Caring For The Community Of Believers

Today, the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth celebrated the Installation and Ordination of our new Bishop, Michael Fors Olson.  As a relatively new convert to the Roman Catholic Church I was not surprised by the pomp and circumstance, but I was impressed with the relative ease Bishop Olson appears to carry his office in a humble way.

The homily offered by Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller was interesting to me not only for its religious commentary, but for its implications to everyday leadership.

Among his comments were that a Bishop must be in multiple places.  The Bishop of a Diocese, [or a leader of any organization for that matter], must be in front of the group showing it the way.  He must be in the middle of the group keeping the group huddled together moving forward.  Finally, the Bishop must be behind the group ensuring that no one is left behind.

There are a number of business and organizational leadership commentaries that are hidden in those few sentences he offered.

Important to Catholics though are Archbishop Gustavo's comments - met by applause and laughter - that a Bishop should have the smell of sheep.  These comments clearly indicate that the revolution started by Francis will continue locally.  Here to there is a leadership lesson.


How can leaders be expected to lead when they are not on the front lines of the problems their "flock" is facing?

While I hear regularly that religion needs to be removed from government and business, I wonder if this is true.  It sounds like there are many principles that both government and big business could learn from their faith based counterparts at understanding leadership and holding a flock.

Perhaps I am wrong, but for myself, I am excited by the leadership in my diocese and glad to be part of it.  Good luck Bishop Olson.  I am praying for you.