Category Archives: Christian in the workplace

It is about the people and not the paper shuffling.

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Ministry is certainly about the people, I’d like to throw a lit match on my desk sometime because it does bug me. But that will move in due time and if I have to stop to talk to someone, well that’s really what I’m here for. So the following really does resonate with me and I thought it would with others.
Bruce Kasanoff  Influencer
Ghostwriter and speaker
Why I Need Human Relationships More Than a Clean Desk
Oct 21 2014

I once worked for a company that was designed around six reports. By using these six reports, the owner of the firm could manage his $300 million business, and avoid most unpleasant surprises.
One year, my division’s goal was to generate revenues of $100 million. We generated $100,010,000. To come that close to the owner’s goal, we had to push two weeks of customer shipments into January. Yes, we deliberately slowed shipments so that the owner could have a company whose sales he could predict with great precision.
I left this firm after three years, because I did not enjoy a job in which my main task was to manage my desk well.
To please that sort of an owner, managers had to:
a.) Spend 97% of their workday in the office.
b.) Be incredibly organized, and maintain a fastidious filing system.
c.) Be tough as nails with suppliers and employees.
d.) Do everything the owner said, even when he was insulting and rude.
Perhaps you’ve worked for such a boss? One who values results more than people, who abhors chance and wants to reduce everything down to proven formulas?
Truth be told, this approach can work. It’s not dissimilar to the way assembly lines work.
I just don’t like it. Life is too short to reduce it to numbers, tickler files, and an empty Out box.
I’d much rather work in a culture in which people matter, and talent is something to be cultivated rather than rented. Growing by 12% a year, 20 years in a row is not my aspiration. Growing to my full potential – and helping others do the same – is so much more important.
For a time, my perception was that quitting that job was the dumbest thing I ever did. My entrepreneurial venture that followed was an up-and-down battle that never paid off financially… or even personally. But now it’s clear that there was no other alternative. You have to know who you are, and I need human relationships more than a clean desk.

Our identity is in Jesus, not in our job title/description

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AJ Sherrill is the pastor of Trinity Grace Church in Manhattan, NY. In an earlier post I wrote about New York City being the unhappiest metropolitan area in the country. I haven’t seen any research, but NYC is the hub of those who seek to make their fortune. Let’s face it only so many are going to do that, the vast majority are going to fall short. When you’ve staked everything on achieving what only a few will realize, the result will usually be unhappiness, or however else you want to characterize the despondency associated with “failure”.
May sound a little harsh and I’m not saying that is my perception, but it is the perception of many in the world, particularly those people that supposedly “matter”. When we have staked everything on our “success”, it leaves very little room for anything else in our life; family, integrity, self-fulfillment, God.
Pastor Sherrill quotes Abraham Kuyper (Leadership Journal Summer 2014 p84), “the 20th century Dutch journalist, theologian and politician. His famous proclamation, ‘There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry: Mine!” “…is the reminder that should resound in the ears of every Christian in the workforce.”
Let’s face it, that is not the case. As soon as most of us hit the threshold at church, we have to beat the Baptists to “Country Buffet”, get home for football and then try to relaxe before we get back to the “real” world on Monday. Hey I’m not disputing that you have to work hard and focus on your career. I’ve never said you shouldn’t, but when you become so immersed, may I even say obsessed, you lose your identity in the Body of Christ and you become your job title/description. “…far too many are over-identified with their work as the context to achieve identity rather than express identity. When our identities are not settled in Christ, we subconsciously put them up for negotiation – and that negotiation is usually based on our ‘success’ or ‘failure’ we experience in the marketplace. Am I good enough? Is my future secure?”
When we lose our identity to anything/one, other than Christ we are already at risk to being dragged back into the cares and temptations of the world. We trust in God’s providence and sovereignty in our life, not how the workplace treats us. My experience in the corporate and military world has been that as a Christian you’re often not going to be treated “fairly”. It’s not necessarily an issue of success and failure, you may be marginalized because of your faith. So what does that mean? You give up? As Pastor Sherrill points out: “Unitl Christians in the workforce find freedom from over-identification they will only view work as meaning, while never getting around to approaching work as mission.” This is Christian integrity, I’m certainly not telling you can’t be all you can be in your vocation, you should be. As I’ve discussed before working for your “master” as if you are working for Christ. But to maintain your integrity, your identification has to be in Christ. You can be a good/great Indian chief, but being a great Indian chief in Jesus is what we strive for.
Pastor Sherrill quotes Richard Rohr: “When you get your ‘Who am I/” question right, all the ‘What should I do’ questions (begin to) take care of themselves.” Perhaps in terms of how I can be a great Indian chief for Jesus, instead of just great for my own fame, fortune and personal fulfillment.
This is a challenge we face in all our areas of life, how to be a Christian, father, husband, child, employee, citizen, but the workplace is what dominates so much of our life and is probably the area that encourages us to shed our Christian identity. It’s as if the workplace is not what Kuyper says, Jesus only can claim ‘mine’ to the time outside of the office. Of course that erosion continues to the point where we only see ourselves as Christians on Sunday morning and for only a few hours then. Jesus lived a life of integrity and sacrifice. What we presume to offer back two, maybe three hours at a church where we think we should be comfortable and entertained. This is for the men, speaking to you I’d like to say this is not being the strong man of integrity. This is an attitude of entitlement and frankly presuming to think that it’s all about you and that you are in control. If you are at any point of being a mature man, you know that you are not really in control. When we know that God is in control, that He does love us, but He also expects us to step up and be strong, courageous, and to act with Christian integrity in all of the areas of our lives. There is no integrity in the attitude where you throw Jesus some crumbs, expecting that it really results in your comfort and pleasure, especially when we remember what He did for us.
Let’s keep talking about it, Wednesday mornings 10 am at First St Johns, we have coffee and some sort of pastry, good discussion, we’re still going through Dr Gene Veith’s book, and a way to break up the week to be built up and restored in Jesus. 140 W King St, park right behind the church.

