"The old argument that liberal churches are in decline and conservative ones are growing is not true. The denominations that once seemed impervious to decline are beginning to look like most other American religious groups. Everyone is in the same situation: a religious bear market. Indeed, the first decade of the twenty-first century could rightly be called the Great Religious Recession." 1 - Diana Butler Bass









The Great Religious Recession. That is a sobering phrase for those of us who have a hand in leading faith communities these days. It seems like the world has turned upside down. The things that used to work like a charm no longer seem to have any affect. There is a definite “tone" in our society today about religious beliefs. These are hard days in churches, and hard days for those who lead them.





Among the things I hope to explore in this blog, “As the Waters Cover the Sea...", is church leadership. In my professional life, I was an officer in the U.S. Submarine Force, and spent the majority of my last years there teaching and mentoring about command of submarines at sea.. In 2007, I formed my own business, and much of my work has been focused on Team Resilience both, in military and business applications.





leadership experience in submarines and my experience in this Parish 3 . Since Roxanne and I have settled in one place (for once!), I’ve served on the Vestry at St. James Episcopal Church in New London, CT . I have been struck about how much overlap there is between myexperience in submarines and my experience in this Parish









Now, that is not to say that leading a submarine and leading a church are the same thing. I can tell you from deep personal experience (I have the scars)… they are not! As the Commanding Officer of a submarine crew, I had a certain authority that came just by virtue of being assigned to the position. A submarine crew IS a volunteer organization right up to the point where the sailor takes the oath of office, and then it’s NOT. There was a lot of deference in that crew to my orders, and even to my wishes (which officers are taught to be regarded as orders!). Faith communities are very different. They are strictly volunteer 4 , and those volunteers don’t have to lift a finger if they don’t want to. There’s leadership all right, but it comes in a very different package.





At least part of the overlap is in the idea of Team Resilience. Lets look at it first in the context of a submarine crew:



“Submarine Operational Resilience" is a team’s capacity to recognize, deep within the command structure, developing danger and opportunity under ambiguous and uncertain conditions. This term refers to a team’s achievements, requiring conscious and purposeful practices and behaviors. Once danger or opportunity is recognized, resilient teams are able to adapt and respond in ways that are safe in peacetime operations and bold in war. 2





There is a lot packed into this definition. Resilience is a team achievement, not an individual one (that disappoints a lot of leaders!). It looks for action “deep within the command structure". On submarines, this means that we’re looking for resilient action at junior levels, not just from seniors. It recognizes that danger and opportunity develop over time… they rarely drop into your lap, fully formed (unless you’re in combat of course!). This means the team is able to detect danger and opportunity while their early signals are still in the noise. Resilience is never achieved passively, but though deliberate and active practices and behaviors. And resilient teams can adapt and respond.

That’s the bottom line about resilient teams: they can adapt and respond to the new and novel… to the never-seen-before event. And here, there is a little mystery. To the outside observer, resilient teams seem to have this uncanny sense of timing. There is a certain wu wei about them… they seem to act "without doing". With “minds like water" they to step to one side and with a deft ninja move, danger gets turned on its head. This of course, is not what is going on at all. There is a tremendous effort going on in the resilient team. There are a lot of wheels turning… it’s hard work! They just make it LOOK easy.





How does resilience look in a church context? Maybe something like this: