At 12 Noon, Eastern Time, the nominees for our next Presiding Bishop will be announced. Scott Gunn has been thinking about the qualities the next PB will need to take on a nearly impossible task.
A visionary leader. We need a leader who can cast a large, inspiring vision for the church and who knows how to work with strategic thinkers to make it happen. We do not need a maintenance or caretaker PB right now. We need a bishop who is a person of big ideas and who gets people on board. How can we know if this is true? Look at the bishop’s track record.
Leader for change. We need a leader who is skilled at leading through times of change and who can change readily herself or himself. The status quo is melting before our very eyes, and our church is going to look very different at the end of a PB’s nine-year term. We need a bishop who has a history of navigating change, especially organizational change….
Brilliant communicator. We need a presiding bishop who is a natural communicator, who can articulate complex, difficult ideas with clarity and grace, especially under pressure. The next PB should be facile with social media (though, like Pope Francis, may delegate this to others, so long as the point of it is understood). Watch out for posers who suddenly have a Twitter account now that their campaign is picking up speed….
Read the rest here. Before we find out who the nominees are, what would you like to see in the next Presiding Bishop?