“Tolerance” in the church is undermining the integrity and credibility of the church

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Yea, rant alert, I’m not even sure how this is going to come out, but I’ve really felt I have to deal with this. I’m hoping instead of the usual knee jerk reaction of the world that I be given the benefit of the doubt, so try to over come the narrow minded lashback and hear me out. While this discussion was prompted by an “Inc Magazine” article about integrity. The discussion has been rattling around in my head and was prompted by an encounter with at least a couple with whom I have the issue.
(The article at issue is from the “The Art of Strategic Influence” produced by GE Capital, the article is in the Dec 2013/Jan 2014 issue p 8), we good with all the attribution stuff?
“…the factor that often spells the difference between success and failure is ‘strategic influence’. Today, an executive’s strategic influence is not nearly as dependent on authority as it is on integrity, and on the strong ties forged with people inside and outside the organization who respect that executive’s knowledge and point of view and respond positively to them.”
OK, now my perspective in this context, the world seems to think that all the churches should come together, you know the cheesy “coexist” bumper sticker, ya, I know, bumper sticker philosophy. Well frankly that’s where most of these people are coming from, about an inch thick and an inch wide, i.e. do not know from whence they speak. That is an issue of integrity, where does anyone come off throwing their “opinion” around, when they just don’t know what they’re talking about. It’s not a matter of perspective or opinion, it comes down to what is genuine, has integrity. As a proof of that, we have become more detached from God and what He has taught us and we have more dishonesty (think corporate, political scandals of the last thirty years), more corruption, violence on a scale that is becoming out of control, on a scale that was unimaginable even a century ago, warfare in the twentieth century resulted in more death and violence then every century in history, combined. All of this while the world continues to deny genuine belief and worship to God and worship of self, of personal opinion and choice. There is no integrity and no one cares the least about it, it’s my way or no way.
Well that effect extends to those who profess Christ. I’m not saying that they are not genuinely saved in Christ what I am saying is that without any real preparation, they presume to teach and preach on Christ’s behalf and often just don’t know what they’re talking about. At the same time they presume to criticize the established church, because the church won’t recognize their ministry. Ya, sort of like asking the American Medical Association to recognize a guy who with no medical training sets up in the strip mall doing heart surgery. Ya! Really! To that extent. There is spiritual poison in the world, poison that will kill physically and spiritually, that is, it messes up people’s minds and bodies and puts there eternal life in the resurrection in jeopardy. To those who presume to be a pastor, they really don’t care, it’s all about them and what they teach and don’t try to confuse them with the facts.
These little groups are usually the result of one person, maybe a husband and wife or small group and they decide to pull together a group. As far as that goes, great, but then they decide, well with no other background they go ahead and start telling people how they should worship, that it should be about what they want and what makes them feel good and really nothing much in terms of what God wants, what He’s trying to do in people’s lives and how He is trying to make us mature in Christ. Nasty stuff like Jesus’ passion, martyrs, standing up for Christ in a hostile world, well they don’t want that, what a buzz kill! They want a “god” whose there to make them all happy and smiley, gives them what they want, when they want it.
