I’m a regular contributor, writing about topics of leadership, to Faith and Leadership, the online discussion for issues of the Church, sponsored by Duke Divinity School.

Since I’m from Mississippi, their editor, Dr. Jason Byassee, asked me to write this month about the gulf oil spill.

Getting all I might want to say into their limited word count is difficult.  So here is the first part (they had to cut for space) and then it picks up with the article running on their blog:

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BP’s Other Toxic Spill

Here in Mississippi, the oil spill in our Gulf is personal.

It is our families who will be bankrupt because of tourism losses, our wetlands and beaches trashed for years to come, our fish and wildlife threatened, and our coastline home prices that will plunge.

Most tragically, it is our spirit that has been broken by BP.

After five years of tenaciously pulling our bootstraps to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina’s head-on collision with the Mississippi coast, we in the Gulf are now held hostage to an oil company who will not tell us what the future holds.

Katrina brought us to our knees.  The oil spill brings us to tears.

While their oil flow pollutes our environment and our economy, BP’s other toxic spill of misinformation has become just as damaging.  Their limited communication, filled with blaming, selfishness, and the slow drip of compounding uncertainty, magnifies the pain of the crisis.

If we had we known what was coming from the beginning (up to 40,000 barrels a day instead of only 1,000), we’d have reached for our bootstraps again and worked for solutions. All we’d ask now is to know as much as they know, even if they don’t have all the answers. Isn’t that what all of us want when we feel overwhelmed in a crisis?

In the Church, all leaders will eventually be called on to manage a crisis that is beyond our control.  And while pressing to finding solutions to the problem itself — economic challenges, moral failing, or dramatic change in direction — we must also communicate properly to those in our care, so we don’t also create a subsequent culture of anxiety that will become even more damaging than our root challenge.

A popular poster from the satirical Despair.com reads, “The secret to success is knowing who to blame for your failures.” And placing blame on those whom God has entrusted to us in ministry is just about that blatantly silly.  Leaders who carry the burden of bad news will be respected and trusted in the long run and are best equipped to offer comfort in time of crisis.

Three tools are critical for sharing bad news without placing blame.

Be Direct

Bad news needs to be shared quickly as soon as the initial facts can be gathered and the analysis of the situation is clear.

Occasionally leaders who enjoy the spotlight will rush the stage, running ahead of the assessment, but doing so creates mistrust if the information is not reliable. More typically leaders try to shield or downplay the bad news from others with the hope that a solution can be found before the circumstances become public.

Those under your care are part of the solution to any problem and you need them to know so they can help you.  Further, they are most likely to be resilient in the pain of a crisis when brought into the discussion early rather than being held at arm’s length.

Be Disclosing

The Apollo 13 spacecraft trouble became known to the world with the infamous words “Houston, we have a problem . . . ”.

Don’t sugarcoat, underplay, or discount the fullness of your challenge.  If the scope of the problem is uncertain, it is better to discuss the worst case among the possibilities and later to be pleasantly surprised than to offer rose coloring that is the first of many disappointments.

Good news can be leaked, allowing it to spread across your ministry team because it is likely to retain its integrity of factual base. But bad news must be announced, or the gossip and speculation will run far ahead of the facts.  Without the full story, those in your care will become fearful, assumptions will run rampant, and energy will be drained by uncertainty.

Be Discreet

It is important to understand the difference between correcting and blaming. The first is done in private. The second occurs in public.

Leaders must privately correct those who make mistakes and create personal growth plans to assure coworkers learn to fulfill their responsibilities. Part of that entails the leader forgiving for the mistake so they can get a fresh start and move forward rather than being weighed down by their errors. This is much different from pointing out the flaws of others publicly.

Shouldering blame won’t hurt leaders in the long term. But even if it does, the Bible clearly guides us on this point: “Remember, it is better to suffer for doing good, if that is what God wants, than to suffer for doing wrong!” (1 Peter 3:17).

Leadership during a crisis demands that we present the facts as fully and accurately as we can. This is a time when others need to feel confident they know as much as the leader about the challenge. Leaders may have learned to live comfortably with a high level of ambiguity and uncertainty, but others have not and they need to have as much detailed information as possible.

Leaders who cannot transparently define the problem in a crisis cannot be trusted to find a viable solution.  Having all the answers is not vital. “I don’t know” is not a bad answer if you don’t know.  But others will only trust you in the eventual solution if you don’t disguise the struggle ahead.

Whether you’re the fourth largest company in the world or a ministry leader in a crisis, trust cannot be bought with public relations campaigns.  One of these days soon, BP will tell us they have the crisis fixed and new safeguards in place to assure we will never have another oil spill like this. Will you believe them?

