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Honoring Phyllis Anderson
Phyllis Anderson grew up in San Francisco, California. Her faith was fashioned in a Missouri Synod Lutheran congregation where she came to hold with rock-solid conviction that God's grace was unconditional and a free gift for everyone--including her. Much to the dismay of some of her friends, the deep desire to serve God as a missionary in Papua New Guinea led Phyllis away from San Francisco to Concordia Teachers College in Seward, Nebraska. However, Phyllis discovered quickly and painfully that only men were sent as missionaries by that church and she returned to San Francisco. When she married Herbert Anderson, who was already a pastor, she found a new vocation as "pastor's wife." When Herbert went to graduate school, Phyllis lost her pastor's wife vocation as well. She would not be deterred in her calling, however. When both children were in nursery school over the same hour, she enrolled in the only class available during her "free time" and her theological journey began.
By the time Phyllis was ordained in the American Lutheran Church fifteen years after leaving Seward, Nebraska, more and more women were entering pastoral ministry and the glass ceiling was lifting ever so slightly for women to be leaders in the church. For Phyllis, being a first woman in leadership positions was not a life goal. Rather, they were unexpected opportunities that chronicle the emergence of women as leaders in the church.
In 1979, Phyllis was the first woman to preside at the eucharist at Wartburg Theological Seminary. She was the first woman assistant to a district president in the American Lutheran Church. As the first Director of Theological Education in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Phyllis was often the lone woman among seminary presidents and board chairs. Ten years later, she joined other women academic administrators in that school when she became the first permanent Director of the Ecumenical Institute in the School of Theology and Ministry at Seattle University. And finally, Phyllis was the first woman president of a Lutheran seminary in the United States, serving at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary (PLTS) from 2005 through 2013.
That she did all these things may be reason enough to honor the life and pioneer work of Phyllis Anderson. Even more remarkable, however, is the way she did them.
An effective agent of change
Phyllis's daughter Joy has identified three paradoxical statements that capture her mother's leadership style and inform how Phyllis has done the work "set before her" as an effective agent of change.
1) Confident humility. At the core of her being, Phyllis is a humble person. For her, humility is about self-forgetfulness. At the same time, Phyllis knows that to lead, one needs confidence, even if it may be necessary to fake it now and then. Being confident keeps the focus on the work to be done and not the leader's anxiety. Moreover, confidence is contagious.
2) Accountable risk-taking. When Phyllis's brother Jeffrey Brosch was asked about early signs of her later success, his answer was simple: she did her homework. When Phyllis presides, the meeting has an agenda. Every sermon she preaches has a carefully written text. Every vision has a strategy. When the Board of Directors asked Phyllis to develop some options for a sustainable future for PLTS, she put together binders with nine potential plans for transforming the school. Who knew it would take all nine plans to find the way forward.
Even when Phyllis may seem to be "tilting at windmills," her visions are well-grounded in what is visible and possible. She persists in asking the hard questions. Phyllis says what others are not yet ready to say or maybe even to hear. And her commitment to being accountable leads to transparency in communication. Her granddaughter Julia has it just right: Grandma is a "seven-layer dip of sass."
3) Plain-spoken vision. Phyllis has little patience for self-indulgent visions. She came to be the president of PLTS with a clear and accessible vision: Abundant. Bold. Connected. Phyllis knows how to translate visions so that others can understand and embrace them.
A visionary leader
When Phyllis was asked before she retired how she accounts for all her accomplishments, she responded with characteristic self-forgetfulness by saying, "I simply did what was put before me." True enough. But what sets Phyllis apart as a visionary leader of the church in this time is how she handled "what was put before her." Her son Joel described what is distinctive about his mother's life and work with these words:
What I can appreciate better now is the way in which, at each point along this journey, she was setting her own course, driven by deep convictions and sharp insights into how the church can do its work better, sustained by her faithful, hopeful, and patient persistence, and by a growing quiet confidence in the idea that she can not only do it, and do it actually rather well, but also that it is OK for her to do it herself.... Mom learned how to put aside her doubts, do the homework, and just get on with it.
Women church leaders in the last three decades not only had to be competent and persistent and do their homework, they had to believe it was permissible to do the work they were called to do. As her husband, I know all too well what it cost women like Phyllis to endure hidden sexism without becoming bitter, regularly bump the glass ceiling and still press on to transform institutions for the next generations of women leaders. She is admittedly an "institutionally oriented" person. She has willingly spent herself for theological education because she loves the church and believes that the church needs competent and passionate leaders to have a future.
Guiding themes
In remarkable ways, the dissertation that Phyllis completed in 1984 on the topic Power in Ministry: A Theological Investigation of the Relationship between Authority and Servanthood in Pastoral Ministry in View of the Ordination of Women provided a foundation for the transforming work that followed as a leader in the church working to sustain theological education institutions for the sake of raising up future leaders for the church.
There are four foci that Phyllis has worked and reworked and revised yet again throughout her career: power, authority, leadership and the contribution of women to church and society.