These are people who haven’t put in the time to genuinely learn what God has been teaching His people in His revelation for two millenia, no, they have a better idea and if God wants He can get on board, but they really know what’s best. There is no attempt to lead from a position of preparation and truly being trained to really help people in Christ, creating an environment of respect and integrity, they’ve learned how to put together an organization that is all about people pleasing and God? Well He should just respect that, and the established church should too. I’m not letting the Church off the hook, the liberal/flatline, uhmm mainline church has been caught up in the people-pleasing mode also and has made itself look pathetic and irrelevant, which most of these churches are. Hey, even as a Lutheran, I will give credit to the Roman Catholic church, we may not agree on a lot, but the Roman church has maintained, doctrinal and liturgical credibility, albeit credibility has suffered in other areas. But ya, let’s get over that too, really from business, to government to education to the medical establishment, there’s been enough lack of integrity and credibility to go around. Let me fire back on those who love to quote the Bible but don’t know enough about the Bible to fill a thimble, “let those who are without sin cast the first stone”. Those in any other institution, have at least, if not more, than their share of sin, so get over your bigoted attitude toward the Church of Christ.
Let me cut to the chase, if you don’t put in the time and work to truly become a legitimate Christian leader, pastor, than you have cheated and that is a lack of integrity.
As the writer of the Inc article writes: “It begins with networking, progresses to relationship building and culminates in a strong bond characterized by a high level of trust and respect, to the point where the person values your opinion over most.” These little groups expect the church to endorse their little efforts, they tell me I should trust and respect them, but then give me no basis whatsoever to do so. If you want to truly be what you profess, put in the time, make the sacrifice and continue to do so. There is way too much mediocrity in the world as a whole, why should I lower my standards, compromise all my work and effort to indulge someone’s uninformed opinion?
The lack of integrity of these little groups and frankly many in the flat line/main line church reflects on the credibility of the Christian church as a whole. When the church is raising up men who are genuinely (or should be) concerned with the spiritual health of society as a whole and each individual and when there are a bunch of groups who think it’s all about jumping around, doing people-pleasing productions, just plain “make me feel good”. Groups that make the church, as a whole, look frivolous and irrelevant. Look at society. Do you see a lot of genuine spiritual health? Luther said that a Christian pastor is a “seel sorger” a “soul doctor”, one who is responsible for the spiritual health of those He is called to lead. Is it spiritual health when the prescription isn’t about you and the cancer of sin that’s eating your soul, and it’s about making you happy, simply being a people pleaser? A lot of these people who presume to take spiritual leadership really need to take a hard look and remember that those who teach and preach are going to be held to a higher account at the final judgment. If these people are seen to be frivolous or worse, spiritual poisoning, how can a truly righteous, holy, perfect God not condemn them? Maybe they should get over themselves and submit to genuine Christian discipling. How long will the church tolerate being a joke, because a bunch of people presume to speak for Christ and make us all look like a laughing stock to the world. How long will this damage to the church be tolerated by those who truly want to be disciples of Christ and are indulging and supporting false churches? When will we as leaders in the church take Christian spiritual health seriously instead of as a party and realize the tremendous benefit that we can bestow on society as a whole? How can the church be a positive influence, a credible partner with all the aspects of society, when we do not denounce those who treat being a faithful Christian as just a frivolous party?

