In June, the Roundtable spoke with Dan Ebener, former Social Action Director (and Roundtable member) in the Diocese of Davenport, about his work and his latest book on Servant Leadership. Read their conversation here:

Roundtable Report:  You’ve had a long history working in ministry and education. You were a diocesan social action director for twenty years, you’ve taught in universities and workshops on leadership, non-profit management, and conflict resolution, among other topics, throughout the years. Now you are director for Stewardship and Planning for the Diocese of Davenport and have recently written a book on servant leadership. How did you find yourself where you are today?

Dan Ebener: One part of my story may be of particular interest to Roundtable members. Very early in my social action ministry, at one of my very first Roundtable meetings in the 1980s, [first Roundtable secretariat] Harry Fagan got up and said, “If you’re not developing leaders, you might as well get out of this business.” That particular statement changed my whole approach to ministry.

At that time I was guilty of trying to do too much myself. I was not delegating and creating structures for others to get involved in my ministry. But from Harry Fagan I learned that we shouldn’t be doing it ourselves, we should develop the people so that the people will do it. Lao Tzu once said, “of the best leader, the people will say when the job is finished, we did it ourselves.”

This experience first changed my ideas about leadership. And now, as you can probably tell, I am very passionate about servant leadership. I feel like it’s my next calling in life.

RR: What is servant leadership? And where in Scripture do you find the foundations for servant leadership?

DE: Servant leadership is teaching and leading the way that Jesus taught and led. It’s about welcoming people and their ideas, encouraging the initiative of all, and building greater trust, commitment and cohesion among people. It about building a greater sense of mission.

I’ve been rereading the Sermon on the Mount during the past few months. Jesus says, “Where your treasure is there also your heart will be.” And I think what I’ve come to realize about the Sermon on the Mount is that it’s all about the heart.

Where the heart is, that’s a question central to servant leadership. Is my heart with the people, the mission of the organization, with God? Or is it with selfish interests and selfish motives? Is it willing to step on anybody until I get what I want? These are the questions of servant leadership that can transform ourselves, our churches, as well as corporations and society at large.

RR: In March 2010, you published a new book entitled Servant Leadership Models for Your Parish. Tell me more about that. What models do you offer for parishes in the book?

DE: My book is about how servant leadership changes how we do church. The thing that’s great about teaching leadership is that it applies to all walks of life. I teach at the graduate level and I see nurses, teachers, social workers, pastors, business leaders, coaches in my classes. All these people create an incredible learning environment to talk about and apply to leadership, because it applies to all those fields. However, we often overlook the way that leadership applies to the way that we do church.

One of the primary ways servant leadership works in a parish is that this model brings out the best in people, it welcomes their physical presence, their ideas, initiative, participation and leadership. To be truly welcoming is to open oneself up to the full personhood of those entering the parish, not just their physical presence. If people feel like they should be “seen, not heard,” that’s not welcoming.

What my research showed too is that servant leadership increased participation in parish life. When that leadership structure is in place, people are going to take their role as follower of Christ more seriously and sharpen the saw, train themselves, and develop themselves as leaders for social action. Servant leaders guide and nurture parishioners in that process.

The beginning of the book defines servant leadership. The middle is lots of stories of what it looks like in a parish. The last section puts servant leadership into various different models that could work for  parishes.  One of the great strengths of the book is the stories about how and why servant leadership works.

Roundtable Report: Can you share an example of one of the stories in your book?

DE: One story from the smallest parish in the Davenport Diocese involves a guy who showed up for Mass 15 minutes early, and he noticed that the front door wasn’t swinging properly. So he went to his truck, pulled out a toolbox and fixed the door. He went to Mass and that was the end of it. But what’s significant about the story is that first, in a small parish, you can get things done smoothly and easily. Also, if the pastor of the church had seen him doing this, and asked him to stop and go through the building committee, see if it was in the budget, and fill out the paperwork, the guy would lose his initiative. A servant leadership model gives people a sense of ownership of their parish. That guy treated his church like his home. Of course, in a larger parish there are more rules. But the culture of a parish is contingent on the leadership of the pastor. It can either encourage or extinguish initiative. That story was just one simple story, but there are lots more in the book.

