For the past 30 years I have been fascinated with how individuals are gifted with certain strengths, and how all people have a unique set of talents, abilities, and motivations. Within this quest for understanding about giftedness, I discovered the “forerunner”. Although I was familiar with the forerunners of the Bible such as Elijah, John the Baptist, and the forerunner Jesus Christ, I was to discover that the term forerunner was not only a title, but a motivation that about 20 per cent of the population possess.
There are many types of forerunners characterized by an array of talents and abilities but they all have the same motivation to build, create, innovate and reform in whatever area they are engaged. A forerunner may be wearing a suit in an office, marching on the street in a protest, tinkering in their backyard with an invention, or doing research in a laboratory. Each of these forerunners looks very different when you look at their areas of interest, talents and abilities but they are all motivated by the same deep desire to make change. For this reason, forerunners live with one foot in the future and the other in the present.
Forerunners are risk takers because they are motivated by ideas and ideals. They don’t gravitate to groups because they are rarely willing to conform in order to belong. They commonly reject routines and the safe and secure path in order to pioneer, explore, and conquer the unknown. They don’t assimilate well into organizations. They have been called “outsiders” because they hold views outside of the mainstream. They are the early-early adopters of our society. They shape our culture rather than conform to it. They willingly sacrifice a piece of the present for what they see in the future. They have been called “dreamers” and “misfits” because they love change and they pursue it with tenacity, and they do their best to drag us all into it. They irritate the comfortable and challenge our traditions and those people who are resistant to change. These conflicts, their woundedness, and sometimes their lack of skill cause forerunners to be viewed with suspicion. They play an important part in our communities and in the world. A skilled leader recognizes their value and encourages and nurtures the forerunners in their community.
Why are Forerunners Important?
For every important technological advancement in history, there has been a corresponding social revolution. The printing press, for example, made books available to the common person, and they precipitated, with a host of forerunners including Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformation. Television has given us firsthand experiences of far away events, and as a result, governments have been forced to end wars, racial inequality has been confronted, and tsunami victims have been helped. Technological advancement is the forerunner of social reform. In the past 60 years, we have experienced unprecedented technological advancement, and now we are in the equivalent period of unprecedented social reformation. In the past century, the world has focused on new technology. The focus, I believe, has already shifted to social reform. This reformation will affect every domain of society including the Church. The collapse of our financial institutions is only one sign of the world being in the greatest period of reformation in its history. Rather than fear and fight change, we must embrace it, and prepare for it, because it can not be stopped.
At the heart of technological and sociological reformation are the forerunners who have a very unique set of strengths, talents, and motivation. Martin Luther King had a “dream” of justice for all people. He, along with other forerunners, through much travail, “birthed” change in the world. Forerunners see a vision of the future and fight to make it a reality. They are the change-makers and we ignore them at our peril.
We have polluted and pillaged the earth, destroyed our institutions through greed and corruption and we now face challenges of monumental proportion. There is however hope, because within the hearts and minds of forerunners all over the world are the seeds of change in the form of ideas which can be the solutions to these problems. The question is: will our leaders listen?
Pundits say there is a lack of leadership in our institutions. What they mean, however, is that there is a lack of innovative ideas and creative insight that can simplify and solve complex problems. I would like to suggest that there is no lack of leaders, but rather an inability to recognize them as such. Voices from outside the circle of authority need not threaten. Evaluating the advice based on its source, minimizes the forerunner and narrows the field of choices. A prudent leader ponders all the advice and gleans from it the wisdom to determine the best course of action. The greatest reformation in the history of man is just getting underway. Leaders must learn to recognize, accept, appreciate, nurture and engage forerunners in the process of change.
