Leadership
Like much of the world, work has fallen into the hands of the enemy yet I believe work can be redeemed; we need to simply be in relationship with God and know the truths of the bible on how to restore joy at work.
Many people see work as mundane, drudgery, burdensome, rather than full of joy. God had joy in Genesis where countless times He looked upon His work, His creation and said it is good and very good.
Work is a gift from God. Let me share with you God’s work commissioning for mankind. Genesis 26:27-28 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.
As the creator of the earth God has the authority to give us dominion over things He created. It does not give us dominion over mankind, but over things. The bible gives us lessons on authority and leadership toward one another where godly leadership is not about controlling, it is about serving.
God created all matter, both physical and spiritual and owns it all too. Psalm 24:1 The earth is the Lord’s and all it contains, the world and those who live in it. God is the creator of private property. Economics is about the stewardship and relationships between man and material things. Biblical economics is about abundance where Greco Roman economics is based on scarcity- supply and demand. If you want to see if a company is operating on biblical economics watch how they behave at the end of a quarter or fiscal year.
God created the franchise business. He created a novel concept, has a guidebook and policies on how to operate the business and fiduciary requirements to remit a predetermined percentage of profit for the furtherance of the work. You and I are in the business of Almighty and Sons where He created the material world, chooses Christians to partner with, gives us the bible as the guidebook and we give a tithe back to the perpetual advancement of the kingdom of God. Through your profession of faith He has licensed you to have authority, dominion and influence with Him, through the Holy Spirit over creation.
God has a staunch competitor who is fighting for the same talent base and resources, Satan, he is the foe. Yet the guidebook tells us we win and how to defeat the devil.
We are to be about my Fathers business to steward the resources of the earth. Luke 2:49. I only do what I see the Father do. This applies to every area of our life, including work. The bible has given us many lessons on how to run our businesses; we have simply fallen away from the wisdom it contains.
Let’s review a familiar parable of the talents in Mathew 25. In this parable the Master or boss allows his servants to steward resources, money and allows them to make decisions, take risks and work applying the skills God gave them. The servants come back and report what they did with the resources. He says well done good and faithful servants. He says you have been faithful over a few things I will make you steward over more then He says “enter my master’s joy. Joy at work is stewarding resources and the adrenaline rush of making decisions, taking risks and generating increase. The key is the Master did not make the decisions; he simply allocated talents based on what was appropriate for each servant. It wasn’t about the boss controlling and deciding everything. The boss sent them to use their talents and skills & judgment and to report back.
The servant who did not take risk and use his talents had what was given to him redistributed to those who are willing to do the Lord’s work. There is a lesson in accountability in this parable. Leaders need to rekindle creativity, delegate authority, let free will reign. Leaders need to set people up to succeed by providing training. The bible also tells us to secure wise counsel when making decisions. Leaders need to create an environment where making decisions is done by gathering inputs, deciding and owning outcomes at all levels of the company.
Too many work places treat employees as human doings rather than human beings. They are given tasks and told to execute, they have been sidelined in the creative decision making process which dulls their joy. They are working for a paycheck with malicious compliance instead of with a heart to serve. Very little of their potential is used and the worst crime in corporate America is under utilized potential. If we want to restore joy we have to let go of control and decentralize decision making letting people experience the joy of both responsibility and authority. Like much of the world, work has fallen into the hands of the enemy yet I believe work can be redeemed; we need to simply be in relationship with God and know the truths of the bible for how to restore joy at work.
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