Roundtable Report: What are the trends you are seeing in the field of leadership, in our church and in our society?

DE: We’re in a kairos moment right now around servant leadership.  There is interest mounting from lots of directions.

Take, for example, one organization called “Lead Like Jesus,” which was formed out of the evangelical churches. There are lots of evangelical Christians who are CEOs of corporations who are now looking at how they can lead their companies like Jesus would. This group has spurred a lot of interest around servant leadership in the for-profit world. The CEOs of these companies are realizing that they can’t lead like Jesus without changing the workplace. And, of course, changing the workplace in a significant way like this creates an opportunity to make major transformations in our society toward social justice and human dignity, particularly around the dignity of the worker, one of the principles of Catholic social teaching.

One of the first things I say in my book is, “Every leadership situation offers an opportunity to put our faith into practice.” In every leadership situation, a CEO of an organization has an opportunity to say, “Am I going to put my corporate hat on and think only of the financial bottom line? Or am I going to go with my gut and lead like Jesus would?” They are asking themselves how they can be disciples in the workplace.

And it’s had a great impact so far on a growing number of CEOs and top organizational leaders in very large corporations. Some 40% of Fortune 500 companies have adopted servant leadership as their philosophy. Walmart has adopted servant leadership as a corporate philosophy. We have strong Christian leaders in that company, southern evangelicals who want to practice their faith at work.

People want to practice their faith while at work. If we spend the greatest number of our waking hours at work, then we should be practicing our religion there. If corporate leaders want to practice the Sermon on the Mount at work, this could be a major breakthrough for us who believe in Catholic social action.

RR: How do the ideas of servant leadership and stewardship speak to the work of diocesan social action directors? How can promoting models of servant leadership support their work?

DE: In social ministry, we’re not looking for charismatic leaders.  We are looking for transformational leaders who will create structures where people will do things themselves. We’re looking for leaders who will develop the people. As a diocesan staffperson, you can’t do it all yourself. If you try, you won’t be able to get as much done, and eventually you will burn out, but you’re also taking away the opportunity from others to get involved.

Leadership is about giving people an opportunity to practice discipleship. It’s not about work that needs to get done, it’s not about checking tasks off a “To Do” list, it’s a life that needs to be lived. The sooner we can all realize that social action ministry is a part of Christian discipleship, the sooner we will transform society.

As diocesan staffpeople, our role is to empower, enhance, and enable. Sometimes we think, “If I can just have this meeting, conference, dinner, then our social action ministry is going to excel.”  But it’s not about that. It’s about the people. It’s about creating an environment where everyone practices social action ministry because it’s a part of discipleship.

When you go to community organizing school, we talk about the iron rule, which says, “don’t do unto others what they can do unto themselves.” Our role as social action ministers is empowerment. Our role is organizing, it’s not to be the leader ourselves. The best measure of leadership is not how many followers you lead but how many leaders you develop. Social action ministry just flows throughout my latest book. Everything I learned as a diocesan social action director just flows through the book.

RR: Anything else you’d like to share with Roundtable members?

DE: My bishop sent a copy of Servant Leadership Models for Your Parish to every bishop in the country. To get a copy to every pastor in the country will take diocesan work. Every diocesan social action director should know that his or her bishop has a copy of my book.

RR: Thank you, Dan, for your time and for sharing your insights!

Purchase a copy of Dan’s book from Paulist Press.

Check out this interview with SASI 2010 Keynote Speaker Dr. Scott Appleby, which was featured in the April 2010 issue of the Roundtable Report. Scott Appleby is director of the Kroc Institute at Notre Dame and the Roundtable Report spoke with him in March for the interview.

