Tag: Leadership

“Lessons I Have Learned In Christian Work” – by John R. Mott of the YMCA

These original 15 leadership lessons from 1948 by John R. Mott were copied from a 2006 publication written by Christian YMCA leaders; each chapter is a modern reflection and application of Mott’s YMCA lessons and experiences.

Who is John R. Mott? Why does he still matter to the Y? What can we learn from him today about leadership, spirituality, peace-making, Christian ministry, and serving amidst severe adversity?

Below are brief excerpts about his extraordinarily significant life regarding his being awarded in 1946 the Nobel Peace Prize, as well as his brilliant lifelong Christian ecumenical mission work. The main feature of this post is to highlight Mott’s 15 leadership lessons, referenced from a 2006 YMCA Christian leadership book.

Mott seems to have been mothballed, memory of his achievements have become marginalized; yet: we need to retrieve as much wisdom from him as possible in light of the “old” conflicts re-erupting in our culture and to which the YMCA is adapting still…

“Friendship among Christians Brings Peace”

“The Peace Prize for 1946 was awarded to the head of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), the American John Raleigh Mott, who according to the Nobel Committee had contributed to the creation of a peace-promoting religious brotherhood across national boundaries.”

“Mott grew up in a settler family in Iowa, strongly influenced by Puritan ideals, and took a bachelor’s degree in history at Cornell University. As a student Mott received a religious call to spread the Gospel, after which he devoted most of his life to the YMCA, to missionary activities, and ecumenical work.”

“As general-secretary of the International Committee of the YMCA and president of YMCA’s World Committee, Mott sought to advance understanding and reconciliation. He organized youth exchanges, set up study groups, and arranged international youth camps. Mott was at the same time a leading figure in the field of international Christian student and missionary cooperation, and took part during both World Wars in relief work for prisoners of war. He criticised the oppression of colonial peoples and was a pioneer in the struggle against racial discrimination.”

The Nobel Peace Prize 1946 was divided equally between Emily Greene Balch “for her lifelong work for the cause of peace” and John Raleigh Mott “for his contribution to the creation of a peace-promoting religious brotherhood across national boundaries.”

After a lifetime in Christian work and extensive travel in eighty-three nations, I would suggest for your consideration fifteen basic lessons that I have learned:

from remarks by John R. Mott at the North American Association of YMCA Secretaries meeting, May 25, 1948 Grand Rapids, Michigan
  1. Jesus Christ is the Foundation: He provides the direction and the zest for life. If we understand his teachings and his personality, he will make his own impression on our lives and it will be revolutionary.
  2. Rule by the Heart: People are reached “via the heart” – There is no substitute for love and kindness and sympathy.
  3. Study priorities: No human can do all the good to be done in the world. We need to list and study our own priorities daily.
  4. We Can Trust Others: We can afford great acts of trust. I can testify that I have never had others disappoint me.
  5. Study and Promote the Use of the Bible: It has been said that the cause of all evil is the lack of interest in religious writing. If I were to stay longer, I would give a frontline place to reawakening interest in the religious writings of Christianity. There is nothing to take their place.
  6. The Discipline of Prayer is Essential: “He departed a stone’s cast beyond the Apostles, and kneeled down and prayed.” I need only to say that we must make prayer one of the primary objectives of this brotherhood.
  7. Do “Multiplying” Work: “He that does the work is not as profitably employed as he who multiplies the doers.” Enlisting volunteers is one of our greatest tasks.
  8. Use the “Heroic Appeal”: A heroic appeal often gets a heroic response. It is good to have difficulties because it calls out the most in you, it drives you to get the cooperation of others, it drives you to God.
  9. Strategy Is Important: There are strategic points which if captured, make easy all that lies behind them. There are strategic classes and strategic races, strategic times, strategic methods, strategic places. We must know what they are.
  10. We need to Get into the Field: You cannot develop a Christian from an office chair. We need to be out meeting and dealing with personalities.
  11. Small Groups are of Great Value: Christ sent them out “two by two.” At one time, he had five disciples, at another time three, another time eleven, and at another, twelve. Why did Christ attach importance to small groups? I long ago decided that it was wise to follow Christ in this method.
  12. Adolescence is a Crucial Time: If I had my life to live over I would spend much time on the adolescents age group. These are the habit forming years, the years of determining life attitude and tendencies, the years of creativeness.
  13. Don’t Overlook Old People: Here is wisdom and experience for our asking. Here, also, is a group to whom we must give kindness and affection.
  14. Emphasize the Immediate: We need to live under the spell of immediacy. What other time will there be? What other generations than the present can we work with?
  15. Be Attentive Unto God: “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.” And, “My soul, be silent unto God,” say what I mean. We must put out other sounds – noises of selfish ambition – prepare ourselves to say, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”
These 15 lessons from John R. Mott were copied from this 2006 publication written by Christian YMCA leaders. Each chapter is a modern reflection and application of Mott’s YMCA experiences; featured are extraordinary Y leaders I’ve befriended: Eric Ellsworth, David Byrd, Tim Joyce, and Paul McEntire – purchase your copy online today!

