Providing vital Christian resources from the YMCA past and present to nourish inclusive, equitable work in our diverse and global neighborhoods that build up healthy spirit, mind and body for all.
These original 15 leadership lessons from 1948 by John R. Mott were copied from a 2006 publication written by Christian YMCA leaders; each chapter is a modern reflection and application of Mott’s YMCA lessons and experiences.
Who is John R. Mott?Why does he still matter to the Y? What can we learn from him today about leadership, spirituality, peace-making, Christian ministry, and serving amidst severe adversity?
Below are brief excerpts about his extraordinarily significant life regarding his being awarded in 1946 the Nobel Peace Prize, as well as his brilliant lifelong Christian ecumenical mission work. The main feature of this post is to highlight Mott’s 15 leadership lessons, referenced from a 2006 YMCA Christian leadership book.
Mott seems to have been mothballed, memory of his achievements have become marginalized; yet: we need to retrieve as much wisdom from him as possible in light of the “old” conflicts re-erupting in our culture and to which the YMCA is adapting still…
“The Peace Prize for 1946 was awarded to the head of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), the American John Raleigh Mott, who according to the Nobel Committee had contributed to the creation of a peace-promoting religious brotherhood across national boundaries.”
“Mott grew up in a settler family in Iowa, strongly influenced by Puritan ideals, and took a bachelor’s degree in history at Cornell University. As a student Mott received a religious call to spread the Gospel, after which he devoted most of his life to the YMCA, to missionary activities, and ecumenical work.”
“As general-secretary of the International Committee of the YMCA and president of YMCA’s World Committee, Mott sought to advance understanding and reconciliation. He organized youth exchanges, set up study groups, and arranged international youth camps. Mott was at the same time a leading figure in the field of international Christian student and missionary cooperation, and took part during both World Wars in relief work for prisoners of war. He criticised the oppression of colonial peoples and was a pioneer in the struggle against racial discrimination.”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1946 was divided equally between Emily Greene Balch “for her lifelong work for the cause of peace” and John Raleigh Mott “for his contribution to the creation of a peace-promoting religious brotherhood across national boundaries.”
After a lifetime in Christian work and extensive travel in eighty-three nations, I would suggest for your consideration fifteen basic lessons that I have learned:
from remarks by John R. Mott at the North American Association of YMCA Secretaries meeting, May 25, 1948 Grand Rapids, Michigan
Jesus Christ is the Foundation: He provides the direction and the zest for life. If we understand his teachings and his personality, he will make his own impression on our lives and it will be revolutionary.
Rule by the Heart: People are reached “via the heart” – There is no substitute for love and kindness and sympathy.
Study priorities: No human can do all the good to be done in the world. We need to list and study our own priorities daily.
We Can Trust Others: We can afford great acts of trust. I can testify that I have never had others disappoint me.
Study and Promote the Use of the Bible: It has been said that the cause of all evil is the lack of interest in religious writing. If I were to stay longer, I would give a frontline place to reawakening interest in the religious writings of Christianity. There is nothing to take their place.
The Discipline of Prayer is Essential:“He departed a stone’s cast beyond the Apostles, and kneeled down and prayed.” I need only to say that we must make prayer one of the primary objectives of this brotherhood.
Do “Multiplying” Work: “He that does the work is not as profitably employed as he who multiplies the doers.” Enlisting volunteers is one of our greatest tasks.
Use the “Heroic Appeal”: A heroic appeal often gets a heroic response. It is good to have difficulties because it calls out the most in you, it drives you to get the cooperation of others, it drives you to God.
Strategy Is Important: There are strategic points which if captured, make easy all that lies behind them. There are strategic classes and strategic races, strategic times, strategic methods, strategic places. We must know what they are.
We need to Get into the Field: You cannot develop a Christian from an office chair. We need to be out meeting and dealing with personalities.
Small Groups are of Great Value: Christ sent them out “two by two.” At one time, he had five disciples, at another time three, another time eleven, and at another, twelve. Why did Christ attach importance to small groups? I long ago decided that it was wise to follow Christ in this method.
Adolescence is a Crucial Time: If I had my life to live over I would spend much time on the adolescents age group. These are the habit forming years, the years of determining life attitude and tendencies, the years of creativeness.
Don’t Overlook Old People:Here is wisdom and experience for our asking. Here, also, is a group to whom we must give kindness and affection.
