Letting Leaders Lead
By Kimmy Zeiler and Br. Sam Gunn
CCM has grown a lot in recent years! Our capacity to form and train student leaders has been a key factor. Today over 60 students serve in supervised leadership roles from liturgy to social justice to overall governance to tech, naming only a few. This is about something more than meeting practical needs. We believe forming effective leaders is critical for the future of the Church.
With our student Executive Board (E-Board), we have a unique window on the way God works in the lives of our leaders. We are astounded by the spiritual insights, careful considerations, and practical solutions they offer so readily in weekly meetings. Our pattern is to pray with the scriptures, especially any associated with the themes for our upcoming large group meetings called KnightFire. Not only does this unify our spiritual vision, but it also allows us, as a diverse team of seven, to share our reflections, learning from one another as the night is planned.
We give our student leaders real roles and real freedom – not only to do well, but to fail. They are not figureheads or “worker bees.” CCM President Jorge Trejo finds this to be the most impactful part of his leadership experience. The staff, he says, are “more invested in me becoming a formed and capable leader than me doing my job perfectly.” Working through failure has in fact been a great teacher for Jorge. “There were opportunities for me to mess up, but they were there to help correct me and be with me where I needed them.” The result? “I found that there was real ownership over what I was doing.”
Our leaders not only receive supervision, but they also give it. Each member of our student Executive Board (E-Board) walks with a set of Outreach Team Leaders (formerly committee chairs). The E-Boarders support these leaders as they plan events and organize student participation. With E-Board taking care of practical matters, CCM staff can keep an eye on the “big picture” as well as responding to pastoral issues that may arise. It's also better for the team leaders. Jorge observes, "When things are not going well, it’s sometimes easier to talk to a fellow student." Most issues can be resolved there; however he notes, "when necessary, it will go up a notch to the staff person." The overall effect? "It just makes life a lot easier," says Jorge.
Our strategy of giving leaders real responsibility has already borne much fruit for the wider Church. Josue Reyes-Diaz brings insights gained from serving on CCM E-Board to his current role as a campus missionary serving with Saint Paul’s Outreach (SPO) at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. Specifically, Josue points to, “the value of relationships within the leadership group.” He sees that unity on any leadership team is grounded in trust. This involves, he says, “spending time together outside of regularly scheduled meetings.” As an undergrad Josue found that his E-Board was something more than a team. They became friends. “Since I transitioned to ministry, I'm able to apply all those lessons to my work here.”
Katherine Murphy, a UCF alumna who runs her own wedding photography business, says that her experience of serving on E-Board at CCM gave a model. That joy, that sense of purpose centered on God she found in her year on E-Board, “I try to incorporate it in my business in the way I work with couples; capturing a really important day that’s so faith focused for a lot of the clients I work with.”
These leaders are extraordinary. As we journey with them, they are following in the footsteps of so many amazing CCM alumni who have had a positive regional, national and even international impact on our Church. God is raising up a new generation of faith-filled and effective Catholic leaders. They are being sent out into the world to share the Gospel in a way that is totally unique to each one of them. We can't wait for you to run into one of them in the working world or in your local parish. Then you’ll see for yourself the astonishing fruit of our surprising strategy: letting leaders lead.