Management 101

Determining how we work out the reality of our own giftedness and the relationships we have with those with whom we serve God may be among the more difficult realities of “work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” (Philippians 2:12) This is especially true if one’s gift set places him or her in a position where the role of managing others is the daily experience.

How quickly the “managers” of our world seem to forget Paul’s rejoinder to the managers in Ephesus when he said, “you know that both of you have the same Master in heaven, and with him there is no partiality.” (Ephesians 6:9) Of course that was said in a culture where a form of slavery seems to have been pandemic and he is directly speaking to men whose “giftedness” in life made them slave owners. Even in that horrific way of life, managers are warned about treating one another, slaves included, justly.

What would appear to be rather foundational for all who have been “baptized into Christ” is that “all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:27-29) In other words, our value to God has to do with whose we are and not what we do. Even a slave owner, who certainly has a management status superior to a slave, should realize that “master and slave” are both “heirs according to the promise.”

In that rather exaggerated example – though never-the-less real example – it seems utterly plain that whatever “management” looks like, it must be rooted in the brutal reality that manager and the one managed are, in fact, “one in Christ.”

Having been around the block enough times to understand that progress is seldom made without good management, and goals are seldom reached without good leadership, it still amazes me that it is so easy for managers to assume a status that pays little or no attention to the unchanging principle that in Christ, we are one. “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve” (Mark 10:45) is the practical application that seems to reflect how Jesus viewed management.

Maybe you remember that little story, it seems to be almost a postscript to the narrative, found in Mark 12. Jesus has just warned those listening of the danger of “managers” whose self-esteem is out of control and who, in the end, “devour widows’ houses” while “saying long prayers.” Then He sits in the Court of Women in the temple, watching people bring their gifts to the temple treasury. The rich people are putting in large sums of money, and a poor widow dropped in two copper coins – all that she had.

The contribution of the rich was “out of their abundance,” but the poor widow “out of her poverty put in everything she had.” There should be no surprise as to which person is the hero of this little story!

So what does this have to do with Management 101? While I understand that the direct issue in the story is a commentary on how we give to God, we give to God in ways that are beyond how many coins we place in the treasury.

I may be the “manager” because I get to do that “out of my abundance.” And the people I manage, at least in the realm of possibility, are doing what they do with far less “abundance” (aka skill, giftedness, etc.) than I. It can become very easy for the “manager” to focus on what great contribution he or she is making; while denigrating the more meager contribution of the “one managed.”

It probably doesn’t happen so much in terms of walking around in the flowing garments of pride and arrogance, but more in the simple disregard and lack of appreciation managers some time show to those they manage. It can happen in all sorts of ways – from the preacher who treats the youth minister like a gofer to the corporate CEO who views everyone under her like these big-gift-giving Jews would have viewed the poor widow. It can show up in how elders treat staff members; parents treat children; teachers treat students; and just about every other scenario you can imagine.

Management 101 is not a plea for “no managers.” Rather a simple observation that in Christ, we are “all one” and in that “oneness” we are called to value the contributions of all – from simple copper coins to the year end checks that balance our corporate budgets.

Oddly – or maybe not so oddly – from this story Jesus moves to his prophecy about the destruction of the very Temple where such abuse was tolerated.