Emphasize the Immediate: We need to live under the spell of immediacy. What other time will there be? What other generations than the present can we work with?
Be Attentive Unto God:“Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.” And, “My soul, be silent unto God,” say what I mean. We must put out other sounds – noises of selfish ambition – prepare ourselves to say, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”
These 15 lessons from John R. Mott were copied from this 2006 publication written by Christian YMCA leaders. Each chapter is a modern reflection and application of Mott’s YMCA experiences; featured are extraordinary Y leaders I’ve befriended: Eric Ellsworth, David Byrd, Tim Joyce, and Paul McEntire – purchase your copy online today!
And more about Mott the missionary leader:
“Born shortly after the American Civil War, which ended in 1865, his life spanned almost ninety years, ending in 1955 when Dwight Eisenhower was president. During his life Mott interacted with eight American presidents, most notably Woodrow Wilson, who called him “one of the most nobly useful men in the world.” When Mott declined to succeed Wilson as president of Princeton University, Wilson commented, “Mr. Mott can’t afford to take the presidency of a great university; Mr. Mott occupies a certain spiritual presidency in the spiritual university of the world.” Although he declined several diplomatic positions, he did serve on Wilson’s Root Commission to Russia in 1917 and became the president’s most trusted advisor on Russian affairs. In 1946, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work.” [Gordon R. Doss, John R. Mott, 1865-1955: Mission Leader Extraordinaire]
What will guide our YMCA in 2021? With what we think is ahead of us, with what we are preparing to overcome, with what must change within and around us – what is our cornerstone for the Y future? Since 1855 the Paris Basis has been a foundation for YMCA’s around the world to navigate unprecedented disruptions and cataclysmic upheavals. What is the Paris Basis, and how can it aid Christian leaders in the Y to “build a healthy spirit, mind and body for all?”
What is the original animating genius of the YMCA?
What is the power source for sacrificial service, resiliency, and love that enables the Y to endure for over 15 decades globally and locally – especially here in Fort Wayne?
The Paris Basis of the YMCA is a concise yet potent agreement for shaping how a global youth movement can adapt to a plethora of cultures and unique circumstances while embodying a transcendent purpose and calling.
Here in the United States, the Paris Basis guided the YMCA amidst the violent upheavals of the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Great War, the Great Depression, World War Two, the Cold War, Civil Rights Era, Korea-Vietnam-Central America-Iraq-Afghanistan wars/tragedies, 9/11, and now COVID.
“The Young Men’s Christian Associations seek to unite those young men who, regarding Jesus Christ as their God and Saviour, according to the Holy Scriptures, desire to be his disciples in their faith and in their life, and to associate their efforts for the extension of his Kingdom amongst young men.
Any differences of opinion on other subjects, however important in themselves, shall not interfere with the harmonious relations of the constituent members and associates of the World Alliance.”
YMCA Paris Basis, adopted at First World YMCA Conference, 1855, organized by Henri Dunant
draft document of the Paris Basis, 1855
The spirit of the YMCA leaders that drafted this document also shaped the future ecumenical movement of European and then international Christian churches.
The emphasis on Jesus Christ, his Kingdom, and harmonious relationships should not be underestimated for its significance on the growth and vitality of the Y in a turbulent and war-torn century.
George Williams, a founder of the YMCA, who embodied this kind of Christian spirit of service, was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1894.
Henri Dunant, organizer of the first YMCA world council, also embodied this Christian spirit of service, and would go on to found the International Red Cross; he would be awarded the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.
The Christian spirit of service embodied by Williams and Dunant, as expressed in the Paris Basis and enculturated across dozens of nations around the world in those early decades, still exists today for YMCA’s to work together and collaborate in their communities.
It has been necessary and good for the Young Men’s Christian Association to adapt and mature over the past 175+ years.
In regard to the Paris Basis the need prevails to immerse our mission in it, as we fully immerse ourselves in the cultures of our communities. We still live in a violent, broken, yet beautiful world, as 2020 revealed so clearly to us.
The genius of the Paris Basis is its emphasis on the personal, not the abstract: Jesus Christ as our faithful God and courageous Savior; on its reconciliatory nature as revealed by Christ’s kingdom that prioritizes forgiveness, oneness, and sacrificial service.
The world doesn’t need platitudes or empty promises; it does still need real people living as peace-makers inspired by the words and works of the real Jesus Christ.
