Camino, Portugal, and Anderson University

Walking from Porto to Santiago is roughly 280 km (180 miles) plus there is the additional 90 km (60 miles) extension from Santiago to Finisterre. This Way will mark this summer's pilgrimage on The Portuguese Way of the Camino de Santiago. Several days overlook the Atlantic Ocean from the Portuguese Coast. Other days turn inland through small towns and villages. The Portuguese Way is not only shorter but also less populated than the French Way, which I completed in 2018. I leave for the Camino in mid-June. I remain grateful to my wife and our children for releasing me from our home to make the pilgrimage. (I continually invite my older two children to join me - why do teenagers keep saying no to time with their dad and walking 200 miles in the heat????)

 
I remember mapping out the Portuguese Way during the summer of 2020 with all expectations that the Covid-19 pandemic would end and travel would again be possible. I was mapping the Portuguese Way in preparation to walk the Way with 8 Doctor of Ministry students (also known as friends) as the apex of our DMIN cohort focused on spiritual leadership. Covid-19 didn't subside even as each of us navigated getting vaccinated in time for departure. We decided to rearrange the trip in April of 2021 and planned a last-minute walk on the California Camino Real. Every Camino provides what the pilgrim needs, yet even after walking from Santa Cruz to Carmel in California, I could sense a longing to return to the Camino de Santiago (Way of St James) in Spain (and Portugal). The DMIN pilgrims also share the longing and will hopefully experience the Portuguese Way next summer (2023). In reading their completed dissertations this Spring, it was clear that the Camino Real experience was significant for many of them as they continue to explore questions of faithful leadership in a complex world.

Their questions remain true for me: what is faithful leadership in my corner of complexity? The questions of faith, work, social ills, parenting, and marriage hold the complexity of my little corner. The Camino provides the space to focus this question into clearer, closer, and surprising questions that make themselves known through the slow pace of walking day-after-day. 

It seems like a real luxury to make space and time to walk in Portugal. On one hand it feels like a selfish vacation, but deeper down it feels like an invitation to suffer. The suffering is not simply the physical limits of the body when the heels crack or the lower back aches, but more so the suffering of the mind as I quiet the outer noise and listen to the inner noise that longs for release. I often spend one- or two-days Ugly Crying. Considering the last year with Madeline’s surgeries and our family’s transition to South Carolina, I imagine the inner life will pour forth significant tears, and Ugly Cry will have its way. The Camino welcomes the weeping for as long as it needs to lament and wail. The cleansing tears are simply amplification of God's presence that showed forth at baptism, "this is my son/daughter with whom I am well pleased."

But there also remains a larger vision for why the Camino matters to me. I long to find ways to form leaders that require one's entire presence to integrate in one experience. The Camino does such work in the life of a leader who is open to The Way. Even resistance on The Way has its own method for getting our attention. 
When we share our stories from the Camino, listeners often remark, "I would love to walk the Camino but could never find the time." This is not a cop-out, but is a real concern for leaders, and yet most of us are leading out of exhaustion rather than rest and wholeheartedness. 

When the DMIN cohort was making plans, I remember trying to nail down the dates for the DMIN Camino. We wrestled with vacation schedules, Sunday events, and children's activities as we tried to find a two-week window to travel together for a common experience. At one point, we simply acknowledged that the only way to make the schedule work was to say, "yes" and allow the world to continue spinning amidst our departure from home and work. I was proud of our group for making it work, but the time pressure leaders face - even during Covid-19 - remains a real pressure that complicates doing the deep work needed for faithful leadership.  

The Camino is the gift many leaders need. I remain amazed at how many leaders, men and women alike, will spend more than two weeks a year away from work and family to attend conferences and training, or who will travel for other work responsibilities, but cannot imagine finding 14 days to walk the Camino. I understand and feel called to continually invite others to walk The Way. My view of God's timing allows the invitation to occur knowing that the timing will be right when a leader says "yes" to becoming a pilgrim.

Support from Anderson University

Anderson University is a growing and vibrant Christian college in South Carolina. I knew little about it 18 months ago, but I have come to appreciate it as a fine liberal arts university with a clear focus on preparing students for lives of significance in society. The faculty are humble, intelligent and committed.

I shared my Camino experience with a few colleagues at Anderson University, including the Provost. I shared my dream of walking with students or faculty colleagues on a two-week discipleship excursion to deepen our leadership formation. Their eyes brightened as I shared the story; I quickly invited them to join me in June. Instead of saying yes, they encouraged me to apply for faculty development funding. several said I should apply but not \ be surprised if the committee declined my request. You can imagine my delight when I received funding for the experience. I am grateful to my colleagues for listening to the stories and to the Faculty Development Committee for granting the request. The funding is much appreciated, yet even more is that the committee approved the possibility for such an experience and its potential as scholarly research, student engagement, and faculty collaboration. I wrote in the proposal: 

I request funds to sojourn The Way of St James (Camino de Santiago) in Portugal and Spain. I hope to explore the shape of reflection and pilgrimage for both Christian pedagogies and leadership research. On the teaching (pedagogical) side, this proposal seeks funding for a two-week pilgrimage in Portugal and Spain as a way to educate leaders. There is an ongoing question in leadership education research regarding how leaders and scholars step away from routine and into a rhythm for reflection, rest, and attention. As a pedagogy, pilgrimage is an intentional and embodied way to clarify one's life for faithfulness in vocation. On the research side, leadership is untethering from long-held assumptions of speed, growth, expansion, and promotion. The turn is toward spirituality and meaning through interrogation, slowness, and rootedness. In this way, the intersections of Christian mission, human formation, and leading are rooted in faith, identity, and wisdom. I desire to join this scholarly turn; my research agenda has been exploring, "how do spiritual disciplines enhance the paradigms of leadership as identity formation rather than mere production and efficiency?"

I leave June 12 for the Camino to continue exploring these questions for myself, yet also look forward to sharing the stories with colleagues and students upon my return. I hold any future plans loosely, but am also hopeful that this experience will find life for others at Anderson University in the years to come.

I plan to blog regularly while walking and welcome you to walk with me (we had one DMIN colleague who could not travel to California with us last summer; he organized a walk each day in solidarity; if you choose to walk 2-3 miles a day from June 12-26, please let me know). We can walk in solidarity and even share our reflections together. I pray that God will walk with me as I rejoice and lament my own life and the lives of loved one for 14 days while walking The Way.