Recently I participated in a Narrative Leadership Retreat with a small group of clergy. We retreated to Elba, Alabama (that’s another blog post!), for four days under the guidance of Steve Graham, Dick Hester, and Kelli Walker-Jones. The experience was fantastic because of the group process that we followed and the sacred stories that we told. 

What is your earliest childhood memory? What is an experience of leadership before the age of 20? When have you experienced an ordaining moment in your life? What is your favorite Biblical narrative? In answering these questions by telling stories and weaving them together, I began to see “one” narrative of my life. By thinking about what I was leaving out, I was challenged to see alternate narratives of my life that could become sources of strength and insight regarding my ability to lead well.

Another aspect of the retreat was the way we used poetry to nurture our souls. Now, I am familiar with lectio divina or the process of holy reading of SCRIPTURE. However, I had never used lectio with poetry. How true it is that our ears are so used to hearing the words of Scripture – so much so that we often cannot hear it with fresh ears or hearts. So, in using poetry, we were invited to visit a new place! Each portion of our journey was guided by poets Mary Oliver, Seamus Heaney, Billy Collins, Judy Brown, and John Fox.

So, I left the retreat and headed home with one new book in my bag – Know Your Story and Lead with It: The Power of Narrative in Clergy Leadership – and went straight to the bookstore to purchase another new book – Leading from Within: Poetry that Sustains the Courage to Lead. Oh, and I bought a third book, a new journal, to begin writing down my stories!