Yesterday, the unthinkable happened in Blacksburg, Virginia on the campus of Virginia Tech (VT). A lone gunman killed 32 people before turning the gun on himself. In the wake of this atrocity the leadership of the university and the local police force are under fire from the community, students, and grieving parents who believe that grave errors in judgment, action, preparation, and disaster planning were committed. Hindsight is 20/20 and many people will look back after the fact and tell the president and police what they should have done. Mass media, men and women like Heraldo, Nancy Grace, Larry King, Katie Curic, and so on, will look back and find fault with every action taken, or not taken, on that tragic day.
Sometimes, however, things happen that we have not even considered as a possibility, things so out of the norm, so aberrant, that we have not planned for them, because we have not considered them. However, a leader must go there, must look down the dark alleys of evil possibilities and sinister scenarios. In the case of the VT incident, this type of evil is not without precedent. Columbine HS was a wake up call to this very type of atrocity. Every HS and college leader should be running scenarios and disaster planning for things of this sort.
Likewise, pastoral leadership should be prepared for the unthinkable. Recently I was threatened by a white supremacist because I am in an interracial marriage, and because our church is multicultural and multiracial. The next Sunday a large white man attended. I had never met the man before and he seemed somewhat unemotional, not unfriendly, but not friendly either. I sit in the congregation during worship, on the front pew looking ahead and it seemed I could feel this man coming down the aisle at me from behind. As it turned out, this man was just a visitor and I've since talked with him and found him to be a friendly guy. The point is that I began to think about things I'd never thought of before. What if?
Later that evening I met with the elders of the church and we began to run through some scenarios. We devised a plan to deal with any potential threat to me or members of the congregation. Leadership must think the unthinkable. Exxon had no plan when the Valdez oil tanker ripped open and spilled her cargo of oil all over the pristine Alaskan shoreline. They were caught unawares because they had not considered the unthinkable.
Leaders need to ask the "what if" question. Foresight may not be 20/20, but blindly forging ahead without considering the unthinkable is no longer acceptable.
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2 comments:
I agree with you that leaders need to have a plan, but the fact remains that, we can anticipate the unthinkable, simply because it wouldn't be phrased as such if it were thinkable. We are also admonished to use Godly wisdom, as well as to pray for the spiritual protection and coating outlined in Eph 5. But, I think the "what if" scenario can also put alot of pastors/leaders in a place where they completely negate their own faith in God. They essentially put more faith in their plans than they do in trusting that God is in control, and hears us when we pray.
Where do you think that balance is?
I anticipated this response. "Thinking the unthinkable" is an oxymoron, but so is "loving the unlovable" and yet most Christians talk about this, understanding that in God, no one is unlovable. Scenario planning is not a lack of faith, but an act of wisdom. Throughout the process, as you said, people should seek and rely upon godly wisdom, only not after the fact as a reaction, but before the fact in a proactive way to stay ahead of the attack of the enemy. In the mean time, we must take our stand and have on the whole armor of God with the shield of faith firmly in our grasp. Putting on armor is a proactive event. It is done in anticipation of the fight. If the soldier waits until the enemy is bearing down upon him and then tries to put on the armor, then it is already too late.
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