Roger Parrott is President of Belhaven University in Jackson, Mississippi.  He is the author of The Longview: Lasting Strategies for Rising Leaders (David C. Cook).

For the next two weeks our campus is the “Olympic Village” for the best ballet dancers from around the world.  The flags of the nations of the competitors fly over our student center.

The International Ballet Competition is held in Jackson every four years and the competitors, coaches, and support team live on our campus while here for the most prestigious prize in ballet.

If you’re not familiar with the IBC, take a look HERE.  We are proud to be part of this important international event.

Founded in 1978 by Thalia Mara, the first USA International Ballet Competition took place in 1979 and joined the ranks of Varna, Bulgaria (1964); Moscow, Russia (1969); and Tokyo, Japan (1976).

These first competitions were given sanction by the International Dance Committee of UNESCO’s International Theater Institute.

Today, international ballet competitions flourish worldwide, and the USA IBC in Jackson remains one of the oldest and most respected competitions in the world.

In 1982, the United States Congress passed a Joint Resolution designating Jackson as the official home of the USA International Ballet Competition. Jackson held subsequent competitions in 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006.

The news from Haiti is starting to roll off the front pages, but the recovery will take years.  Here is a report from our friends at Somebody Cares.  Doug’s wife Lisa Stringer is in Haiti and gives this look into the challenges and recovery work:

This morning we made our way onto the airport grounds where many Humanitarian groups from various countries are camping out, unloading and storing goods and supplies for those in need.  We saw flags from Turkey, France, Israel, Great Britain and the USA to name a few. I met soldiers from Uruguay, Portugal, Brazil, as  well as a few others. The nations are ever present and the UN has troops everywhere. The US military has a strong presence as well.

My observation is that the locals tend to have reservations about the UN since they do not have access to news sources and do not know the great effort made by many to assist them. I met people today that have only had a few crackers to eat in the last few days and have begged for them.

The downtown area of Port-Au-Prince was a disaster and looked more like a war zone. Four-story buildings are now just a pile of rubble. The area is quite dusty, the air smells of death and people are digging through the rubble in hopes of finding anything they can use or sell to survive.

Thousands of people lined up around the Presidential palace in hopes of receiving something to eat from the UN troops that are guarding it. We saw one desperate man drink from the dirty and probably contaminated water along the curb. We desperately wanted to give him our own water but to do so would cause a riot. People who are desperate do desperate things.

In front of the main, historic, and now destroyed cathedral we met two (now homeless) ladies that were attending service and ran out when they felt the Quake. One said her niece was in the rubble along with hundreds of others.  She escaped with a few scrapes which our field medic, Craig, treated. They have lost everything. They only own the clothes on their back and have decided to call the sidewalk next to the destroyed church their home for now. Although it is unsafe for us to pull anything out, I found a way to leave her my lunch (an orange and
fruit cup).

A teenager we met shares that he lost his parents and some siblings and now is the only caregiver for his younger brother. He lost a tooth yesterday trying to get a gallon of water and is desperate for food and shelter.  In a few hours our team will head out to get in line at the port and wait for a barge to arrive that has food.

We are in hopes of getting anything to help the pastors and the 10,000 people they represent.  One pastor, now homeless, sleeps in the driveway of the guest home where I am staying with a mere sheet as a bed. Now homeless, other friends of the ministry sleep on the patio, or wherever there is space.

At one mission, our team helped dig a military style latreen in  the “Tent City” as the 2,000 people that are living under sheets and in cardboard boxes have no restrooms.  A few hundred yards away, the medic on our team assisted in the medical clinic helping amputate the tip of someone’s finger as the patient watched.

I am blessed to be a part of something so much bigger than  ourselves. I am with a group of people that love the Lord and are  demonstrating to the Locals that Somebody Cares. Please continue to pray for our health and strength. Pray that we find favor with  those in charge of food and water distribution. Pray for the many teams that are here and those that are on their way.

To have the heart of Jesus,
Lisa Stringer
Somebody Cares America/Int’l

P.S. It is now the evening of January 27th and the team was able to secure the needed food, water and other goods to help the pastors and those they represent.
www.SomebodyCaresHaiti.org <http://www.somebodycareshaiti.org/>
www.somebodycares.org <http://www.somebodycares.org/>

The stories and pictures from Haiti are overwhelming.  It is hard to imagine so much concentrated devastation.  As bad as Hurricane Katrina was to our part of the country, those challenges were small compared to the magnitude of the the loss of life and the difficulty of getting help to these people who have so little even in the best of times.

Here are some resources that might be helpful:

1.  Tomorrow, during our first chapel of the semester of the spring semester, we will have a time of focused prayer for Haiti.

