With a fresh dusting of snow this morning, I find myself looking back and forward to warmer times in the kayak.
We were visited by so many deer last summer! And this gentle creature stood long enough for me to capture an almost perfect reflection.
"If you think you're leading, but when you turn around and no one is following you, you're just out for a walk."
(Not sure where it comes from, or I would cite it, and if anyone wants to let me know, I'd be glad).
Of course today I am actually just out for a walk. But also, these days, whatever leadership role I do embody is vastly different than it once was when I served as a pastor of a local church. Still a lot at stake, for sure, and still requiring all that good transparency and integrity, but much smaller in scope, far less demanding, far more focused.
It's a heavy mantle, the memory of which prompts many prayers for those in varying arena of my life who carry it. Today, as I walk and remember the weight, I am especially grateful for those who lead my community of faith, Highview Community Church.
Particularly, I feel glad for our leadership culture, that being one of consensus and plurality of leadership, a strong influence from our Brethren background (a reference to the beginnings of Highview's story, if you know it).
A quick definition:
"Consensus leadership is a collaborative management style that emphasizes collective decision-making and inclusivity, aiming to involve all stakeholders in the decision making process." (Google, Gemini, 2026)
It's a slower way of moving forward together, but it's worth it because we have a better chance of moving forward together. Collaboration, collective decision-making, inclusivity, all stakeholders. It takes wisdom, nuance, and the setting aside of person agendas and dominating egos. It requires layered listening, and broadened thinking, and deeper feelings.
No leadership structure is perfect because, oh let me see, every approach requires people to be involved, and, oh let me see, people aren't perfect. Even when all are committed to practicing consensus, it's easy sometimes to forget, especially when things get dicey and the urge to take matters into our own hands or press an agenda is strong, if for no other reason than to relieve the tensions. Even the most others-centered of us can quickly fall into the trap of me-focused tunnel vision.
In my own experience, I have been so grateful for the wisdom of the collective voices around the table when my own perspective has been too narrow, or my understanding of the situation has been more fear-driven than Spirit-led.
So lead on! And thank you, all who carry this. Thank you for moving us ahead together.
And just to reminder you: You are prayed for.
I have been thinking a lot lately about how this particular season of Lent has lined up in a unique way for me with a space of time with nothing 'big' to plan for, and nothing 'big' to be in the midst of.
Unlike the past five months, almost non-stop, when I was indeed planning AND/OR in the midst of all the big things, smack bang all in a row, from now until Easter the list is back to a reasonable length, and the weekly demands have diminished somewhat. A good deal, actually.
In making space for some intentional listening, I felt I was being directed to give up "productivity" for Lent.
It's a bid odd, I agree. Rather abstract, unlike chocolate, or coffee, or even social media. It's not even an abstinence from work entirely, as there still are many important irons in the fire that do indeed require my attention. So what does it mean, exactly?
I'm not sure yet.
But any sense of 'git er done' is, I think, out of bounds right now. No pushing. No pressing. No striving to accomplish as much as possible in the time allotted, as is my usual default setting. Such could easily be my god, truth be told. And I pause to just be somber in that thought.
Giving up productivity for Lent. I am figuring it out. I mean, what does working but not pressing toward intense productivity look like?
So far, it looks like....
I'll just say to begin, that I have long thought we needed a stat holiday between Christmas and Easter to help break up the winter. Well, in Ontario (and also BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick at least), here we are! And how great is it that things have turned a little milder so that we might dare to venture outside for a bit.
But beyond the seasonal pick me up a holiday Monday affords, what a great idea to have a day set aside to celebrate Family.
There's a caveat, of course. "Family" can be defined in so many ways, which I think is good and proper. For some, families of origin hold things that often we do not care to celebrate, but rather have had to overcome. For others, a sense of blood/DNA connection is lacking due to a wide variety of circumstances, some for which we are responsible, and some for which we are not.
We humans, being the creatures that we are, often find ourselves at odds somehow with our deepest desires to be heard, known and loved in a place of safety and unconditional positive regard. Relationships are complicated, and, well, it's just hard to get along sometimes. Unfortunately, some 'differences' end up being alienating, or even of the toxic sort requiring decisive measures if we are to survive.
So yes, "Family" can conjure up less that all the warm feelings we might hope it would.
And.
I have observed in my own life, and in the lives of many I have had the joy to journey with, that we are often gifted with community in ways that become 'Family' far beyond what life might otherwise have tried to rob us of. It's as if a God of redemptive arch stories knows that we do indeed need to be heard, known and loved, and also to hear, know and love the other.
Psalm 68:6 has this uplifting phrase, "God sets the lonely in families."
Love that.
And so, on this Family Day 2026, that's both the testimony I bear for my own complex and family-rich story, and also my hope for all of you. And however else you may be marking this mid-winter stat holiday, I trust you will be able to fully embrace, reach out, be welcomed into all that is Family for you.
