Comments on Gordon Crosby: A Mission Church Leader (Church of the Savior)
"Although, from one point of view, Crosby increasingly divested himself of leadership in the congregation, from another he demonstrated how profound his practice of it was. He refused to be the one to whom others always looked for guidance and instead released them to take the lead and then assisted in any way he could. What was at the heart of Crosby’s capacity to do this? According to Elizabeth O’Connor, a key member of the community and chief chronicler of it’s a activities, it is his ‘willingness to question’ and his readiness ‘to give up the old and embrace the new.’ This springs, she says, from a wonderful ‘flexibility of spirit.’ Crosby also displays an acute capacity to listen to God, not only in moments of withdrawal but also in the most ordinary situations. For example, the idea for a coffeehouse that would be a hospitable place not only for church members but also for people in the neighborhood looking for a place to hang out did not come during a time of secluded prayer but Cosby reflected on the liveliness and interaction in a tavern compared to a dull church service he had just visited. ‘I realized that there was more warmth and fellowship in that tavern than there was in the church. If Jesus of Nazareth had his choice He would probably have come to the tavern rather than to the church we visited.’”
~ Robert Banks and Bernice M. Ledbetter. Reviewing Leadership: A Christian Evaluation Of Current Approaches. Grand Rapids, MI. 2004. pp. 128-129.
