Serving Bread

The campaign strategies of John McCain and Barack Obama in New Hampshire provide some fodder for leadership insight for this week. As of Monday January 7, 2008, both Obama and McCain are in the lead in their respective parties in the New Hampshire primary race. Even a month ago, these men were running at least 10 points behind the leader. What happened?

First, an explanation of the primary process. Each state runs its primary race differently. Generally speaking, you must be registered in a party to vote in that party’s race. In New Hampshire, the rules allow for independents to register for a party on election day. In other words, people can switch parties and independents can register for a party for the sake of participating in the electoral process.

What is key to both McCain’s and Obama’s surge in the past month is that they have courted independents in their campaign to be their party’s nominee. McCain won the primary in New Hampshire in 2000, thanks in part to the strong showing of independents on election day. Both Obama and McCain are banking on independents to side with them during this election cycle. So what’s the leadership insight?

McCain and Obama are not just appealing to the traditional card-carrying party member. Rather than compete with the rest of the candidates for the nomination by courting the party faithful, they are appealing to independents. Their competition is for independents who may have been largely ignored by the rest of the candidates.

A few years ago, I heard an interview with Colleen Barrett, the president of Southwest Airlines. When asked about how she keeps market share in a crowded industry, she indicated that Southwest does not see its competition as the other airlines. Southwest sees its competition as the car. The airline wants people to choose to fly Southwest rather than drive their cars.

In our ministry on campus, it’s tempting to see our “competition” as the other Christian groups on campus. It’s tempting to create strategies, events and structures that “compete” with the other ministries that serve the campus. But we are not competing against other ministries. We’re competing for the ways that people spend their time. Our Bible Study is not competing with other Bible Studies, but with television or parties or apathy.

On my campus of over 35,000 students, there is plenty of room for many ministries to flourish. To simply compete for the same people that all the other ministries are competing for, limits our vision for campus growth. Leadership is recognizing and knowing our competition. How can our ministry offer people something better than what the world offers? How can we inspire people to give their time and energy to the purposes of God in their lives?

McCain and Obama are competing for people that most people would ignore because they have self-proclaimed that they are not interested in being loyal to a particular party. It’s a risk that may pay off now, but could cost them the election since independents are more fickle in their votes compared to the card-carrying party faithful. Yet these two men have chosen to spend their energy to turn independents into loyalists. Likewise, Christian leadership is not just about going after the small pool of interested believers, but to inspire thousands of students to consider that there is greater hope for their lives than the enticement of prime-time television.

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