The Beagle Scouts were a common thread Schulz wove into his daily strips. Snoopy was the Scoutmaster who led Woodstock, Conrad, Bill, and Oliver on numerous adventurous hikes. They camped out, roasted marshmallows, and learned about nature. While the group began as a “boys only” organization, they eventually let Harriet join the group because of her famous angel food cake with seven minute icing.
When Schulz introduced the Beagle Scouts, he was not only offering a parody of the Boys Scouts, but he clearly had a competence tone in mind. In that first panel Lucy couldn’t believe Snoopy was involved with scouting. She asked, “What kind of scout are you,” then followed it up by a scathing commentary, adding, “You don’t know anything about scouting!” Snoopy smiled and responded, “I’m a Tenderpaw.” (Boy Scouts get the obvious pun).
I don’t believe Snoopy really knew a lot about scouting either. He did offer sound advice like, “The first rule of course is always follow your leader,” and “stay together because we’re a team.” However, his “troop” never quite understood scouting, like the time they built their campfire out of their own (wooden) tent pegs, or the time Snoopy corrected Oliver over the proper response to roll call when he said, “No Oliver. You do not say ‘When the Roll Is Call Up Yonder, I’ll Be There.’”
I see a lot of myself in Snoopy’s leadership. When I joined the Boy Scouts leadership, I knew nothing about camping. I didn’t know how to set up a tent. I didn’t know how to tie a knot. I didn’t know, and still cannot recite the Scout Law or Oath. A group of boys were placed under the care of my inadequate leadership. In many ways I learned as they learned, and I learned from them as much as they learned from me. While today, I do know how to set up a tent and stay warm in cold weather, I never did quite master the Scout Law and Oath, and I still hadn’t a clue about tying knots.
Fred MacMurray stared in the 1966 Disney movie, Follow Me, Boys! After spending time on the road with a band, McMurray decided to settle down in a small town. In order to win the favor of a local girl, he started a Boy Scout troop, and he knew about as much as scouting as I did; his inability to ties knots becomes a running gag in the movie. In the end, McMurray builds a successful Scout Troop, not because of what he knows, but because he was passionate about Scouting, and believed in the boys he was leading. More than what he taught the boys, he modeled daily living for the boys who needed a male presence and leadership in their lives.
On numerous occasions the apostle Paul called for his churches to follow him, because he was following Jesus (1 Cor. 4:16; 11:1; Phil. 3:17; 4:9; 1 Thess. 1:6; 2 Thess. 3:7,9). The words can sound like an ego-centric person, or someone whose pride has distorted what it means to live a life of faith. Certainly, some of the so-called “Christian Leaders” we find today are so concerned with gaining their own fame and following that they forget they’re primary responsibility is to point those followers to Jesus. Paul’s statement to follow him is only in light of how well he himself is following Jesus, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1).
Concerning biblical leadership, two points of interest are worth highlighting. First, to be a good leader doesn’t mean you have all the answers, but it does mean you’re willing to find the answers. As one person said, “It’s not what you know that matters, but who you know, or how much you care.” Good leaders have the right people around them, who offer sound/healthy advice, wisdom, and keep the leader accountable to his/her own actions. Simply put, you don’t have to know how to tie a bow-line knot, but you can say, “We can learn this together.”
This brings us to the second point of biblical leadership. You must model something about Jesus in your life for people to see. When Paul says to “follow me because I follow Jesus,” then there must be something concrete about Paul’s discipleship of Jesus for the church to see. Did they see his compassion, his forgiveness, his love, his joy? If 1 Corinthians 11:1 is a summary statement for the previous section in chapters 8-10, then his leadership example is about giving up his freedoms or rights for the good of others. (By the way, I like Peter’s generalized statement to elders. They have the authority to model the Christian faith [1 Pet. 5:3]. Leadership is less about power and control and more about showing what Jesus is supposed to look like in each other.)
Snoopy may not have been the best Beagle Scout, but we’ll give him a pass because he’s Snoopy. However, no one can doubt that his motive was pure, and that he cared about his followers. Ultimately, isn’t the level of compassion and concern you have for those under your care the real mark of great leadership?
bonum dolar!
(i.e., good grief!)