Bosses you’re called to serve those who work for you.

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Bosses are favorite whipping boys, or girls. It’s tough as, Gene Veith points out, to be a boss, at least it should be and especially a Christian boss. Most bosses have people they supervise, but they are usually responsible to someone else too. So they have a duty to serve their boss as they would serve Christ, as discussed in an earlier post. In Ephesians 6:9 Paul puts it to “masters”: “And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening; knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him”. (KJV)
Calls to mind marriage vows. Ideally, the wife is to respect her husband, and the husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church? How did Jesus love the church? He suffered and gave His life for the church in a very graphic and dreadful way. There’s no middle ground, for anyone. Do it to the death or not at all.
There were more protections in the Roman Empire for slaves than what we would normally assume, still masters could make life very difficult for slaves and while it might cost them some money, a slave could die with only slight notice or consequence. As a husband serves his wife up to the death, sometimes a boss has to serve his/ her employees to the extreme in order to be a Christian boss that exemplifies Christ.
A master is to remember that he has a Master too. As Dr Veith points out, a master should see Christ in his “servants”. Do you really think it’s a good idea to abuse Jesus in your servants? Since we will all be held accountable, we should remember that we will be judged according to how we treat anyone and especially employees.
I’ve had my share of bad bosses in the private sector, it was an experience that hung over me at work, I took home with me, and I’m sure I wasn’t the most pleasant husband and father. It often seemed as if you were walking on a tightrope, while walking over eggs.
Having said that, while it may seem to be a sweet deal to be the boss, it’s difficult to do it well. It’s even more difficult as a Christian. We have to be Christ in all our roles. Are we going to do it as well? No. But as a boss/master, we have to do our best to witness to those who report to us who Christ is. This doesn’t mean, necessarily, some kind of evangelistic discussion (but if the opportunity arises, there might be risks, but you might be showing someone eternal life). It does mean not giving people an excuse to disregard Christ because their Christian boss was not a Christlike boss.
If your boss is trying to live out Christ in his workplace and his role, support him/her, do what you can to encourage. He/she might not be your favorite person, but don’t you have a duty to love your brother or sister?
I know this is short notice, but let’s talk about it tomorrow, Wednesday, 10am at First St Johns 140 W King St, downtown York, there’s parking right behind the church.

Bill Gates says, “I think it makes sense to believe in God”!

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Funny how that wasn’t a big headline in the Huffington Post!
It is from an article in an unlikely source, “The Rolling Stone” magazine. Certainly my impression of Gates has been one of a very secular, materialistic, yea, just plain corporate person.
Now don’t get some crazy idea that Gates all of a sudden became a Christian. But it does, somewhat, rebuff the idea that the contemporary, corporate individual is beyond redemption. Frankly I think that in the post-modern world, we have realized that there is much more than just science, technology. Well one of the pillars of post-modern technology is coming around to the fact that there must be a God. This is how he responded to Jeff Goodell’s question, “Do you believe in God?”
“…After admitting that science can’t explain everything , Gates shared an intriguing comment about his openness to God:
‘The mystery and the beauty of the world is overwhelmingly amazing, and there’s no scientific explanation of how it came about. To say that it was generated by random numbers, that does seem, you know, sort of an uncharitable view [laughs]. I think it makes sense to believe in God,…” (Rolling Stone Magazine Mar 27, 2014 as quoted in Leadership Journal vol 35 No 6)
Guess it’s no surprise this wasn’t reported on CNN.
Let’s discuss, Wednesday’s at First St Johns 140 W King St 10am, park right behind the church. No charge, no obligation.

