One of the temptations members face in the church is the
tendency to perceive leadership callings as more important than other types of
callings. We even tend to think of
those callings as “higher callings.” Members released from leadership callings may have a
hard time upon release and may have difficulty adjusting to less visible
callings.
I ran across a bit from An
Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield that helped me gain
some extra perspective on this issue, but from an unexpected direction—NASA.
Astronauts who’ve just returned
from space get a lot of help from NASA with the “moving on” part. When you report back to the Astronaut
Office at JSC, there’s no hero’s welcome. Rather, you get a brisk acknowledgement—“Good
job”—before being unceremoniously booted off the top rung of the organizational
ladder, at least in terms of visibility and prestige. Astronauts fresh off the
Soyuz are reabsorbed back into the support team as middle-of-the-pack players,
essential but not glorified.
In most lines of work there’s a
steady, linear ascent up a well-defined career ladder, but astronauts
continuously move up and down, rotating through different roles and ranks. From
an organizational standpoint, this makes sense: it keeps the space program
strong at all levels and also reinforces everyone’s commitment to teamwork in
pursuit of a common goal—pushing the envelope of human knowledge and
capability—that’s much bigger than we are as individuals. For astronauts, too,
it makes sense, because it helps us come right back down to Earth and focus on
our job, which is to support and promote human space exploration. Any
inclination we might have to preen is nipped in the bud, because our status has
changed overnight and we are expected to deliver in a new, less visible role,
not sit around reminiscing about the good old days when we were in space.
At NASA it’s just a given that
today’s star will be tomorrow’s stagehand, toiling behind the scenes in
relative obscurity. For instance, Peggy Whitson, who was Chief Astronaut and
ran the office in Houston for three years, is now back in the regular pool of
astronauts, supporting other astronauts in orbit and hoping for an assignment
with no better chances of being selected than anyone else has. One thing that
makes this kind of transition easier is that the line between being a member of
a crew and a member of the office is already more blurry than might be readily
evident to outsiders. A CAPCOM, for instance, does some training and goes to
sims with a crew, then supports them or is on call every day of their flight,
and afterward, also attends debriefs. In a very real way, then, the CAPCOM is
integral to that crew—as is the entire cast of people who directly support any
mission. (pp268-269)
It’s kind of astonishing how similar NASA’s methods are to
the church’s in this respect. We
can recognize the blessings of the approach too.
·
Rotating through different roles and ranks does keep the church strong at all
levels and reinforces everyone’s commitment to God and His kingdom more than
commitment to any one individual. (Yes, we have a prophet, but the church
continues beyond his death. Yes, we have apostles, but we have 15 of them!)
·
The goal is to push the envelope of human
knowledge and capability in building the kingdom of God, and that is bigger
than any individual.
·
It is an excellent antidote to pride to have
that change happen so quickly upon release.
·
Behind-the-scenes roles are no less important to
the church’s success than the visible roles.
I’m thankful for all the callings that I’ve had for the
growth that I’ve experienced during them.
I’ve learned a lot of skills that I don’t think I would have learned
otherwise because of them. They’ve
given me opportunities to serve in ways that it would be difficult to find
outside the church. They’ve helped
me feel the Lord’s love in new ways and express that love to others.
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