ALR 3

What: An unfathomable tragedy. 

On the evening of April 16th, 2007 my wife and I lay in bed restless. Like everyone else in Blacksburg, our lives changed that day and sleep seemed impossible. That day our campus had been rocked by the deadliest shooting incident by a single gunman in US history. We questioned what we could do in response to so many in pain, but knew we wanted to help.

Dr. Zacharias at Burress
on 10/09/07.

Then, an odd moment of clarity struck us. We were deeply involved with students through campus ministries and knew our friends would have philosophical questions that needed practical answers. We also knew that Dr. Ravi Zacharias is perhaps the most gifted Christian apologist alive. We thought if he would visit Virginia Tech, he could help address our community’s pain with a loving hand. Our minds flooded with a million "What next?" questions, we knew this was our "What next?" That night we emailed Dr. Zacharias and invited him to address a shocked and grieving community.

So What: At the center of community change. 

Cassell Coliseum event on 10/10/07. 

Dr. Zacharias quickly agreed to come speak. We organized a 2-day, 4-event speaking engagement in which both Dr. Zacharias and his colleague addressed students, faculty, community members and had an intimate meeting with a widowed wife who lost her husband in the shootings. We found ourselves organizing the largest collaboration of churches in the NRV to date. We had over 20 pages of logistics and 100+ active volunteers, led by a steering committee that included us and four others. 

Over 8,000 individuals attended the events. We received donations from churches in Tennessee and a bus full of Pennsylvanians came. Both the Collegiate Times and the Roanoke Times ran stories covering the event. 

Now What: How our experience relates to leadership literature. 

Values drove the cohesion of the community and local church efforts. Hickman (2010) clearly communicates this notion when he wrote "...something needs to trigger [the sense of community] so that people mobilize resources. Most often this trigger takes the form of a clear threat to the community..." (p. 135). Our community certainly felt threatened to an extent that no university in our nation had ever experienced. Shared values within our community made our responsive cohesion effective, swift and efficient. 

Shared leadership abounded. Hundreds of individuals volunteered, and many churches supported our efforts. Though a small, strategic committee, we found ourselves blending in to a community effort with countless active members. 

Me, my wife Meredith, Dr. Zacharias,
his son Nathan, and Sandy Young, a
 local church pastor. 

We also experienced two of Gaventa's levels for power and participation - local and national (Hickman, 2010). Certainly the majority of change was felt locally, but given the notoriety of Dr. Zacharias, we received feedback from his organization that others were encouraged by the messages shared during the events. 

Given my brief experience as a community leader, I found community values at the center of our efforts. Those values gave cohesion and purpose, and allowed for a synergy that felt somewhat supernatural. While I hope to never be so close to such a tragic event again, I do hope to always help those in deep pain - and it will be values that drive those efforts.