Happy, unhappy, go figure

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Stumbled across an interesting, maybe, contrast.
According to Forbes the happiest place to work, by a lot, is the good ole US of A. According to Forbes not only are we the happiest, but we are also the most productive, $63 per GDP hour. (Forbes Nov 18, 2013 p 28) So there you go, personal opinion, I would guess that the American workplace is probably the most motivated, flexible, given the most freedom to do the job and not shackled with a lot of social engineering. At least compared to other countries, the concern is getting the job done. I would also hazard to guess that there is much more freedom of conscience, more give and take, more ability for people to work with each other without a lot of extraneous matter. That was my experience. I worked for twenty years in corporate finance, as well as being operational in the Coast Guard Reserved, as well as active duty time. I haven’t seen research, and I’m certainly not saying that the workplace is a “comfortable” place, but there still is an acceptance. I would be willing to bet a lot, that people of faith in other countries, especially Europe, are very much discouraged. No doubt the workplace is more workable because people can live out there principles in the workplace.
In contrast, (from an on-line study, PIX 11, believe got it off Huffington Post Jul 23, 2014) the least happy place in the U.S.? Yea, bet you didn’t see this coming, New York, NY. That’s right the city that never sleeps, of course that could be the reason why. What do NYCers worship? Oh yeah, money, success, and power. It is a place where everyone goes to succeed and only a tiny minority do. Oh believe me, most of my corporate life was related to the City. I started working for Chase Manhattan. Ironically one of my last assignments in the Coast Guard before retiring and going to seminary was Staten Island, cruising around the city in a forty one foot Coast Guard boat. So yeah, many come to NYC and all except for a tiny number, leave, usually in short order. Can’t be very happy in a place like that. In addition faith is an issue only in terms of whether it furthers your career and fortune. Work in the City is how much, how fast and how high, anything else, to use a Yiddish expression which is pretty common in NYC, is bupkus.

The ten happiest metropolitan areas? Are, with one exception, in the south, yup the Bible belt. The one area north of the Mason-Dixon, interestingly enough is in New Jersey, go figure. If there’s an area where faith is still going to be a part of the workplace, it would logically be where the Christian faith is still a daily reality.

Yeah, I may be laying template/agenda across two unrelated studies, but … the facts would seem to indicate that in those areas where faith still matters, it still makes all the difference in life.

So take some time tomorrow 10am  at First St Johns 140 W King St, have a cup of coffee, we can talk a little more about this or pursue Gene Veith’s book.

Courage to reflect the character of Christ in us in our place of work

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Being Christian in the world today is becoming more challenging, Jesus said it would be, that those who are faithful disciples would be persecuted by the world. This is a world that thinks that everything is OK so long as you sincerely or some other vague, subjective, in terms of this is what I like, this is what I don’t like. There is very little in terms of critical thinking, it’s simply just a matter of do what you want, but don’t make me uncomfortable. Nothing really matters, everything is completely subjective and when you do make claims for Christianity you usually get snarky responses. I just saw a recent response that claimed that homosexuality and Christianity are compatible. The only thing that is not compatible with Christianity, according to the snarky sources, is not being “nice”. What the snarks seem to fail to grasp is that not everything is nice to everyone. Instead of just getting your knickers in a knot, start thinking and start making some stands on principle. At some point you are going to stop and think and realize how horribly wrong you’ve been and how horribly off course the world has gotten and then you will simply shrink in to despair. You will realize that you’ve let it get out of hand, people have really been hurt (and not just their little feelings) and you have to bear some responsibility. Start to really think about what’s being said and what’s really going on and quit taking the easy way out. Relying on other people’s uninformed and/or incorrect opinions is not a way to think, it’s an easy way to cop out.
I’ve finished highlighting Fr Frederick Nkwasibwe’s book Business Courage
Nkwasibwe finishes with a great summary which I will let speak for itself. Just one comment, we really have to come to terms with the fact that if we are faithful to our Lord, we will bump up against the society around us. That includes the place where we work. We aren’t called to be obnoxious about it, but we’re also not called to be a doormat. If you live in the York, Pa. area and are interested in buying the book, check out Irvin’s Books in West York 2159 White St.
Nkwasibwe summarizes his book: “It is also the courage where the leaders imbued with a spirit of trust, kindness and firmness regard followers adjoined by a diversity of duties as co-workers and friends but not ‘servants’ or slaves. It is the business courage where a mature-faith focused leader assents that his or her views may brand him or her unpopular with certain people, including friends, yet contends his/her voice ought to be gotten when a pro-truth, pro-dignity, pro-equality, and pro-uprightness situation calls for action. Significantly, it is the courage that rebuffs sin with its misery and it is a courage that is keen enough to allow the eyes of the hearts to be enlightened in order to know and love the spiritual truth present in other people. Business courage is that fortitude by which the leader employs a righteous and true friendship-service of authority-based leadership style to treat and relate with the followers as friends and to serve and lead in uncompromising virtue and stable holiness…” (pp 432-433)
So thanks Father, a great study on living out our life in Christ where we work, and how we interact with those around us in a decidedly non-Christian environment.
Wednesday at 10am, we meet to discuss Dr Gene Veith’s book dealing with the same theme. 140 W King St York, Pa. parking available in the back.

