Commitment for Leading Together
Leader: Our passage from Ephesians 4, Paul reminds us in practical ways about
God’s call, our unity of faith, and God’s gracious gifts that create a community that
works together: “. . . from whom the whole body, joined and knitted together by
every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly,
promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.” If you are ready to be a
part of this “leading-together” community, please join with me in this act of
commitment.
Too often leadership is about “moving up.” Let us be more about “moving out” into
our whole community. Too often leadership is about position. Let us be about
relationship. Too often our leadership is in places of familiar comfort. Let us
connect across differences to the farthest edges of the circle.
All: Let us lead together to create this community “promoting the bodyʼs
growth in building itself up in love.”
Leader: To lead in this community asks us to look at our own selves and our
identity-related power. To lead together in this community asks us to reach across
boundaries, to know when to stand up and when to step back.
All: Let us create this community “with all humility and gentleness, with
patience, bearing with one another in love.”
Leader: To lead in such a community asks us to listen fully, to hear one anotherʼs
stories, to respect one anotherʼs identities and value our differences. To lead in
this community asks us to build upon all our gifts. This diversity of gifts offers new
insights, boosts our creativity, imagines new dreams and creates a renewed
community.
All: Let us create this community knowing that doesnʼt mean that all should
“look and speak and act the same,” as “each of us was given grace
according to the measure of Christʼs gift.”
Leader: We are bound symbolically together by this ribbon weaving among us [or
in reaching out and across to each other]. Let us make “every effort to maintain the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as
you were called to the one hope of your calling, on Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God of us all, who is above all and through all and in all.”
Newly elected leaders: Knowing we are strengthened by this community bound
together in Oneness, we commit ourselves to the office to which we have been
called. We commit ourselves to the responsibilities that we have received. We
commit ourselves to the community that we will become.
All: Our commitment: “joined and knit together, by every ligament with
which [the body] is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes
the bodyʼs growth in building itself in love.”
Closing Prayer
[Offer a prayer of blessing for the newly elected leaders to be a “leading-together”
community.]
Click here for a printable PDF version of this litany.(PDF, 66K)