Visiting Samaria

August 23rd, 2011 by Lora Dow

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At the recent Global Leadership Summit, I took pages of notes as speaker after speaker challenged us to be better leaders, better visionaries and better people.

One challenge that has stuck with me came from Brenda Salter McNeil. She described a situation that many of us find ourselves – and our organizations – in. She uses biblical terms, but I think you can see the metaphor even if you’re not a believer.

Jerusalem is where you live. The people look and think a lot like you. While there is not universal agreement on every issue, people do understand each others point of view and speak the same language.

Judea neighbors Jerusalem. While you can still relate to the people there, you might notice more distinctions. They don’t do things the way you would. Their language is similar to yours, but may be harder to understand. You’re not entirely comfortable in Judea, but you can still manage to fit in.

Samaria is far away from Jerusalem – not necessarily geographically, but in spirit. Here the people act and speak in ways you don’t understand. You stand out and are not necessarily welcome. The issues that confront you here challenge your worldview and make you distinctly uncomfortable.

How many of us as leaders and individuals are spending all of our time in Jerusalem, with only periodic visits to Judea? How many of us are complacent in our outreach, content to reach out to the neighbors who look and sound like us? Do our boards and staff all come from Jerusalem, just like we do? Do we look at Samaria as merely a place to send aid rather than a place to draw wisdom?

Leaders of mission-based organizations need to reach beyond their comfort zones not only to help others, but to learn new ways to create positive change in all of our communities. Regular visits to Samaria – and getting to know the people there – remind us that we still have much to learn from each other because of, and not in spite of, our differences.