For her, power is neutral. Simply put, power is the capacity to have intentional influence on others. In Christian ministry, power is not for satisfying your own self-interest or ego needs but for service, diakonia. The key to "servant power" is being honest and explicit about power. The most dangerous leaders are those who exert influence but do not take responsibility for it. The person who claims to be innocent of power is in great danger either of abusing it or of missing the opportunity to do something really important. Along the way, often in indirect ways, Phyllis sought to use her personal and institutional power to support women who might-and indeed have--become leaders in the church.
The Study of Theological Education in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was both a process and a subsequent document that reflected a vision of pastoral leaders emerging for Phyllis. In an unpublished address on "Leadership for These Times" (September, 2010), Phyllis observed that
…the focus on leadership was not necessary for centuries upon centuries when it was simply assumed that the pastor would set the course for the congregation by virtue of his office and stature accorded him by the community and wider society. Pastors didn't have to think so much about leading, when it was assumed that the pastor was in charge and people were in the habit of following.
Moreover, in these times, leaders need to know how to function in a more inclusive way. Pastors are not the only leaders in a congregation. They now have to learn how to be leaders among leaders. That kind of leadership must become an intentional act because the world has changed. The kind of massive change required of the contemporary church requires powerful, innovative, artful leaders who are able to rekindle vital faith in individuals and communities in increasingly complex contexts. That kind of leadership will use power toward service, developing visions with an eye toward actually making them happen, loving people as they are in order that change might occur, and being trustworthy in order to be trusted.
One of the Scripture passages I would choose to describe the leadership of Phyllis Anderson as I have observed it close at hand is from 1 Cor 4:1-2: "Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God's mysteries. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy." At the conclusion of her talk in 2010, Phyllis wrote this about the reciprocity of trust.
Leadership depends on trust just as surely as life depends on oxygen. And trust is in short supply. Time was when people followed the pastor, any pastor, because they trusted in the office itself. Now you have to earn that trust. And you earn it demonstrating competence. You earn trust over time by showing up, telling the truth, and doing what you say. It may take years of faithful service for people to trust enough to let you take them to a new place. It begins with trusting yourself. It begins with knowing who you are and living with integrity. It extends to trusting others and allowing them to bring their gifts and their visions. If it all works, trust is reciprocal--like love. And finally it is rooted in a deep and abiding trust in God who is utterly dependable and trustworthy.
In many and varied places, in intimate conversations and on a large stage, in full view of many people who were watching, Phyllis was that kind of leader. It was never easy, sometimes personally costly, but she did what she said. Never less, always more.
Words of wisdom
In 2007, after almost three years as president of PLTS, Phyllis was invited by the Association of Theological Schools to present PLTS as a case study on Institutional Transitions and Strategic Planning. At the conclusion of the presentation, she listed the following principles and strategies to effecting transformational change:
1. Don't be afraid to ask for help, even if you cannot pay. It is amazing what volunteers will do.
2. Affirmation of what is good is as important as identifying the need for change. It lifts up operational excellence.
3. Some messes cannot wait for collaborative analysis. This kind of administrative tightening up is well within the president's authority.
4. You teach by who you are, what you do and how you do it, as much as by what you tell people.
5. Link administrative practices to deep shared values--even shared Christian values.
6. Culture change finally requires broad buy-in.
7. Begin with an end in mind.
8. Small changes may have big effects.
A few testimonies to Phyllis
When Phyllis retired as president of PLTS in Berkeley after nine years in the office, 250 people gathered for a remarkable celebration of her life and ministry. On each dinner table of ten, there were multicolored cards with the same question: "How does Phyllis's life give you hope for the future of theological education?" During the dinner and program people wrote their responses to that question. A sample of the responses is included here as a way of pointing to the future of theological education that Phyllis sought to make sustainable throughout her ministry. In amazing ways, these statements highlight convictions that Phyllis has sought to embody all her life:
"Phyllis is a visionary with big, important values that motivate her life and work. She is a pioneer who went where others had not gone. Her style of leadership drew people into that vision and empowered them to make it their own. She was always interested in getting new things done."
"I am confident that your life of service and insistence on excellence will endure as an example and a guidepost for the future."
"As long as there are talented and humane leaders like Phyllis, theological education will survive, continue to evolve, and even thrive."
"Phyllis dares to have visions which few of us could even entertain, and then she has the courage, confidence, and faith to set out to fulfill them."
"As a young woman working in the church, I can only hope my ministry will have the power and impact that Phyllis has had. She really paved the way, through power and grace, without compromising her personality, for other women such as myself. It is because of Phyllis and women like her that I am in seminary today." "Phyllis has been an inspiration to me during my whole life in the ELCA--as a pioneer leader among women in ministry, the ground she broke still yields fruit every day. God bless her. And thanks be to God for her."
Phyllis has been on an astonishing journey with plenty of heartache and hope, setbacks and surprises, with courage enough to persevere through fatigue and disappointments because she kept her eye on the prize. "Therefore, since it is by God's mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart" (2 Cor 4:1). It has been a privilege to accompany her as her husband, partner, and occasional "support staff' for fifty years through the joys and sorrows of her very public ministry and a public marriage. The life of a leader, Phyllis wrote once, overflows with gratitude: for the privilege of leading, for the abilities to pull it off on a good day, and for all the wonderful people who help move the whole thing forward.
Herbert E. Anderson
Retired Professor of Pastoral Care