2.  One of our own Belhaven folks has a close connection to Haiti.  Tabitha Martin works in our admissions office, and her husband works with The Fleury Foundation, whose mission is “to help the forgotten children of Haiti.”  You can look on their web site for more info or talk to Tabitha. They have an orphanage, health clinic, and school.

3.  Doug Stringer spoke in chapel last year, and has a wonderful ministry called Somebody Cares America.  They are about the best I know in responding QUICKLY to people in need during a time of crisis.

4.  Following any tragedy, especially one of this magnitude, many ask WHY.  This morning I received a very helpful reflection about “why Haiti” from a friend of Belhaven, Dr. Jerry Seale, who is the CEO of the Evangelical Alliance of the Caribbean.  (His daughter graduated from Belhaven three years ago.)  He is close to Haiti and his perspective is helpful on many levels.

Haïti: Cursed or Blessed?

Every time a disaster happens anywhere in the world some within the Christian community tell us it’s the judgment of God being poured out on sinful people. It has become increasingly difficult for me to think in those terms.

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and sin entered the equation the entire creation was impacted. All creation fell and “groans and labours with birth pangs together until now” (Romans 8:22). Since fallen humans live in a fallen creation we can expect disasters like the Haïti earthquake to happen from time to time. Hence the term “natural disasters” as they can be expected to occur quite naturally in a fallen world. If one subscribes to a pre-millennial interpretation of end-time prophecy, then an increase in such tragedies would be expected based on Matthew 24:7-8.

There are specific instances in the Old Testament where God used natural disasters to express His judgment on a nation or people. However, this was not the norm in ancient history. They too had their share of disasters occurring naturally in the context of a fallen world.

In Luke 13:1-5 Jesus clearly teaches that tragedy is not necessarily the consequence of greater sin for then none of us would escape. “To begin with, He made it clear that human tragedies are not always divine punishments and that it is wrong for us to ‘play God’ and pass judgment. Job’s friends made this same mistake when they said that Job’s afflictions were evidence that he was a sinner. If we take that approach to tragedy, then we will have a hard time explaining the sufferings of the Prophets and Apostles, and even of our Lord Himself.”1

So the earthquake in Haïti does not need to be placed in the context of a judgment from God.

But what of this supposed covenant with the devil made by the Haïtians to gain victory over the French in their war for freedom and independence? That all depends on how the historical facts are interpreted. I used to believe just such a covenant had been made but have come to understand that there are valid interpretations of the historical events that do not include demonic covenants.

There was undoubtedly a time of prayer led by the Jamaican, Boukman, in Bois-Caiman but it is difficult for me to take the available evidence and turn it into a demonic contract. Indeed, the oral traditions that preserved the prayer indicate that the prayer was addressed to God.2

The available evidence could be interpreted to have been a gathering of uneducated Roman Catholic – or even animist – slaves who sought, in the best way they knew, the help of God in obtaining their freedom and defeating the French, the British and then the Spanish.

In fact, “Practising Voodoo” was “strictly forbidden by Toussaint [L’Ouverture]. ”3 This satanic covenant idea is perhaps one of those statements that have taken on the aura of an urban legend.4

So why has Haïti seemed to languish in underdevelopment? Perhaps the reasons are less dramatic than satanic covenants. Here are three things that have had a strong negative impact on Haïti’s ability to develop alongside its Caribbean neighbours.

Firstly, when Haïti defeated the colonial powers of the time and succeeded in declaring freedom and independence, it posed a serious threat to the system of chattel slavery practiced throughout the colonies and depended on for the enrichment of the colonisers. “It is no exaggeration to say that Haïti’s revolution was the first major blow to colonialism by [blacks], and the first assertion of black rights in the Americas.”5

Many in the Caribbean believe that the Haïtian revolution’s success in 1804 had a direct impact on the British Parliament’s decision to abolish the slave trade in 1807.

Consequently, “Haïti was isolated at birth – ostracised and denied access to world trade, finance, and institutional development. It was the most vicious example of national strangulation recorded in modern history.”6

Secondly, France demanded and received reparations from the Haïtians – initially set at 150 million francs but later reduced – for all French property lost in the war of independence, including the value of the hundreds of thousands of slaves who were freed. It took until well into the twentieth century for Haïti to pay off this reparations debt, sometimes paying as much as 70% of the foreign exchange earned in any given year towards this debt.7

The value in today’s world of these reparations has been estimated to be billions of Euros. This national “debt” severely retarded Haïti’s ability to develop economically.

