“He Made Me Want to Be My Best”
Pastoral excellence is an art and a craft, its source mysterious and unquantifiable. It is both intrinsic in the personhood of the pastor and abilities developed and honed with experience. Just as artists and craftspeople inspire and teach us, so too do those pastoral leaders whose lives point to grace and whose ministries are marked by skills and competencies forged in experience.
I am increasingly convinced that we learn (or maybe “catch”) excellence in leadership the same way we learn most crafts, by looking over the shoulders of those who embody such excellence.
This summer I participated in a memorial service for an artist and craftsman over whose shoulder I was privileged to look for 45 years: Bishop H. Ellis Finger, Jr. His death at 91 made me realize and appreciate more than ever the profound impact he had on me and countless other clergy during his remarkable ministry as a pastor, college president and United Methodist bishop. The embodiment of personal and vocational excellence, he will always be, for me, the model of faithful Christian leadership.
Bishop Finger ordained me an Elder July 8, 1965, one year after he had been elected bishop and assigned to the Memphis, Tennessee and Holston Conferences. Before being named to the episcopacy, he served 12 years (1952-64) as president of Millsaps College in his native Mississippi, a position he assumed at the age of 35, and before that was pastor at University Church in Oxford, Miss.
That ordination back in 1965 was my first encounter with Bishop Finger. Held in Knoxville, it was also his first annual conference session as bishop. Years later, I still remember how everything he did in that gathering was done with careful preparation, gentle confidence, stately dignity and inspiring reverence. His leadership of worship pointed beyond himself to the Transcendent. His presiding over complicated parliamentary procedures instilled confidence in the delegates. His sensitivity and genuine attentiveness put speakers and listeners at ease.
When he presented the new candidates for ministry, Bishop Finger made each of us feel special. He knew us by name, as well as our spouses and children. With a mix of solemnity and warmth, he asked us the historic examination questions, pausing to offer insightful, brief commentary on selected questions. He welcomed us into the conference with obvious joy.
From that first public meeting until his death in June 2008, Ellis Finger helped to shape my life and ministry; his influence has not ceased with his death. During the 12 years he was my bishop, I observed his leadership in many settings — large conferences, worship services, committee meetings, local church gatherings and one-on-one conversations. He was always gracious, well prepared, focused, attentive to persons and issues, reflective and present.
When he retired from the active episcopacy in 1984, Bishop Finger and his wife, Mamie Lee, affiliated with the Church Street United Methodist Church in Knoxville, where four years later I was appointed as pastor and from which I was elected a bishop in 1992. At Church Street, he was always supportive and never intrusive. Whenever he read the Scripture on Sunday morning or the Gospel Lesson at the Christmas Eve celebration, he did so with reverence and clarity, making clear the nuances and emphases of each phrase. Through both his words and his demeanor, he always communicated the Transcendent Word. That same personal attentiveness and concern that he brought to the job of bishop was evident in his relationships within the congregation. Whether the “other” was a University of Tennessee professor or a homeless person eating in our soup kitchen, he gave everyone his respect and attention.
One of the most powerful ways Bishop Finger expressed that attentiveness was through his remarkable ability to remember names. It was a gift he had cultivated over the years, not as a form of manipulation but out of genuine concern for and appreciation of the unique gifts of every person. It was as though he saw the imago Dei in each of us and he treated as we could be.
Never was I in his presence that I did not want to be a better person and a more faithful pastor. As a district superintendent once said to me, “You shined your shoes before you went to see Bishop Finger. You wanted to be at your best.” He inspired our best by being the best, not by verbal demands or long lists of expectations. In his presence, we knew that the world can be different, that the Christian gospel is true, that the Church has a future, that we can make a difference, and that love is the strongest and most eternal reality.
Looking back, I am overwhelmed by the many marks of excellence and of leadership that were embodied in the life and ministry of Bishop Finger. Two, however, strike me as being particularly relevant for our work in Sustaining Pastoral Excellence.
First, Bishop Finger possessed an authenticity rooted in profound integrity. He was single-mindedly committed to the Christian gospel and the church’s mission. There was coherence between what he said and how he lived.
Second, he was pastorally prophetic and prophetically pastoral. Whether confronting the White Citizen’s Council and KKK in Mississippi or the ineffectiveness or misconduct of a pastor in the conference, he worked always to preserve both high standards and the dignity and worth of the violator. He held us in love and held us accountable to the highest and best. To him, the Christian gospel includes redemption and transformation of sinners and sufferers. He presumed that authentic justice encompasses victim and violator, the offended and the offender.
What accounts for such excellence, such leadership? Where does it come from? Certainly it has an intrinsic component in personal identity. Ellis Finger led from his own personhood. Who he was preceded and permeated what he did. Such excellence of being and doing cannot be taught or learned in a workshop or seminar. Deep integrity that reflects transcendent purpose and relentless love that encompasses justice and reconciliation spring from a life-long engagement with the One who is the source of excellence.
The ultimate work of grace is to make one grace-full. Grace—the presence and power of God to create, heal, forgive, reconcile and transform—is nurtured through practices that motivate and mold us toward the imago Dei. Mentors such as H. Ellis Finger are means of grace in whose presence we want to be the best we can be. In him I witnessed the art and craft of excellence.
Kenneth L. Carder is the Ruth W. and A. Morris Williams Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry at Duke Divinity School. He was bishop of the Mississippi Area of the United Methodist Church from 2000 to 2004 and the Nashville Area of the UMC from 1992 to 2000.