Slaves obey your masters

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Ya, wow, boy that title will get a reaction, huh?
Paul writes to the Ephesian church: “Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with good will doing service, as to the Lord and not to men.” (Eph 6:5-7)
Wonder how many of you read past the first line. Oh yeah, I can hear the self-righteous, politically correct, the indignation. Reminds me of one of Jesus’ discussions with the self-righteous of His time. We are probably safe to assume that Jesus is talking to either Pharisees or scribes, the really self-righteous types. They get all indignant because Jesus rightly, of course He is God, says “you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” Well… wow wee, “free?!”, we’ve never been slaves. Huh? Slaves in Egypt, captives in Babylon, oppressed by the Greeks and now!? A Roman soldier comes along and tells you to carry his gear for awhile? You better carry it or get the flat edge of a Roman sword across your head. They have been slaves and captives for most of their history and they, like us, have been slaves to sin for ever. (Jn 8: 32-34)
We are all slaves, servants if you feel you must. A “servant” in that time was just a higher ranking slave. Again we need to understand the context, pretty much everyone in the Roman Empire was a slave. You could be a physician, lawyer, accountant, teacher and be someone’s slave. You would be treated well and live a fairly normal life, but you were still owned. In today’s world we are all a servant to someone, that’s not a bad thing, and yes we serve. Phulease, get over this. “I serviced …” If you’re talking about another human being you served them. Your boss, customer, your spouse, child, parent, neighbor. What is so wrong with that. Jesus told us that the “Son of man came to serve and not to be served.” (Matt 20:28) If my Lord is a servant, well you betcha, I’m a servant too. And if I’m the servant of the Lord, Creator and Sustainer of all, well that’s not too shabby.
Paul goes on to write, to serve with respect. Oh yeah, we are all guilty of kavetching about our workplace; boss, associates, customers, hours, pay, on and on. I get it, we don’t all have the ideal situation, very few of us do. But we do have a place where we are productive, we are providing for ourselves, our community. We have the dignity of responsibility, of growing. More importantly we very much serve our Lord in our workplace. We remember that we are in that workplace to serve those around us as if we are serving Jesus, because we are serving Him too. As I’ve written frequently, we spend so much of our life in the workplace, how can we spend so much time and not show ourselves as good servants. As we serve our “neighbor”, how can those we work with/for be served any less by us? We are surely “…with good will doing service, as to the Lord and not to men.” At least we should be.
Let’s be good servants, let’s take pride in being servants. We may not like the guy we work with or the idea that we’re being his servant. But if we are doing it “…as to the Lord…”? Well the rest doesn’t really matter.
Serve! None of this pretentious non-sense of “servicing”, people aren’t cars, they are made in the image of God. Get over your precious little ego and quit thinking it’s all about you and how you’re in control. You know perfectly well that you’re not. When you truly live your life in the knowledge that you serve a perfect, holy, all knowing God, who wants what is best for you, the rest will be easy. Jesus came to serve you and not to be served. I’m not sure I can say that He “liked” it, but He loves us for whom He serves and He continues to serve us in what is best for us. Let’s try to do that in our workplace. Wouldn’t that be a tremendous witness to the Lord and a credit to you, serving the Lord in that way?

