2001 Leadership Award Remarks by Rev. Art Simon

Fifth Annual Leadership Award
Thursday, March 1, 2001
Remarks of Award Recipient Rev. Art Simon, Founder and President Emeritus, Bread for the World

Thank you very, very much. I am grateful to you, Jim [Skillen], to Harold [Heie (chair of the Center's board)], the Board and the staff of the Center, and all of you who are part of the Center's work. I receive the reward with real gratitude, especially because of my profound respect for the work that the Center has been doing over the years. I think the Center is a bright shining light and I am so grateful to God for it.

Though I receive the reward with genuine thanks, I do so with a little nervousness, because you remember Jesus once said, "Woe to you when all men speak well of you." I'm afraid there is too much "well-speaking" in the giving of awards. A little bit is fine, but too much is wonderful. And that's where you start getting into trouble. But since I'm a Lutheran I'll sin boldly and enjoy it.

I was asked to reflect on my response to God's call to serve. I don't have anything very profound to say about this. I certainly would like to think that the emphasis is on God's call rather than on my response, because I think everything good ultimately has its origin and its fulfillment in God. As far as my role of leadership in Bread for the World, it was a very unlikely development. It happened in ways that to me were totally unexpected and that I could never have foreseen.

My last year at seminary I fully expected to go to Korea as a missionary. Then at the last minute the mission board adopted a policy that they would send only married missionaries abroad. I was not swift enough to respond to that requirement and a few years later found myself on the Lower East Side of Manhattan as pastor of an inner city congregation in a neighborhood that's very crowded, economically deprived, and interracial. I spent ten of the most fascinating years of my life there.

I want to say that I am in debt to the members of that congregation and the people of the neighborhood who shared with me their struggles, their fears, their hopes, and their faith. It was really out of that experience--at least as far as I brought anything to the table--that my thoughts grew about the development of a Christian citizens lobby to work against hunger. There was no single event that gave shape to this, but the one time that more than any other was sort of a defining moment was a Wednesday evening in Lent back in 1969. We had a discussion on hunger, and people just put some great ideas on the table. We decided to ship those off to our church body, the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod, in the form of a resolution to try to get some things going.

That got me involved in trying to develop things on hunger, and thus more deeply into the hunger issue. I felt God tugging at my sleeve, tapping me on the shoulder, telling me to do more. Finally when the idea was cohesive enough to put on paper I began shopping it around a bit to people that I thought could potentially play a key role in launching Bread for the World.

But I want to tell you that the reaction was quite mixed. I was not at all sure for some time that it would ever take off. In fact, there were moments when I was quite sure it wouldn't take off, and I was almost hoping it wouldn't so I could get back to life again. I wanted to get back to the parish ministry. But I felt I really needed to give it a shot. When it was clear that it would be launched, I still wanted to get back to the parish ministry. I had no intention at all, at any point, of being the executive of Bread for the World--but I was asked to do it, and so I did it.

As I say, it was a very unlikely development. There were probably 100,000 people in the country better qualified to do this, and probably at least 10,000 of the 100,000 who were very well qualified to do it. But as these things often go, if you wait for the well qualified to do it, it never gets done.

So I began what was, in effect, I guess, some seat-of-the-pants training. I'd never before organized anything much more than a Sunday School picnic, but I was able to lean on board members and staff members who were a lot smarter than I was. So, I'm very grateful and indebted to them as well.

I guess that, if I were to sum it all up, I don't consider my work at Bread for the World a break away from the parish. I didn't go to the Lower East Side to be a social worker or an organizer. I went there to be a Christian pastor, to share the gospel of Christ with people, and to draw people into the fellowship of the Lord and then together to do the work that God called us to do in reaching out to others. I've always thought of my work at Bread for the World as being an extension of that call, not a departure from it.

As I look back to it, perhaps the theme from the Bible that jumps out at me is Paul's phrase in II Corinthians: "We have this treasure in earthen vessels." I have to be very conscious of the fact that I was surely among the most earthen of vessels. I did a lot of foolish things as the president of Bread for the World. I did some things that weren't all that bad, too. But the thing that I think stands out as my single most important contribution was positioning myself to step aside at a time when David Beckmann could become my successor. I must say that I've been a real cheering section for Dave. I think his leadership of Bread has been outstanding. He is truly a remarkable man with a remarkable gift, and he has truly moved Bread to a much higher level of effectiveness. For that I am deeply grateful.

He has a passion for ending hunger, and he thinks he knows how this can be done. And I think he's right. I think he even has an answer for [Congressman Vern Ehler's] question: "What are we going to do about Africa?" It's so complicated. I hope that maybe Dave can comment briefly on those things when he comes up here. So right now I'm going to do what I do best, and that is get out of the way so David can come up here.