By George Keralis
From the first day of teaching Mr. Holland (Richard Dreyfuss, Mr. Holland’s Opus, 1995) experiences what many of us feel when facing unfamiliar situations or relationships. The lack of connectivity. How did I get here? What am I doing here? “I didn’t sign up for this.” On his first day of teaching, the students look at Mr. Holland as though he were an alien from a planet plucked from the imagination of George Lucas’ Star Wars. Whether it is his music appreciation class, orchestra rehearsal, private lessons with Miss Lang or confrontations with principal Helen Jacobs, Glenn Holland fails to connect with his unfamiliar environment. He does not connect well with people.
To add to his uncomfortable situation, Mr. Holland’s wife, Iris (Glenne Headly), like a volcano ready to erupt, blurts out what she’s been holding in all day. “I’m pregnant!” Shell shocked and silenced, he sits numbly at his piano trying to absorb this news. He is in a job he hates. His dreams of becoming a renowned composure are like an automobile suddenly caught by a receding tsunami washed out to the middle of the ocean vanishing forever. Now, the message that he will be a father?
Finally, accepting the complete reality of his situation, Mr. Holland begins to connect with his new circumstances and with people.
With the idea of fatherhood looming on his horizon, Glenn Holland steps back into the classroom. Asking students questions leads him to admit, “I just wanted to confirm the fact that I’ve made absolutely no impact on you in the last five months.” The last five months? The school year more than half over? What has Mr. Holland accomplished with his students? Nothing. No connections. No ideas planted in their heads that the music they love, and the music of Beethoven and Bach share a common connection. As a leader, Mr. Holland fails to connect his students with an understanding of and his appreciation for the history of music. Mr. Holland fails to connect himself with people.
How does he build that connectivity between himself and his students? How does he help his students to see the connectivity in music?
Sitting at the piano, he says, “Listen,” as he plays “A Lover’s Concerto” (1965, the Toys). Of course, that is how the students know the song until Mr. Holland plays the classical strain from Johann Sebastian Bach, “Minuet in G Major” written in 1725, 240 years earlier. Bach’s musical strain becomes the foundation for “A Lover’s Concerto.” Having gained their attention, he then shows how Bach’s music and a modern jazzy piece are both connected to the Ionian scale. “Listen for the connective tissue between what I just played and this,” he says as he launches into a Rock ‘n Roll piece. Instantly, Mr. Holland connects with his students and they begin their journey of music appreciation. Connective tissues.
Have you ever read 1 Chronicles 1-9? Beginning with Adam, the writer offers list after list of family after family ending at the post-exilic time. Each of the Israelite tribes receives their place in history. You and I shake our heads trying to understand the significance of these lists.
- Do you have trouble pronouncing those names? The post-exilic people could rattle those names off without thinking.
- Do you wonder who all those people were and when they lived? Those returning from Babylon could tell you.
- Do you wonder why the writer of 1 Chronicles includes these multi-faceted lists? The folks traveling across the deserts of Syria knew why.
In 1 Chronicles 1:19, the author says that in the days of Peleg the earth was divided. I wonder what that means and what event caused the division in the earth. The people of that day, the people returning to Judah knew the answer to my question.
“Why is all this material important?” you ask. It is the connective tissue that binds post-exilic Judah to pre-exilic Israel. God establishes the nation. God sustains the nation. God judges and punishes the nation. God restores the nation. If we forget the connective tissue, then we forget about God’s involvement. Judah is not alone when she returns to the land of Canaan. Her God goes before her. Her God awaits her upon her return. He has not abandoned her. Connective tissues bind us together with our purpose and our God.
Why is the concept of connect tissue important for leadership? Paul answers that question in Ephesians 4:11-16. Our calling as leaders occurs in 4:11. Paul defines our leadership purpose in 4:12-15.
to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ
Then he caps off this paragraph with the connective tissues that hold the body of Christ together in 4:16. “[F]rom whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” Joints in the body of Christ are equipped and connected to work together causing the growth of body in love.
How do you know whether your local congregation, your part of the body is connected to one another and other parts of the body at large? How do you know the body is growing in love? Ask yourself these questions.
- Are the members of your congregation connected to the Word of God? How are you, as a leader, confirming that the connection exists?
- As a leader, have you made clear to your members the biblical purpose of the church? How do your members demonstrate their connectivity to the church’s purpose?
- Have you helped your members to become aware of their individual gifts and how those gifts relate to others as they work together in harmony to help the church grow in love? How are the members demonstrating their awareness of their individual gifts?
- Have you equipped the members of your congregation to connect with others to use their gifts to supply the needs of the congregation so that it grows in love? In what ways do you see the members using their gifts?
- Are the leaders of your congregation connected to the members of the congregation? What evidence supports your conclusion?
Mr. Holland spent the rest of his teaching career connecting with students, parents and administration, helping them to love and appreciate music. Mr. Holland, the teacher, learned how to build connective tissues with people. What are you doing as a leader to connect Christians with the Word of God and to one another so that the body of Christ grows in love? What can you learn from those who have gone before you?
As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend — Solomon
