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Failure by Default or Subversion?

Nothing like this scenario happened. The question remains: Would it have been possible for an organizing pastor to have conceived of his task in this or a similar manner? We doubt it. Such a general strategy would have to have been worked out prior to the arrival of an organizing pastor, including negotiation with local pastors for lay candidates. Unless the structural principles were worked out and clearly defined by the Presbytery, it would have been extremely difficult for an organizing pastor to gain the support of local pastors.

When Righter arrived in Dayton and made his rounds to meet other Presbyterian ministers, he found considerable interest and enthusiasm for the experimental congregation. Yet not one pastor volunteered the name of a single lay person as a prospective candidate for participation in the Congregation for Reconciliation. We do not believe Righter can be faulted for failing to ask other pastors about prospective members. The development and retention of rapport with other clergy required his abstention from any activity which might be interpreted as an attempt to raid other congregations for membership. Thus, his potential constituency was effectively delimited to those not actively involved in a Presbyterian congregation.

By failing to create a structure appropriate for the accomplishment of the goals established by the Miami Presbytery for the new congregation, the planners subverted those goals prior to the arrival of the organizing pastor. Albeit unintentionally, the very persons creating the goals simultaneously undermined them. By not structurally assuring the recruitment of a supportive cast of active lay persons, the designers defined the membership in direct contradiction with their ambitions for the congregation. Looking at the results, one of the initial strategists told us that "we just overestimated the readiness of pastors and their elders and members to respond to this bright, creative, ingenious idea that we had thought up. How could it fail? It was such a beautiful thing. . . . I remember very clearly being bewildered by the lack of response and cooperation and interest on the part of the pastors and sessions in the area. . . . By hindsight, we were just naive, I guess."

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In our interviews with pastors and some denominational administrators in Dayton, we repeatedly heard Righter criticized for failing to fulfill his task. It is our judgment that Righter's instincts or predispositions lie in the direction of confrontation tactics and immediate social action rather than in the realm of education and theory. But whether he possesses the flexibility to adapt his leadership style to requirements of a scenario such as we have developed is a moot question. He simply did what he knew best, followed by a constituency which largely shared his orientation toward the mission of the congregation. Had the structural imperatives been better understood, both Righter and the recruitment committee could better have assessed his credentials for the job.