We need to structure the modern episcopacy in ways that make for leaders who build, not leaders who manage. The high tide denominationalism of the '50s and '60s is dead and gone. We might have scraped by with managers if the trend had held, but it hasn't and building a church in this climate is a complex and demanding task.
And bishops? What should they be doing?
They need to remember that the office of bishop is essentially and inescapably about teaching the faith and the cure of souls. A bishop is someone who was ordained a deacon, who was then ordained a priest, and then finally consecrated a bishop. The first two roles are not discarded at consecration. They are focused in new ways, and any interpretation of a bishop's task that is not integral to that vocational trajectory is, in all likelihood, alien to the office.
In as much as possible bishops should stay close to home. The most important tasks that a bishop can perform are not at the far end of a plane ticket. Bishops do their work among the people of their diocese, conference, or synod. Attention to those at home not only grounds a bishop's vision in the life and people of a place, it grounds the bishop in realities, in outreach, and in the concrete expression of the Gospel's message.
Finally, we need bishops who are prepared to lead courageously and can resist making decisions from fear. I once asked a friend about his experience of the episcopacy and what surprised him about it.
Augustine himself once observed, "For you I am a Bishop, with you I am a Christian." There has never been a more succinct naming of that vocation, the heart of its inspiration, and its grounding in community. And we have never been in greater need of women and men shaped by that vision.
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