An excerpt from
Total Truth By Nancy Pearcey
Many groups are Christian in what they profess but not the way they operate.
Consider, for example, ministries that demand excessively long hours on the job.
This common practice produces a line of destructive domino effects: It breaks up
marriages, erodes family life, and eliminates outside sources of renewal, like
involvement in a local church. Cut off from external emotional resources,
a person often becomes overdependent on relationships at work and thus
vulnerable to control and manipulation.
After working eight years in the U.S. congress, a talented office manager
switched to an executive position at a Christian parachurch ministry. "I
wanted to get away from the typical congressional office, where everyone was so
focused on the Big Name politician," she told me. "The staff was expected
to sacrifice their personal lives, their families, and their professional
identities." And she added, "I hate to use the language of the recovery
movement, but many staff really had codependent relationships with their member
of Congress. They lived derivative lives, feeding off his fame and public
identity."
When she started her new job, however, she was disappointed to discover exactly
the same dynamics at the parachurch ministry. "Staff members were expected
to live for the ministry - work long hours, have no outside life, make all their
social relationships within the organization. It was the same codependent
relationship with a Big Name." The emotionally unhealthy pattern was all too
recognizable, and wisely she left the new position after only two months.
These patterns can be physically unhealthy as well, producing stress-related
ailments that result in absenteeism and reduced productivity. An executive
at a Washington think tank once worked at a Christian ministry where the
atmosphere was so negative that he developed stress-related physical symptoms.
When he sought medical treatment, the doctor said, "Why is it that everyone I
see with this particular ailment works at the same ministry?"
Negative experiences are so common in churches and parachurch groups that a
genre of self-help books has appeared on the market with titles like The
Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse and Healing Spiritual Abuse.
These books describe the signs of an unhealthy organizational system, marked by
controlling domineering leaders who drive people to perform in order to build a
celebrity image. Believers who find themselves in such a system, whether
in unpaid volunteer work or in a paid position, often find themselves subject to
many of the classic forms of the workplace abuse.
Happily, there are many positive counter-examples, and a
study done in 2003 by the Best Christian Workplaces Institute identified several
of them. The study uncovered forty organizations that rank highest in worker
satisfaction. It found that the most effective leaders are those who
regard workers as part of their mission, not merely as a means to larger goals.
Instead of asking, What can this person do for my ministry, they ask, What can
I do to help this person develop spiritually and professionally?
In the top organizations, the study found, employees consistently described
their leader in terms like humble, approachable, caring, and godly. At
Phoenix Seminary, President Darryl DelHousaye is known for asking his staff,
"How can I help you? How can I bless you? How can I help you
succeed?" The best organizations regard the nurturing of their own
employees as a spiritual mandate.
At Whitworth University, another top organization identified in the study,
President Bill Robinson says, "I am trying to lead "from amongst"." The
reference is to John 1:14 ("the word became flesh and dwelt among us, . . . full
of grace and truth"). Robinson has a habit of wandering into the dining
hall unannounced and sitting down with students to find out what they think of
the [university]. "I hope it can be said of me that I dwelt among the people,
bringing grace and speaking truth."
Examples like these give concrete evidence that servant leadership is not an
abstract ideal; it is completely practical and workable. Having a
Christian worldview means being utterly convinced that biblical principles are
not only true but also work better in the grit and grime of the real world.
Even secular businesses are starting to recognize these principles. The
best seller Good to Great, popular in Christian management circles these
days, is based on a study of business leaders who started with a good business
but turned it into a great one, propelling it to the highest echelons of
success. Contrary to the common stereotype, says author Jim Collins, these
successful leaders "are not charismatic, nor are they celebrities." They
are not "hard charging" leaders who feel they have to whip up employees to
perform. Instead they are humble, modest, even self-effacing people, who
share decision making with their staff. One of the most damaging trends in
recent history has been the tendency to select dazzling celebrity leaders,
Collins concludes. It's a strategy that typically creates mediocre
businesses which eventually go into decline.
Clearly, biblical principles are not just Sunday school pieties. Because
they are true to the real world, they actually work better in making people and
companies more productive.