Walking an A Frame

One of the many tasks we had to accomplish during our High Adventure was learning how to walk an A frame — a 2x4 structure in the shape of the letter "A", with five ropes connected at the apex. One or more people held each rope, arranged roughly in a circle, while one person stood on the crosspiece of the A. The frame "walked" by alternately lifting one of the legs of the A and swinging it forward.

At first glance, and from a distance, it looked as though the individual on the frame was making the frame walk, while the people on the ropes provided stability. In actual fact, the situation was almost the complete reverse — as one of our group discovered when he took his position on the frame, and tried to muscle it around.

In reality, it was the people on the ropes who made the frame walk. The leg was lifted when one person on the side pulled on the rope, while the opposite person gave slack. Then the appropriate rope at the front pulled the lifted leg forward. The rider on the frame mostly provided weight which, in conjunction with the rope straight out the back, provided stability (although by shifting the weight, the rider could make the movement easier).

Everyone had a specific and essential role to play in cooperation with the others in order make the structure move. And once we understood what those roles were, there really was no one who needed to act as "the leader".

Curiously, however, while we were figuring the system out, several individuals tried taking the leading role, instructing the others to do this or that. Usually those instructions were wrong, and it was by actively disagreeing with the temporarily self-appointed "leader" that we learned what actually was going on.

The exercise left me wondering whether there are many more things in life, particularly in the life of the body of Christ, where "leadership" is really only an immature learning phase which needs to give way as we learn the true reality of our life together.