A month to look back and celebrate the successes of 2021/2022 as we look ahead to another academic year!
At Emmaus Leadership we take seriously the call to journey with candidates through the highs and lows of the recruitment process; seeking to both “rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15). For those who bravely step out of their comfort zones, faithfully pushing leadership doors only to find them closed (for now!), we want to be a good companion and trustworthy guide on the journey; trusting that no experience is wasted in the hands of a Loving God (more of that in our next post).
However, as we enter a new academic year, we also want to be those who remember to look back and give thanks to God for the privilege of partnering with Him in filling so many significant leadership roles in our Church Schools this past year.
In a year that has been full of immense challenges, it has been a real honour to come alongside so many wonderful dioceses, trusts and schools in search of their next Senior Leader. Listening to your aspirations for your schools and the children and young people under your care has been so encouraging. Finding ways of capturing and communicating those values, hopes and dreams to would-be-applicants is both challenging and fulfilling. And as for helping you find and appoint a new Senior Leader who can carry that vision forward - well that is a welcome cause for celebration indeed!
Knowing the hard work, prayer, courage and careful consideration that has gone into each appointment makes it all the more rewarding. This blog isn’t just a celebration for the team at Emmaus Leadership – it is for all those who have been involved from start to finish in the recruitment process of these incredible leaders.
Our prayer is that in looking back at God’s faithfulness to us this past year, we can look forward with great hope and expectation for all he has in store for us in 2022/23.
And so we close this celebratory blog with these challenging words from Sir Francis Drake; a prayerful commissioning for the new academic year:
Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.