Wednesday, May 16, 2007

God in the Workplace

I didn't preach 1 Timothy 6:1-2 as planned this week because I couldn't reconcile talking about God in the Workplace with a text that was quite clearly talking about slavery. So I did what I always do when in a situation like this: fall back to the Master. What practices in work did Jesus have?

Matthew 14:15-21 (New International Version)
15As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food." 16Jesus replied, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat." 17"We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish," they answered. 18"Bring them here to me," he said. 19And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve baskets full of broken pieces that were left over. 21The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

1. "Bring them here to me" / Take Responsibility For The Opportunity
It's so much easier to stand around and look for the person who is going to take charge of a difficult situation than it is to step up to the plate to swing. And how easily we get frustrated with the lack of resources. Jesus took in his own hands the resources that God made available, stepped up, and led the way.

Proverbs 22:29 says, "Do you see those who are skilled in their work, they will serve before kings, they will not serve before officials of low rank." People who take responsibility for the opportunity to serve will be given more responsibility and a greater scope of influence by God.

2. "Looking up to Heaven" / View Your Job From God's Perspective
God usually has a bigger purpose for our work than we do. Don't fall into the trap of "If just one person's life is touched, everything is worth it." I can't imagine God having this perspective about creation or Christ any more than I can for our own work and lives. God wants much more than that for the world.

What practices will help you "look up to heaven" and evaluate your work from God's perspective?

3. "He gave thanks" / Cultivate an Attitude Of Gratitude
We need people who focus on possibilities rather than problems, who are interesting in hunting down solutions. It's like the child who finds herself looking up at a big pile of manure and says, "I know there's a pony in here someplace!" If you have a clean barn, you probably don't have any horses. And if you have horses that are producing and doing work, you're going to have manure. You need manure to make things grow.

My friend Laura, single mother of three, has a great handwritten sign on her kitchen cabinet that says: "Someday my house will be clean." She has inspired me to put one of my own up: "Thank you, God, for this sinkful of dishes and my filthy floor, which is such a small price to pay for the three young ponies that I'm raising."

In all things, give thanks to God.

4. "He broke the bread" / Multiply The Good Stuff
How much of your time at your work, from parenting, to administrating, to selling pianos, do you spend working out of your strengths? How can you multiply the very best parts of the gifts, skills, natural inclinations, passions, abilities God gave you? If you are a leader, don't just lead people. Make more leaders. You have to think like a banker: How can you get maximum return on God's investment in you?

If there is something you are really good at, do it a LOT, not a little. Take what God's given you and multiply it.

5. "Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people." / Serve
Here's what it says about receiving the fullness of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, "Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy." What if it's true that if you're not willing to serve, God will not use you?

Sunday, May 6, 2007

What does God want in a leader?

By Matt Brown

Many come to leadership passages (especially 1 Tim chapter 3) and really drill down on the offices of the church, the context of the scripture (especially concerning the role of women), and the role of marriage in church leadership. Those ideas are important, but I want to broaden the scope a little and answer the question: What does God want in a leader? Building the Kingdom of God in this world means growing the love of Jesus in ourselves and sharing it with others. Sharing Jesus' love with others means leading. How should we lead?

Read 1 Tim 3:1-13
God wants our leaders to be loving, stable, and consistent.
We can look around us and see the presidential campaigns starting and see contradictions and obvious flaws in all of the candidates. Perhaps the most glaring flaw in any and all of our candidates is that they themselves seek and seemly covet the office that they aspire to. Godly leaders do not seek office, but instead serve and are raised to leadership by those around them. I have led from both vantage points. I have lead from a position that I coveted, fought for, and eventually acquired. Conversely, I have led from positions that I did not seek, but instead were granted because of service. It is in the latter position that I feel more effective and where I feel like I am serving the people I lead better. When I read about the qualities of leadership in 1 Timothy 3:1-13, it comes as no surprise that my best days (the days that I forget myself and my needs) result in the better leadership.

Read John 13:12 - 17
God wants leaders to be humble servants.
The world puts a low value on service. The follower of Jesus sees service to others as a bedrock condition of discipleship. When we serve others, we assume our true place in the world and become our true selves: we become people of love and light. That sounds like a dumb clich̩, but it means is that we begin to bring the world, those around us, and ourselves into the true nature of God and creation through the redemptive power of Jesus. Jesus washed the disciple's feet Рa slave's job Рto make the point that redemption starts at meeting people's most basic needs. This act also demonstrates that we as Christians should hold not act of service as too lowly for ourselves.

Read 1 Tim 5:17-25
God wants leaders to be fair and to be treated fairly.
In the world, leaders are washed away with easy accusations or leaders can be brought before the law and found guilty and still not be punished. Our worldly leaders rise and fall almost solely on public opinion alone. You know what? A lot of us like it that way. Almost all of us WANT to be popular enough to be above the law – we covet power – we covet celebrity. Many times we might even like the leader who is in the wrong.

God has a higher standard for us when it comes to Kingdom leaders:

  1. 1. An elder must be accused by two or three witnesses.
  2. 2. A guilty elder must be rebuked publicly.
  3. 3. We are to show no bias.

We must treat our leaders fairly – even when they fall under judgment. There is no free ride.

Our worldly leaders today rely and enjoy special treatment, but Kingdom leaders should expect the opposite. Is that a drag? No; it keeps a leader in a better state of mind because it allows a leader to understand those that he or she leads. Once again we must look at empathy as the root of good leadership. When leaders understand the least of their brothers and sisters, they adopt a vantage point that allows them to lead effectively because they understand the costs of their leadership decisions.