By Mark A. Taylor
“Go down with the ship? Not in this century.”
So observed commentator Robert Marquand as the world learned details this January about the cruise ship disaster off the coast of Italy.
The hull of the 117,000-ton Costa Concordia was torn open by rocks in shallow water Friday night, January 13. And soon the world was treated to the excuses of captain Francesco Schettino, who said he fell into a lifeboat and was unable to reboard the ship. Despite the fact that thousands of passengers were screaming and scrambling to save themselves from the chaos on the listing luxury liner, Schettino remained in his lifeboat. Despite the demands of an enraged Coast Guard officer who insisted that Schettino climb back aboard and direct rescue efforts, Schettino apparently refused.
And Marquand, writing for Christian Science Monitor in a column posted at Yahoo! News, said, “The mass attention paid to Concordia may speak of a world yearning for strong leadership and instead watching a captain abandon his ship to save himself.” He quoted Paul Bickley, senior researcher at Theos, a public theology think tank in London, who said:
Concordia has become a morality play for how we feel about leadership. Across Europe and among higher echelons of society there is a perception that leaders are increasingly selfish, and not helping those in need. We”ve called it a leadership pathology. Even before the details came out, many people assumed or suspected this captain jumped ship.
But we feel different about the Christian leaders we know. These are ministers and elders in Christ”s church, leaders strong of character and calm in crisis. These are leaders who consistently put others above themselves. They model for us how to share the gospel, sacrifice for the poor, and spend ourselves for the good of others.
If, indeed, the world has lost confidence in its leaders, then this is the time for the church to shine. We have leaders of integrity unknown among many whose names appear on today”s front pages and home pages. Let the world notice our leaders, piloting us to one spiritual victory after another. These leaders never abandon the ship.
This week”s focus on leaders is the perfect opportunity to launch a new column, “Ministry Today,” that will appear every month in CHRISTIAN STANDARD. Tim Harlow, minister with Parkview Christian Church in Orland Park, Illinois, provides the first installment in this, the first of several helpful and challenging new columns we”ll be introducing in coming weeks.
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