The Accidental Leader

As a born Catholic, I pretty much was brought up in a church environment attending masses as well as Catechism classes in a La-Sallian school and also in church.  I was also involved with the Church Youth as well as the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (in my teenage years) which formed the foundation of my faith.

However, as I went into the work environment, the priority was to focus on my career and also my part time studies, which took up a lot of my time. 

As I progressed in my career and subsequently setting up a family further reduced the amount of time I had doing God’s work.  On and off, I helped in the Choice programme for single adults, and occasionally attended BEC mass or Christmas gathering.

While still attending weekend masses regularly, there was hardly any time to be involved in other church activities or ministries, except helping out in the parish finance committee for some years.

During the height of my career, several unforeseen and unfortunate events happened in succession.  To cut the story short, I experienced betrayal and was made a scapegoat as office politics reared its ugly head.  I was put in corporate “cold-storage”.  It was very disappointing and demoralizing that all the sacrifices made for the company over the years, was quickly forgotten as the top management scrambled to point the finger and sacrifice the most convenient pawn to save themselves.

My whole world came crashing down.  This was my first real “Jesus” experience.  In a way, I began to somehow relate to how Jesus could have felt when he was betrayed and crucified, even though what I went through would never compare with what he went through to save us.  There was bitterness, disappointment and a great fear of losing my job.

But apparently, God had other plans for me.

During the crisis, I had 2 options, to take up a legal case against my employer or to move on in life.  I chose the latter and with the help of long-time friends, I made 2 job applications and received offers from both.  In fact, a major bank who knew about my unfortunate incident offered me an improved package to move over but this would inevitably put tremendous pressure and expectations on me in an increasingly challenging industry.

After praying for direction, I decided to move out of the banking industry which was my comfort zone, take a “pay-cut” and move on to a new challenge and environment, which I hoped would have less demands on my time, or maybe not (I wouldn’t know) and allow me to have a better balance in my priorities. 

In addition, whether I will make it or not in this new endeavour, still remained uncertain, at that point in time.  The first 2 years was indeed very challenging and there were times that I had doubts if I made the correct decision.

After almost 2 years in my new job, the parish priest called me one fine afternoon and invited me to attend the parish pastoral council meeting that very evening.  As usual, I was quite hesitant to get involved for the fear of overly committing to something which I may not have the time for and something which was well beyond my skill set and experience.  But somehow, I was coaxed to attend the meeting.

Attending the meeting for the first time, I had absolutely no clue as to what the functions of the parish pastoral council was.  And apparently, an election was to be held during this fateful meeting to elect the new council core-team.

In a flurry of activities, I was shockingly elected as the new chairperson, and despite my attempts to give excuses, I could not wriggle myself out of the appointment.  

Till today, I suspect that there is a conspiracy in this, or was it God’s will, I really don’t know.

What I have learned over the years is that despite my inadequacy, unworthiness and cluelessness, God had provided guidance in the form of unwavering support from an experienced and committed group of council members, and also my predecessor and I slowly began to learn to be a better leader, albeit an “accidental” one.

And over the years, I have started to be more engaged in church activities and with God’s blessing, my not-so-new job also began to yield results, and I really thank God for working in mysterious ways and usually not according to my own plans or directions.  I have also learned to trust in God and to serve with sincerity, humility, love, patience and compassion.  Nobody is perfect and we all serve the people of God with our own imperfections.

A word of advice to would-be future leaders – when God calls you, do not turn it down even if you feel you are unworthy or not ready.  God had given us talents, and we should not just bury it. 

And to existing fellow leaders, let us continue to encourage and nurture the next generation of leaders so that we can move on to new ministries or other services, including those outside of our own church organizations, to be missionaries of Christ.

I hope that this personal sharing will inspire more parishioners to come forward and serve the community, both within our church, BECs and also beyond, bringing the good news to everyone, believers and non-believers through our deeds and actions. Stephen Chin