The YMCA is at its best when it is personal, when it connects and unites communities, when it brings out the best in others. What makes this transformative is when it happens amidst irascible conflict, brokenness, and apathy.
The spirit of the Paris Basis originated among twelve industrious young Christian men who associated to improve the lives of workers around them living in darkness, squalor, and hopelessness.
When YMCA workers seek to embody this same spirit in its complicated context, the Paris Basis can be a guiding light and spiritual fuel as it enters into difficult and overwhelming circumstances.
The Paris Basis emphasizes some key texts from the New Testament:
– the dynamic person of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Gospel according to Luke, especially the first four chapters.
– the transformative kingdom of Christ unto which we are disciples in faith and life, described in the Gospel according to Matthew, particularly chapters five through seven.
– the harmonious relations stem from a robust and powerful vision of Jesus Christ as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane “that all may be one” as recorded in the Gospel according to John, in chapter 17, but prefaced by the call to “love one another” in chapters 15-16.
Christian leaders within the YMCA movement can draw great wisdom and strength from reflections on these three core Gospel writings, as they go about their demanding work in the community.
Like anyone else we can get overwhelmed by the upheavals on our world; the Paris Basis can be our North Star in the wilderness, our compass in the storm, our lantern in the dark.
You may not be knighted for your YMCA work, nor receive a Nobel Peace Prize. But that same spirit of Christ that animated Williams and Dunant, as articulated in the Paris Basis, is still alive and vibrant, for those willing to embrace it.
Together we can strive for more peace, in the way of Christ and his Kingdom, especially in the troubled times still ahead for our world in 2021.
A reflection upon the arc of YMCA Christian Emphasis in 1998 by Paul M. Limbert, aged 101, having served the Lord and the Y movement for almost 80 years. He died 20 days later after giving this address to YMCA professionals at Blue Ridge Assembly.
Paul M. Limbert was an ordained Christian minister and renowned leader within the YMCA movement. His work with the Y includes Springfield College as an educator and President; the CEO of the World Alliance of YMCAs in Geneva, Switzerland; CEO of YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly in Black Mountain, North Carolina. After retirement Paul mentored, led, taught, served men and women around the world for over thirty years; his influence continues on in the YMCA still today.
For more on Paul M. Limbert, you can purchase a copy of his autobiography: Reliving A Century.
Reliving A Century, by Paul M. Limbert, given to me by Steve Tarver
This talk “Interpreting The Christian Mission of the YMCA” was given on December 4th, 1998 for a YMCA Professional Group gathered at Blue Ridge Assembly YMCA by Paul M. Limbert, aged 101, 20 days before he passed away.
The typed/photocopied version I received was given to me in November 2020 by Steve Tarver, CEO of the Greater Louisville YMCA, who was mentored by Limbert. I’m publishing it here on my blog to make it more accessible to the wider Y movement.
INTERPRETING THE CHRISTIAN MISSION OF THE YMCA – 12/4/1998
It is not only a pleasure but an honor to be asked to speak to this important group of YMCA professional leaders from the South Field. At my age, it is a pleasant surprise to be asked to speak anywhere! People would expect me to be in a wheelchair, dimly aware of what is going on, doting on memories from the past.
I have been quite puzzled how to approach this subject of Christian purpose or Christian mission today. It might seem like “old stuff” to some of you. I have been dealing with this subject for more than 40 years. Is this still a timely topic? I am tempted to pause and ask you whether this is still a live question in the circles where you move. And if so, whose concern? The staff? The members? The public? And to what extent is this an important question to you personally? Where do you stand as a Christian? What questions do you have, either theological or practical? I am not stopping, but I’ll be glad for your comments on these questions later.
Let me take a few minutes to review my concern with this question. In the early 1940s, before I was President of Springfield College, I was involved as chairman of a Commission on Religious Emphasis and YMCA-Church Relations under the State Committee of the YMCA’s of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Those were days when relations with the Catholic Church was a live issue, and there were many Roman Catholics in Massachusetts and in the YMCA. Much of this pamphlet seems surprisingly relevant to today’s situation. I quote only one sentence:
“No participant in the YMCA is required to accept the Christian faith or join a Christian church, but he ought to be aware that he is joining a Christian organization which recognizes the importance of religion and makes resources available for the deepening of Christian faith.“
2. A few years later I was stationed in New York City as secretary, among other things, for the National Committee on Christian Emphasis. Part of my time was given to writing a book entitled Christian Emphasis in the YMCA. This was based in part on a survey of what YMCAs were actually doing. For many, this became a kind of “bible” of both philosophy and practice.
