During the months of July and August I traveled around the Raleigh District, meeting with key leaders from the sixty churches. In those gatherings I asked the leaders to pair up with someone else and to list three qualities or characteristics of effective leaders. It may come as a surprise to some, but one of the qualities most often listed was.....listening.....
I'm not sure we think of leaders as those who demonstrate a high capacity for listening. Speaking? Well
that's more like it. We want our leaders - above all else -
to be articulate speakers. But what if we honored with equal gratitude articulate listeners?
In, The Silence of Jesus, James Breech recounts his experience of traveling to Princeton University to hear
W.H. Auden read some of his poetry. The lecture hall was packed with hundreds of people; all talking excitedly as they waited to see and hear the renowned laureate. Breech says that the old man dawdled his way onto the lecture stage, and then, with the help of a microphone, began to read. But his voice was soft, and the microphone was of no help.
Breech says that the people in the lecture hall began whispering to each other - even as Auden continued to read in inaudible fashion. The crowd began whispering to each other, trying to translate what they believed Auden to be saying. But the whispering soon became more audible than the old man's reading and the collective sound of it all drowned out Auden altogether.
What Breech learned in that lecture hall that night is captured in these words: "..if we want to hear what a speaker is saying while others are talking - even though they are trying to be helpful, their voices distract our attention and interfere with our listening. In order for the speaker's own voice to be heard, the go-betweens must be silent."
Barbara Brown Taylor comments on this statement with one of her own: "When the poet happens to be God, this advice takes on special significance." One of my favorite songs contains these lyrics.
When I was younger, I had a feeling.
I was so lonely....there was no one around.
When it got quiet...the feeling got stronger.
I fought the feelin'...I filled it with sound.
Then soon I found the truth....He'd been waitin' in line.
And when I saw him there....I knew he'd been there all the time.
We walked up to my wall of sound......and knocked it down!
And as the walls came down.....a new sound was all around.....
Now silence is music.......silence is music......
Silence is music.....He made my life....a song.........
Ron Moore
O Lord - give your grace to the go-betweens - so we may learn to be silent........
And Your Voice be heard........
Still In ONE Peace
Jon(the methodist)
Posts