And more about Mott the missionary leader:

“Born shortly after the American Civil War, which ended in 1865, his life spanned almost ninety years, ending in 1955 when Dwight Eisenhower was president.
During his life Mott interacted with eight American presidents, most notably Woodrow Wilson, who called him “one of the most nobly useful men in the world.”
When Mott declined to succeed Wilson as president of Princeton University, Wilson commented, “Mr. Mott can’t afford to take the presidency of a great university; Mr. Mott occupies a certain spiritual presidency in the spiritual university of the world.”
Although he declined several diplomatic positions, he did serve on Wilson’s Root Commission to Russia in 1917 and became the president’s most trusted advisor on Russian affairs.
In 1946, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work.”
[Gordon R. Doss, John R. Mott, 1865-1955: Mission Leader Extraordinaire]

YMCA & Challenge 21: Global Inspiration for Local Mission-work

As YMCAs in the United States grapple with the roiling upheavals of 2020, and the tumultuous start to 2021, as we seek solid ground from which to stand and serve our struggling communities, there is much we can learn from our global YMCA friends and their foundation for serving amidst world-wide challenges.

Grinding poverty, political violence, ethnic resentments, religious strife, environmental pollution, broken families, corrupt cities – whatever shock or resistance American citizens have to these realities in our own country (the wealthiest and most powerful in modern history) fellow YMCA workers from around the world have also had to strive for success in this grueling reality for generations.

What can USA Christian YMCA leaders learn from Y’s in other countries – particularly ones committed to the legacy of George Williams and the Paris Basis?

What have other international Y’s figured out when it comes to embodying the gospel of Christ in a dangerous and violent world?

YMCA Challenge 21 is a gritty and enduring Christian commitment to historical and spiritual realities, but focused on an inspirational and grounded future.

Challenge 21, was drafted by the 14th World Council of YMCAS in Germany, 1998:

YMCA Challenge 21

“Affirming the Paris Basis adopted in 1855 as the ongoing foundation statement of the mission of the YMCA, at the threshold of the third millennium we declare that the YMCA is a world-wide Christian, ecumenical, voluntary movement for women and men with special emphasis on and the genuine involvement of young people and that it seeks to share the Christian ideal of building a human community of justice with love, peace and reconciliation for the fullness of life for all creation.

Each member YMCA is therefore called to focus on certain challenges which will be prioritized according to its own context.

These challenges, which are an evolution of the Kampala Principles, are:

• Sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and striving for spiritual, intellectual and physical well-being of individuals and wholeness of communities.

• Empowering all, especially young people and women to take increased responsibilities and assume leadership at all levels and working towards an equitable society.

• Advocating for and promoting the rights of women and upholding the rights of children.

• Fostering dialogue and partnership between people of different faiths and ideologies and recognizing the cultural identities of people and promoting cultural renewal.

• Committing to work in solidarity with the poor, dispossessed, uprooted people and oppressed racial, religious and ethnic minorities.

• Seeking to be mediators and reconcilers in situations of conflict and working for meaningful participation and advancement of people for their own self-determination.

• Defending God’s creation against all that would destroy it and preserving and protecting the earth’s resources for coming generations.

To face these challenges, the YMCA will develop patterns of co-operation at all levels that enable self-sustenance and self-determination.”

Imagine the humble posture of North American YMCA’s discarding their exceptionalism and turning towards global Y’s to learn in mutuality how to live out our mission in this new era of unprecedented disruption and chronic uncertainty?

Imagine the kind of solidarity we could generate in the United States if we relented of reinventing the YMCA and took some lessons from our world partners on living out the historic mission of the Y amidst these challenging times?

Challenge 21 enables North American Y’s to transcend the boring discussions of whether we should be more or less a business or non-profit focused, more or less a gym/swim or social agency.

The vision and depth of Challenge 21 could transform the spirit, energy and creativity of local Y’s, if they are brave enough to embrace it.

Here’s how different Y’s across the world highlight Challenge 21:

East Jerusalem YMCA

YMCA Europe

Asia and Pacific Alliance of YMCAs

YMCA Africa Alliance

If you were to “grade” your Y in light of Challenge 21, what would the result look like?

If you were to connect the most exciting parts of your Y with the Challenge 21, which parts would be highlighted?

Just imagine how exciting your Y could be with a more intentional holistic focus in solidarity with fellow associations across the globe!

One can make the case that Challenge 21 is a robust, thoughtful, dynamic, transformational unpacking of our current YUSA mission statement.