Roundtable Report: We know you are an active expert today in the world of peace and particularly in the field of religious peacebuilding. We thank you for accepting the Roundtable’s invitation to an interview and we very much look forward to you being with us as a keynote presenter and advanced track co-leader during this year’s Social Action Summer Institute August 1-4, 2010 at Santa Clara University.

First, could you talk briefly about your academic and professional background? And how did you get into peace work?

Scott Appleby:  I received my undergraduate degree from Notre Dame in 1978 and my PhD from the University of Chicago in 1985, where I focused on the History of Christianity. As a Catholic, the study of religion has always interested me. After I graduated, I taught at Saint Xavier College in Chicago, and then in 1986 I was recruited by my doctoral mentor, Martin E. Marty, to work on a research initiative that changed my career and my life – it was called The Fundamentalism Project. It was a multi-year, interdisciplinary study of global religious resurgence in the world’s major religions. The project produced five encyclopedic volumes of scholarly essays, three PBS TV documentaries, and an NPR radio series.

As a scholar, I focus on religion in the modern period. The question most central to my work is “How can people remain faithful to a religious tradition during the era of modernity, when secular trends and forces conspire to dominate our thinking and behavior?” This is a time in history when patterns of social life and thought tend to erode traditional ways of life and belief.  In response religions are forced to react, resist and adapt in various ways. In so doing, they risk manipulating the very tradition they are trying to preserve by politicizing it and reducing it to a “social program” or ideology. Some reactions distort the tradition by or placing an excessive emphasis on certain doctrines and scriptures and construing them as ingredients of a political platform. This is the foundation for both fundamentalisms and modernisms.

After my time at the Fundamentalism Project, in 1994 I came to Notre Dame to direct the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism and teach in the History department. In 2000 I was asked to become the director of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. My time at Kroc has deepened my appreciation of the larger world of peacebuilding and conflict resolution, and I see strong links between the quest for peace in this world and the religious life as it is unfolds in conflict settings.

At Kroc we focus on conflict and the social and political foundations for building a sustainable peace. Our interlocutors include governments, intergovernmental organizations, NGOs and faith communities that are working for peace, justice, economic development and human rights. A peacebuilder’s vision must incorporate every social good, from access to clean drinking water and education, to protection of women and children from exploitation, to the negotiated resolution of civil wars. We examine what it means to develop lasting peace in societies that are emerging from years or even decades of destructive conflict – it is a long and arduous process that requires patience and wisdom as well as technical know-how.

RR:  What is the difference between being a peace maker, as the scriptures say, and a peacebuilder? What exactly is peace building?

SA: Let’s first take the word peace. It is a word with a theological or eschatological connotation, but also a practical, this-worldly meaning. The risen Lord says to the frightened apostles huddled together:  “Peace be with you.” Jesus was   offering eschatological peace, the final peace that accompanies perfect unity with God. Here on terra firma, our realization of peace is always partial, as we attempt to bring a chaotic and conflicted world a measure of the love and compassion that God offers us all.

Peacemaking and peacebuilding are two related but different ideas. Peacemaking usually has the connotation of official treaties and settlements that unfold at a political and national level. Peacebuilding, on the other hand, refers to a grassroots process that moves “from the ground up” eventually to reach the high level elites who are involved in peacemaking. Peacebuilding begins with local communities and calls upon  a variety of local and regional actors, including political officials, religious and business leaders, young people, the media, etc. to form alliances and partnerships for sustainable development, conflict management and human rights. Aside from official negotiations, which often characterize peacemaking, peacebuilding also strives to prevent destructive conflict, at one end of the conflict cycle, and to implement peace accords and rebuild institutions, from courts and schools to churches and mosques, in societies coming out of violent conflict, at the other end of the cycle.  If the negotiations and peace accords do not resonate with the people on the ground, if the settlement is not inclusive and just, there will not be lasting peace. All of this is part of the peacebuilding process.

RR:  Can you give us a preview of what you’ll be sharing during the Social Action Summer Institute?