Yes Father, I did live my life in Christ out in the workplace.

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I’m getting to the end of Fr Nkwasibwe’s book (Business Courage), so this is time to sum up and in summary, he points out something that I need constant reminding of. Reminding us as Christians how much we need patience, compassion, humility, yea, straight out love, for those we work with. It’s often hard to remember, but we are told to love our neighbors, it’s hard to think of fellow employees, bosses, subordinates, peers as “neighbors”, but you probably spend more time with them in a week, then you do with the people who live in the house next door to your house.
I don’t think for an instant that patience, compassion, humility, love are easy, they sure aren’t for me, especially when I think that someone should know better. I am not patient, or compassionate and sure not humble. I ask forgiveness from God everyday for my failings there, and quite often from those around me. Sometimes these qualities aren’t bad, sometimes, you need to push on people, expect more from the, stop giving them more chances. Jesus did not hesitate to push on the people he encountered who should have known better. Of course he’s Jesus and I’m not, but still, there does come a time.
But I certainly have to sign on to Nkwasibwe’s comments: “…leadership and followership may promise utomost commitment to promoting workplace inclusiveness, cultural and spiritual sensitivity, practical compassion, and respectful pluralism. However, without mature faith that is able to open the eyes of their hearts to a sparkling comprehension of the realities leading to salvation and to those realities of those characteristics in other people and to truthfully respond to them,…” (p 430)
I hasten to remind the reader that this book is the result of Nkwasibwe’s MBA thesis from Eastern University. I think it is great that someone would do his thesis work on a subject that has to be a hard sell in the business world, but is certainly deserving of this kind of attention. Main point I take, you encounter a lot of different people, they are in need of salvation in Christ. Regardless of what they are now, how they act, how they treat you, we are still responsible to reach them as mature Christians. We pray, we trust in God’s leading His strength and in patience, maturity, humility and love we do our best to reach them for Christ.
In the business world, we are all leaders and all followers, living our Christian lives in the workplace in all of our capacities is imperative and it is difficult. But as Nkwasibwe points out, the reality is this, those you work with have to confront their salvation as much as anyone. We have simply gone to far as a society in terms of our spiritual blindness or acting as if our eternal salvation was a matter of joining the right group, doing the “Ten ways to …”, or jumping through the right hoops, but once we get into the office, shop, car, site, etc. well it’s time to concentrate on what’s important and that’s not usually living our life to the glory of our Lord Jesus.
Luther called vocation “God’s mask”, in the sense that God sort of hides Himself in terms of the things we do (remembering that vocation is not just our job, but are we Christian spouses, parents, neighbors, community members, church members, business associates etc), it’s in terms of these roles that we actually live our Christian lives out in. Do you really think that at the end of time, when we all stand before the judgment seat, all by ourself, no title, no possessions, no wealth, no nothing and you really think that God’s not going to review your life in all these roles? How do you really think it works? “Ah, you showed up for church here and there, gave a little more than the average, volunteered here and there, didn’t do anything really criminal, ok, you’re good.”? Granted, we are saved in Christ and that is what we will ultimately be judged on. But if you are reading this and you really think that all the “good” things you’ve done will save you, COME ON! REALLY? You are going to stand before a perfect, holy God with your, at best, mediocre achievements, and expect, ahh, good enough. No, it won’t get you anywhere, you are saved in Christ and nothing else. Having said that, there will be a judgment, you will still have to fess up and do you really want to stand there and say, “yes Father, your Son, your Kingdom are important, but they weren’t important enough in my life to live out and share with those I spent a huge chunk of my life with.
So let’s talk more, we are still reading and discussing Dr Gene Veith’s book, Wednesday mornings 10am, First St Johns 140 W King St limited parking in rear of church. Again, if you have any suggestions as to building on this, anything else we might be doing, please let me know. I feel strongly about this group, I benefited greatly from a similar group back in Boston during my corporate days. I assure you we can make this something that will be of huge benefit to all of us who want to live our lives out as Christians in our vocations and that is pretty much all of us.