It can open up a way to transcend the colloquial American political and religious anxieties; it can reconnect us with our world neighbors and the immanent love that empowers us all.

Evolution of USA YMCA logo’s

YMCA & The Paris Basis For Thriving in 2021

What will guide our YMCA in 2021? With what we think is ahead of us, with what we are preparing to overcome, with what must change within and around us – what is our cornerstone for the Y future? Since 1855 the Paris Basis has been a foundation for YMCA’s around the world to navigate unprecedented disruptions and cataclysmic upheavals. What is the Paris Basis, and how can it aid Christian leaders in the Y to “build a healthy spirit, mind and body for all?”

What is the original animating genius of the YMCA?

What is the power source for sacrificial service, resiliency, and love that enables the Y to endure for over 15 decades globally and locally – especially here in Fort Wayne?

The Paris Basis of the YMCA is a concise yet potent agreement for shaping how a global youth movement can adapt to a plethora of cultures and unique circumstances while embodying a transcendent purpose and calling.

Here in the United States, the Paris Basis guided the YMCA amidst the violent upheavals of the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Great War, the Great Depression, World War Two, the Cold War, Civil Rights Era, Korea-Vietnam-Central America-Iraq-Afghanistan wars/tragedies, 9/11, and now COVID.

The Paris Basis was adopted on 22nd August 1855 in Paris, France at the 1st World YMCA Conference

“The Young Men’s Christian Associations seek to unite those young men who, regarding Jesus Christ as their God and Saviour, according to the Holy Scriptures, desire to be his disciples in their faith and in their life, and to associate their efforts for the extension of his Kingdom amongst young men.

Any differences of opinion on other subjects, however important in themselves, shall not interfere with the harmonious relations of the constituent members and associates of the World Alliance.”

YMCA Paris Basis, adopted at First World YMCA Conference, 1855, organized by Henri Dunant
draft document of the Paris Basis, 1855

The spirit of the YMCA leaders that drafted this document also shaped the future ecumenical movement of European and then international Christian churches.

The emphasis on Jesus Christ, his Kingdom, and harmonious relationships should not be underestimated for its significance on the growth and vitality of the Y in a turbulent and war-torn century.

George Williams, a founder of the YMCA, who embodied this kind of Christian spirit of service, was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1894.

Henri Dunant, organizer of the first YMCA world council, also embodied this Christian spirit of service, and would go on to found the International Red Cross; he would be awarded the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.

The Christian spirit of service embodied by Williams and Dunant, as expressed in the Paris Basis and enculturated across dozens of nations around the world in those early decades, still exists today for YMCA’s to work together and collaborate in their communities.

It has been necessary and good for the Young Men’s Christian Association to adapt and mature over the past 175+ years.

In regard to the Paris Basis the need prevails to immerse our mission in it, as we fully immerse ourselves in the cultures of our communities. We still live in a violent, broken, yet beautiful world, as 2020 revealed so clearly to us.

The genius of the Paris Basis is its emphasis on the personal, not the abstract: Jesus Christ as our faithful God and courageous Savior; on its reconciliatory nature as revealed by Christ’s kingdom that prioritizes forgiveness, oneness, and sacrificial service.

The world doesn’t need platitudes or empty promises; it does still need real people living as peace-makers inspired by the words and works of the real Jesus Christ.

The YMCA is at its best when it is personal, when it connects and unites communities, when it brings out the best in others. What makes this transformative is when it happens amidst irascible conflict, brokenness, and apathy.

The spirit of the Paris Basis originated among twelve industrious young Christian men who associated to improve the lives of workers around them living in darkness, squalor, and hopelessness.

When YMCA workers seek to embody this same spirit in its complicated context, the Paris Basis can be a guiding light and spiritual fuel as it enters into difficult and overwhelming circumstances.

The Paris Basis emphasizes some key texts from the New Testament:

– the dynamic person of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Gospel according to Luke, especially the first four chapters.

– the transformative kingdom of Christ unto which we are disciples in faith and life, described in the Gospel according to Matthew, particularly chapters five through seven.

– the harmonious relations stem from a robust and powerful vision of Jesus Christ as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane “that all may be one” as recorded in the Gospel according to John, in chapter 17, but prefaced by the call to “love one another” in chapters 15-16.

Christian leaders within the YMCA movement can draw great wisdom and strength from reflections on these three core Gospel writings, as they go about their demanding work in the community.

Like anyone else we can get overwhelmed by the upheavals on our world; the Paris Basis can be our North Star in the wilderness, our compass in the storm, our lantern in the dark.

You may not be knighted for your YMCA work, nor receive a Nobel Peace Prize. But that same spirit of Christ that animated Williams and Dunant, as articulated in the Paris Basis, is still alive and vibrant, for those willing to embrace it.

Together we can strive for more peace, in the way of Christ and his Kingdom, especially in the troubled times still ahead for our world in 2021.