SA: I will ask the participants to think of themselves primarily as peacebuilders, and ask how this self-identification would affect their self-understanding and sense of vocation, and prod them and re-conceptualize what they are doing. Thinking of yourself as a  peacebuilder  suggests a different notion of time and space, process and outcomes, more in keeping with “building the kingdom of God” than with “Getting to Yes” in a negotiation process.  The spiritual charisms of peacebuilding include discernment, patience, and fortitude.

The first part of my presentation, then, will focus on what it means to be a peacebuilder and how that lens might affects the work of social justice and charity. We’ll also look at how peacebuilding is situated within Catholic social doctrine and scripture. The second section will focus on “reconciliation” and what that might mean as a distant goal for peacebuilders. Healing includes not only the physical but also psychological and spiritual wounds as well.  Finally, we will ask how the Catholic religious imagination informs and can be informed by the concept and practice of peacebuilding.

RR:  How does your Catholic faith influence your peacebuilding work?

SA: Peacebuilding is not merely a mundane occupation. We are called to  live in the Kingdom of God, a state of being that is measured not merely  by how many people are fed or diseases cured –these things are, of course, important— but how we nurture and show compassion toward one another and ourselves.  We are not going to bring peace in the final sense; we are not going to eradicate original sin. Catholics understand that the interplay of grace, freedom and sin are part of the human condition, and that perfection will not be achieved until the human heart is purified in a definitive unity with God. Being a peacebuilder changes your way of being in the world, however. You measure progress and success not only through numbers and empirical studies, but also through questions such as “Am I growing spiritually, in the practice of compassion? Am I participating in the Kingdom of mercy and forgiveness?” When those are the metrics, you are more forgiving of yourself –and you realize that Jesus has already overcome the world.  Such spiritual insights and religious convictions cast the daily work of “building peace and pursuing justice” in a different light.

RR:  What are the biggest challenges peacebuilders face in the 21st Century, particularly those who identify as Catholics or work in ministry?

SA: Peacebuilding today faces many challenges, particularly in this economy where money is tight and budgets and staff are being reduced, people are out of work. Preparing people to be professional peacebuilders is costly; they need cultural studies and language training, interdisciplinary education and technical skills.  Peacebuilding is an enterprise and a vocation that integrates many types of knowledge and resources. But now we have fewer resources to do this work. Catholic Relief Services (CRS), for example, has had to cut back on its peacebuilding budget.  In the financial crisis, the first thing that has suffered is “peace.”

A second major challenge is burnout. There are many talented people working for justice and peace, but they can very quickly become exhausted. This work takes great patience and persistence, and the question is how these workers can be renewed and persist on a long path to peace.

Image is a third challenge. Someone might ask, “What do peace people do?” They march on Washington, they negotiate settlements, they advocate for human rights, they fight corruption in government—the reality is that peacebuilders perform all of these activities, and more.  The actual profile of the peacebuilder, who must be a strategic thinker and a coordinator of various skilled and gifted colleagues, is not widely known or appreciated, as it should be. Only then will professional peacebuilders be integrated more fully into government and civil society and humanitarian agencies like CRS.

RR:  Are you currently working on any research or writing?

SA: I am leading a major interdisciplinary, multi-year research project called “Contending Modernities: Catholic, Muslim and secular.” It is an attempt to understand how these two major religious traditions and communities have been affected by secularization—by the “separation of church and state,” the rise of religious pluralism, the drive toward democratization, the human rights revolution and other modern trends and forces.  The study attempts to anticipate ways in which Catholic, Muslim and secular actors might collaborate in the future in battling poverty and disease, reducing violence, and advancing human rights for all.

RR:  Do you have any reading recommendations for Roundtable members and SASI attendees?

SA: Strategies of Peace, edited by Daniel Philpott and Gerard Powers and recently published by Oxford University Press, provides the best definition and discussion of strategic peacebuilding (and it just came out in paperback!). Also, I recommend The Moral Imagination by my friend and colleague John Paul Lederach.