3. Twenty years later I was in Geneva as executive of the World Council of YMCAs and had first-hand contact with Catholics (two members of our staff), Orthodox (a World Council meeting in Greece), and any number of Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists within the YMCA membership. I attended many quadrennial World Council Meetings, including the one in Kampala (1973) where we wrestled with whether to change the Paris Basis. And of course there was the “top” experience of the 1955 World Centennial Conference in Paris in 1955. The report of that series of conferences, And Now-Tomorrow, is still worth reading.
4. Then followed 30 years in “retirement”, when I was privileged to maintain close contact with the YMCA’s across the country and around the world. In my autobiography you will find several pages entitled “Reviewing the Christian Mission of the YMCA: An Elusive Goal” (pp. 351-354), with a page of a few of the many articles I have written on this subject (p. 354).
I take this time for this historical review not to brag but to bear witness to a central concern for Christian mission through the years in our Movement. But how about today? Is this still a live issue? I do not live near the seats of power in the YMCA, but I cite several illustrations of lively interest.
1) The Executive Committee of NAFYR met in Orlando in November. On the docket was a proposed mission statement for NAFYR and resolutions from two chapters relating to the “C” in the YMCA. I will not take time to quote the new NAFYR mission statement, and I do not have details about the resolution from the chapters. But apparently for my retired colleagues this is still a lively question.
2) Our National Council had a Task Force which attempted to formulate a revised statement of Christian purpose. This ran into difficulties about two years ago and the proposal to leave “Christ” out of the statement aroused a flurry of protest. The Task Force gave up the idea of a change and instead is concentrating on mission. On the letterhead of our National Council correspondence is a more or less official statement that is widely copied locally:
YMCA mission: to put Christian principles inot practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all.
3) I have written a critique of this statement, but can not go into detail now. My brief comment is made in a publication which is another indication of current interest in Christian mission: a quarterly publication by the Charlotte YMCA called Dunamis, described as “A Newsletter to Encourage YMCA Leaders in the Christian Faith.” Are there publications of this kind in the South Field?
4) My last illustration: Some weeks ago Jay Lippy asked me to confer with him at this center. He is on the staff of the Tampa Metropolitan YMCA as Spiritual Emphasis Director. This is the first appointment of its kind that has come to my attention for many years: adding to the staff a person whose central concern is the Christian emphasis of the YMCA. Whether this is a trend I do not know. I am not even sure that I recommend this type of appointment. It may raise an old question about departmentalization. But at least it is another reflection of current concern. We would like to know more about how he is approaching this new assignment.
At this point you may expect me to launch into an analysis of what we mean by “Christian Mission” and how to express it. Instead, I want to make a “functional” approach. Let us look at the various groups with whom we are dealing in the interpretation of the Christian basis or mission of the YMCA.
1. The Public (statements in print). Every Association has its brochure, its printed statements about what the YMCA has to offer. Sometimes these are confined to schedules and events. But usually they include some statement of what the YMCA is and how it seeks to serve individuals and the community. This bulletin or brochure is important for our concern today. How do we interpret the YMCA to the public and our constituency? If I were a chief executive officer, this would be one of my important concerns: to put into print what the YMCA stands for. I would want to make clear that the YMCA is open to persons of all churches, all faiths, or none. Yet I would want to make clear that the YMCA has a Christian heritage and basis and seeks to put into practice the basic convictions of this movement centered around the teachings of Jesus and his outlook on life.
Some years ago the World Council of YMCAs published a little booklet entitled Christian – But Open. many YMCAs in the USA might prefer Open – But Christian. Take your choice! But some catchy title of this kind would be useful. How can we interpret to the public and to our adult members the basic Christian orientation and dynamic of our movement?
2) The Members. My impression is that most YMCAs are sadly lacking in their interpretation of the Christian basis of the YMCA to our own members. If I am wrong, correct me. But my impression is that the recruiting of members is primarily a matter of numbers and fees. To what extent do we try to explain to new members their responsibilities and our expectations? The process of interpretation would have to be carefully adapted to varying age groups. And it dare not be a dull, routine performance. Questions would be encouraged. There would be stress not only on bad language and not getting in fights, but on friendly relations and concern for others.