Friends or Servant leader

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Fr Frederick Nkwasibwe Business Courage talks about being “friends”. I understand what he is talking about, but I think what he means stops a little short of being “friends”. I don’t know, maybe I’m being a little too rigid, but in business, seems like you maintain a bit of an “arms length” attitude towards those you work with, especially if they work for you, that goes for the military and I also see that as being a pastor. I have friends from many walks of my life, even in my short time as a pastor, there are people who will always be friends, but they are the exception. So you tell me, people who are “associates”, yea I can see them being friends, but people you work for or who work for you, sure it’s possible, but it’s going to be the exception.
As I said, I understand what Fr Nkwasibwe when he says being “friends”, but he hyphenates that with servant and that I think is the much better description:
“A great leader as a friend-servant also demonstrates a courage and virtue of patience and longanimity [a disposition to bear injuries patiently – yes I had to look it up, but even the blog-site has it as incorrect] Riaud (1992) quoting St Thomas Aquinas refers to longanimity as ‘the supernatural virtue which makes us wait for the realization in us of God’s designs of mercy and sanctification with respect to our souls, with equanimity, that is, without complaint or bitterness’ (p 110). Such a leader is able to embrace, accept and endure workplace suffering, which may be caused by egotistical and self-seeking behavior, jealous co-workers; and risk-laden nature of work. It may also be caused by disobedient and stubborn followers; dissatisfied employees; global economic downturn that leads to downsizing and or cutting wages, benefits and jobs; hostile business risks; loss of sanity and ethics; and mistakes of poor judgment among others.
Business courage is also concerned with true and righteous leaders who recognize that there is no better secret technique that motivates, inspires and empowers followers than treating them as friends…
…a leader filled with courage and virtue not only treats the workforce as friends but also assumes a challenging duty of protecting them against the faces of oppression, which include exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism and violence (Cf Adams, et all. 2000, p 44)” (Business Courage pp 410, 411)
Remembering that Father is from Africa, not a native English speaker I do understand what he’s saying. I wouldn’t put it in terms of being “friends”, I would use the word servants. Now Father Nkwasibwe can certainly make a Christian case for saying “friend” though: “ESV John 15:15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” Jesus certainly could expect to continue to think of the disciples as “students”, just as we would think of our students, employees as subordinates vs friends. We should certainly let these kinds of relationships evolve. I’ve lived that myself. It’s kind of interesting in my relationship with people I served with in the Coast Guard. I spent 29 years in the reserves, liked what I did and was happy to remain right in the middle of the enlisted grades. A lot of the guys I worked with advanced to more senior levels, but frankly they moved behind desks and I just wasn’t interested. Especially after retirement though,these relationships became as a friend after our Coast Guard careers ended. I was friends with these guys, but there was a distance and there should have been. Afterwards I talk with all of them as an old friend, as we should. As a leader you have a higher duty as a servant. As a servant you have different duties, to your management, to investors, customers, to do what is in the best interests of your employees, but remembering you do have other constituencies. Often you have to do things that may not seem “friendly”, but are serving the ultimate best interests. What if you do have to discharge a “friend”, or otherwise discipline him/her? What is in the best interests of all involved? Can you still be friends? One guy in particular, he was a great friend. But he was also determined to get the best out of me, sometime it felt that he was just busting my cookies a little, but he wanted me to push harder and I was better for it. But he has been one of my best friends since we were BM3s and since we’ve both retired we’ve become closer. But while we served it was about the mission.

Having “friends” can cause workplace dissension, creating the conditions that Father Nkwasibwe warns against. When those you work with realize that you are serving everyone’s best interests, but doing it in a way that isn’t hamhanded, bullying there will be a servant driven environment.
We are back on Wednesdays 10am at First St Johns 140 W King St, park behind the back. We are about half way through Dr Gene Veith’s book. See you there.