutions.

We might ask what it takes to become a presidential candidate? We might imagine it takes

Candidate wish-list

being a leader (or at least look like one on TV)
having policy ideas
having a track record (integrity, trustworthiness, experience)
having people skills
having stage presence

The article implies, not without basis, that what is required to become president of the United States is the ability to create and maintain and institution to achieve an outcome, in this case the election of your candidate to office. That too is not simply a matter of “winning votes”, any political wonk will note that a lot of your campaign will be about winning votes in particular counties and districts and states in order to secure the electoral college. Earlier of course it will be about securing the party nomination because if you are the Democratic nominee you are virtually guaranteed the solid blue states and if the Republican the solid red states.

In other words, “leadership” here means a combination of a variety of other skills, besides the ones listed above.

Candidate need-list
Fund raising: donor identification and cultivation
How to hire and supervise personnel to build an organization to achieve the outcome you desire
How to present and shape an image and message to get a demographic element to do something, in this case vote for your, volunteer for you, financially support you

Now when we talk about church leadership, things start to get funny.

If you ask someone what they want in a pastor you will probably get a list like this:

Pastoral wish-list 1
That someone be an authentic, mature, trusted Christian (testimony, integrity)
That someone be able to teach/preach from the Bible within a theological tradition
That someone be personable, approachable, helpful in my spiritual development
That someone be available and interested in my personal needs

Pastoral wish-list 2
That someone create, shape and form the kind of church I wish to contribute to, participate in, etc.
That someone plant a prevailing church (large, growing, feeling successful, a church with a bright future)

You can see that the first 4 items look like candidate list 1, and really the last item looks like candidate list 2.

We should also note that there are tensions between the lists.

Many people really don’t think a lot about the Candidate need-list. They might realize that this list is in fact important because many of those skills will be exactly the kinds of skills that an effective President will need. Government is all about institution outcomes.

For the pastoral wishlists, however, things are different.

Do you want a mom or a school principal? 

What is the difference between being a good mom and running an effective childcare program or an effective school (of hundreds or thousands of kids)?

What we begin to see of course is that size matters. You want different things from your principal or your president than you want from your mom.

Scot McKnight has been paying some attention to the “dones”. The “dones” dynamic is all about the difference between your principal and your mom.

Done’s want a mom with principal outcomes. I think almost everyone does.

These two value sets are in tension and competing with one another in a culture that keeps telling itself “you can have it all”.

Even if your mom is the principal and does well at both tasks once you are at school she is no longer really your “mom” in the same way, she can’t be because she’s now got 500 kids, not 2 or 3.

Large churches try to subcontract the “mom” roles out via various strategies, usually small groups. That’s been the strategy for along time and I think for the most part it’s failed.

What has worked more for large institutions (or very large ones like governments) is the imaginary mom or dad. Donald Trump is popular right now because he’s satisfying a need among a certain element of the population.  Same for Bernie Sanders.

We have a capacity to bond with people who don’t know us, and never will, and to feel allegiance to them and their institutions (campaigns, administrations, etc.) all because of the candidate wishlist. Same for large church pastors, hence the “celebrity” pastors and celebrity candidates. The ongoing success of the celebrity politician or pastor depends upon their capacity to 1. deliver on enough of the fantasy and 2. maintain the desired image.

Now suddenly “scandals” become a real threat.

“Black lives matter” happens at the same time as the first US black president. Why? Expectations were raised and the truth doesn’t live up to it. This is a formula for anger.

It’s helpful when thinking about your candidate or your church to think about what really matters to you.

Many CRCs are “mom” churches, in that they are small, you can know your pastor, your pastor can know you.

Most megas are celebrity churches. It’s a different game. pvk