In my judgment, the current emphasis on values and responsibilities tends to be too abstract. Illustrations and stories are more effective. And at least an elementary understanding of how Jesus dealt with people is essential. Stories will be far more effective than slogans. Very few YMCAs will organize Bible studies, but a skillful teacher will find ways of using the Bible for illustrations. The stress will be on the right kind of relationships. And a realistic understanding of the way God deals with people is essential.
The job of a Membership Secretary – if there are any such – will take on new meaning.
There is of course also the broader interpretation of the YMCA historically and worldwide, which will be an important part of the education of members. But more about this later.
3) The Staff. In this process of interpretation the leadership is of cetnral importance. I think of both the professional staff and the volunteers. And the maintenance, non-professional staff dare not be overlooked. But I am thinking primarily of the full-time professional leaders.
Many staff meetings are routine affairs, with emphasis on jobs to do and events to come. Seldom can these be turned into educational experiences. Probably provision must be made for a series of sessions dealing with serious study and discussion. We have our curriculum for leaders in the early stage of their experience. Why not a continuing program, in spite of other pressures? It is this kind of continuing staff study that lends itself to a lively discussion of the Christian basis and purpose of the YMCA.
High on the list of topics would be a fresh study of the life and teachings of Jesus. Many of our leaders have had little opportunity for serious Bible study. Many are not ready to take on a study of the “C” in the YMCA with members because their own understanding is so shaky. I am ill at ease in leading a discussion in a field where I I am poorly informed. If a staff member is clear about the basic Christian purpose of the YMCA, he will find ways of communicating his point of view to members.
I would be glad to confer with any of you about suitable books for study in a staff session of this kind. In the field of the life of Jesus and his teaching, I have often recommended a book by a German Catholic professor, Hans Kung. It is a ponderous volume of about 700 pages. but it has basic insights that I have not found elsewhere. A year ago someone borrowed my copy and did not return it. But here is another book in my library that I recommend highly: The Historical Figure of Jesus by E.P. Sanders (Penguin Press, 1993).
Some of you are aware that during the last ten years there has been a fresh study of the Biblical records, particularly the four Gospels, sometimes referred to as the Jesus Seminar. To what extent are these records historically reliable? Did Jesus really say what he is reported to have said? E.P. Sanders takes these studies into account. His approach is truly scholarly, but positive. I assume that you would be interested in a scholarly approach of this kind rather than a writer who avoids critical examination of Biblical writings. The South Field could set a pattern for the national movement if you were to develop a program of continuing staff study related to the Christian basis of the YMCA.
4) I conclude by dealing with an aspect of our question that relates to all three areas: the public., the members, the staff. I am thinking of the broader picture of our YMCA Movement. Our tendency is to think of the YMCA in local terms: its membership, its program, its constituency. The average YMCA member has no idea of the breadth of this movement: its history, its spread to all corners of the globe, its reality as a world organization. I have one of those long photographs taken at the World Council Meeting in England in 1994. There is an amazing array of different colors, costumes, nationalities. There are about 1000 persons from over 100 countries. If only our “average” members could get the thrill of belonging to a world movement like ours! Ordinarily we shy away from pride. But you will forgive me if I am proud of belonging to a movement of this kind. And one of the thrills of my long lifetime was being in Westminster Abbey for the observance of the 150th Anniversary of the founding of the Young Men’s Christian Association.
Some of you heard me speak of the quarterly magazine published by the World Alliance, YMCA World. I will not elaborate, but I remind you that here is a publication that goes beyond our World Service program, great as that is. The World Alliance includes national movements never mentioned by World Service. This quarterly would be an eye-opener for many Associations – and even for many professional leaders. Recently I have been in correspondence with Bart Shaha, General Secretary of the Asia Alliance of YMCAs. In his newsletter he tells about a recent visit to Nepal, where there are now 11 small YMCAs. I did not know that the YMCA exists in Nepal. There is news here of YMCAs in other countries of Southeast Asia little known in this country.
Only a few of us have had the privilege of first-hand contact with YMCAs in other parts of the world, but each one can have a part in interpreting the wider dimensions of the YMCA. As we read of fires and floods and famine, we can remember that the YMCA is one of many organizations helping to restore these broken communities – and doing this as part of our service as Christians.
I have only touched on the challenge to renew a vital Christian spirit in our far-flung YMCA. You are the ones in the field who must carry through over and beyond my limited understanding and capacity. You are the ones who must translate these few suggestions into reality!
