Back to Work!

September 6, 2016

Happy Labor Day!

Seems like I’m always saying that, though it’s only once a year. But, Labor Day always falls on a Monday – and, Point of View is always published on Monday (though distributed on Tuesday when Monday is a holiday!), so Labor Day – for us – is Big…

Labor Day was established by Congress in 1884 to recognize the "strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations." In the great org chart of life, the three strata are present: top tier is for Leaders; middle tier is for Managers; lower tier is for Workers. Labor Day is for Workers.

The unsophisticated observer would say that the “work” is done by the people on the bottom of the pyramid. The people in the middle – the managers – are there to make sure that the workers show up on time and do what they’re being paid to do. The leaders – or, so the delusion goes – just linger over breakfast at the Club, check-in at the Executive Suite mid-morning to see stock prices, leave for a long lunch back at the Club, move back through Privilege Parkway to collect their messages… then leave early for their afternoon tee-time with a "client," back at the Club.

The truth: “work” is performed up-and-down the org chart. For the workers at the bottom-tier, their work is more clear and measured. A unit of effort is clocked-in; a unit of output is shipped out. Their hands are busy, whether their mind is engaged or not.

For the managers in the middle, their work is important as well: they pursue the leader’s vision; execute the leader’s strategy; supervise the workers who have been given their assignments. Managers are the connection between the leaders at the top and the workers at the bottom.

Leaders? Their work is to see around the corner, into the future, and to create a vision for the way things could be, given a world-changing effort by their team. Then, the leader constructs a strategy: a way to get from where the team finds itself, today, and the place where vision places them, tomorrow. Then, the leader must find and refine the managers who embrace the vision, understand the strategy… and are ready to supervise the workers who will "do the work."

It’s “work” for the workers to work. It’s “work” for the managers to manage. It’s “work” for the leaders to lead. “Work” runs up-and-down the organizational chart, if things are working…

The same is true, in the Kingdom space: within the human community of faith, there is also an org chart in place: leaders, managers and workers, each with a critically important work that is theirs –  uniquely theirs – to contribute to the Work of God.

Leaders in the Kingdom; Managers in the Kingdom; Workers in the Kingdom: each are doing the works of God, but each category is responsible for a different genre of work in the Kingdom. How do their assignments differ?

The Leaders in the Kingdom bring vision, strategy and assignments to the team. The Managers pursue the vision, employ the strategies, and supervise the Workers. The Workers accept their assignments from the Managers, and do the work.

"Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you…" (Hebrews 13:17). Workers and Managers – the majority of any community – are ordered by God to relate well to the Leaders who are over them in the Kingdom structure. Who are those Leaders? And, do they all get a career paycheck – down here – for their role in the Kingdom?

Here’s the truth that drives The Master’s Program forward: All Church Leaders are Kingdom Leaders, but not all Kingdom Leaders are Church Leaders. Many of those Kingdom Leaders are employed in the Marketplace, but await their Kingdom role – as Leaders – and are ready to bring their Vision, Strategies and Assignments into the Great Commission. That is their Work…

Bob Shank