Thirdly, lack of adequate leadership has also been an ongoing difficulty facing Haïti. Leader after leader seems to have concentrated on acquiring a personal fortune rather than building the nation. Governmental corruption in Haïti has become legendary. Without proper leadership no country can
be built for “Everything rises and falls on leadership.”8

Given all of this, outlined here so briefly, there is no question in my mind that the heart of God aches over the devastation that has befallen Haïti as a result of the earthquake on January 12, 2010. It has been such an encouragement to hear persons in Haïti testifying in the news media to their confidence that it was God alone who saved them amidst the carnage. Surely God is “walking” the streets of Port-au-Prince.

Hearing the singing of hymns relayed by the television news channels night after night in the parks and on the streets of Port-au-Prince since the earthquake has reminded me that about one-third of the population of Haïti is said to be Evangelical Christians. Some of the largest Evangelical churches in the Caribbean are in Haïti, with single congregations numbering in the thousands of members.

Could it be that the earthquake in Haïti is nothing more than an egregious natural disaster? Is God willing to step into this calamity and give Haïti another chance to build a righteous nation? Does Haïti have a new opportunity to develop a transformed nation?

With the help of the world pouring into Haïti surely we can build new and effective governmental structures, better schools and hospitals, efficient electrical and telephone systems, proper roads, habitable housing for all, delivery systems for potable water and a system of roads that will facilitate economic development.

As I intercede for Haïti I have a sense of the Holy Spirit hovering over that troubled nation “as a hen gathers her brood under her wings” (Luke 13:34). I urge Christians everywhere to intercede for Haïti in the months and years ahead that God would enable her to rise to take her place among the nations as an equal.

Let us pray that Haïti will move very quickly from disaster relief to national construction and that those who make the decisions will be endued with divine wisdom to make those decisions that will lead to a successful Caribbean nation replacing the almost failed state that Haïti had become. Pray also that the system of corruption that has seemed inherent in Haïti would have perished in the earthquake.

May God fill Haïti with His glory. May His anointing flow down the streets of every city, town and hamlet of that country. May His people there find the courage and strength to step out by faith and build a new nation to the honour and glory of God Almighty.

© January 2010 at Bridgetown, Barbados by Bishop Gerald “Gerry” Seale, DD, General Secretary and CEO, Evangelical Association of the Caribbean
Permission is granted to publish this article as long as proper attribution is given to the author.

1    Warren W. Wiersbe. 2001. The Bible Exposition Commentary, New Testament, Volume I. Colorado Springs, Victor, p.224

2    R. D. Heinl, Jr, and N. G. Heinl. 1978. Written in Blood – the story of the Haitian people, 1492-1971. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, p.43

3    C. L. R. James. 1989. The Black Jacobins. New York, Vintage Books, p.309

4    Michael Ireland. 2010. Urban Legend Expert Debunks Haitian ‘Pact with the Devil.‘ Assist News,
<http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2010/s10010104.htm> accessed January 18, 2010

5    John Marquis. 2007. Papa Doc: Portrait of a Haïtian Tyrant 1907-1971. Kingston, LMH Publishing Ltd, p.60

6    Professor Sir Hilary Beckles. 2010. “The Hate and the Quake.” Sunday Sun, January 17, 2010. Bridgetown, The
Nation Publishing Company Limited, p.9A

7    Ibid, p.24A 8    John C. Maxwell. 1993. Developing the Leader Within You. Nashville, Thomas Nelson Publishers

This week we turn the calendar to 2010.

Looking back a century, it is important to remember what an important year 1910 was for the Church.  That was the year barriers between denominations started to be lowered, and cooperative efforts began for global evangelism across denominational lines.

It was 100 years ago the historic 1910 Edinburgh Conference brought together 1,400 participants from around the world (although only 17 from the global south).  This historic meeting was the accelerator for the student missions movement, while also laying the groundwork for the establishment of the World Council of Churches

What has happened in the past century?

Rick Warren helps us look forward at the Church summarizing these shifts of the past century:

In 1900, 71% of all, ‘Christians’ lived in Europe; by ’00 it had declined to just 28% who claimed to be Christian. Far fewer go to church.

Conversely, in 1900, only 10% of all people in Africa (10 million) were Christians vs. over 50% (360 million) today. That is a complete turnaround on a continent that’s never, ever been seen or done in history.

I may surprise some when I say that there are by far more Christians in China than in America.

There are more Presbyterians in Ghana than in Scotland, where they were founded by John Knox.

There are more Baptists in the India state of Nagaland than in the American South.

There are more Anglicans in Kenya or Uganda or Rwanda or Nigeria than in England. There are 2 million Anglicans in England compared to 17 million in Nigeria.

Last Sunday, more Christians went to church in China than all of Europe combined. That is a fundamental shift.

As you turn the calendar to 2010, stop to celebrate God’s working in so many parts our world that seemed unreachable 100 years ago.  And pray the Lord will bring a reevangelization to those countries who once were the pace setters for Christians.

What will the Church look like 100 years from now?