My friend Spencer Burke expresses the need for a metaphorical shift in leadership when he calls us to be Fellow Travelers rather than Tour Guides. Sometimes want to find the place between the polarities of the Calvinist-Arminian controversy he is not sure of a fit anywhere. Yet, here is a quote from Calvin that may remind us of the value of a variety of traditions as we work out what it means to follow Jesus in the “transitional moment” (read choose between “postmodern”, “emerging” or your favorite description or anti-description).

On Isaiah 2:3 Calvin wrote,

“Next Isaiah shows that those who take upon them the office of teaching and exhorting should not sit down and command others, but should join and walk along with them as companions; as we see that some men are very severe instructors, and eager to urge others forward, who yet do not move a step.”