{"id":16844,"date":"2018-03-01T18:25:42","date_gmt":"2018-03-02T02:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=16844"},"modified":"2018-03-01T18:25:42","modified_gmt":"2018-03-02T02:25:42","slug":"on-composting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/on-composting\/","title":{"rendered":"On composting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At first glance the life of a leader in Christian family philanthropy has it made. Not only is there apparent spiritual peace and integration through one\u2019s faith commitment to Christ, but the resources to effect change in the world are also present in abundance. Many gaze longingly at the role I undertake, for example, declaring, \u201cYou have the best job ever!\u201d What is absent from this cursory observation is a deeper probing into the gilded cage that is experienced by Christians of wealth. If, as Gary McIntosh and Samuel Rima claim, that we all have a dark side to our leadership, it will emerge at some point as Jesus takes us on a journey through the refiner\u2019s fire. McIntosh and Rima\u2019s book, Overcoming the Dark Side of Leadership<\/em>, is an invitation to carefully navigate through the pain that emerges to a better integrated and healthier leadership on the other side.<\/p>\n

The authors state the problem clearly: \u201cThere comes a point in all leaders\u2019 lives \u2026 when they will begin to experience the relational friction, organizational blow-ups, and personal pain that result from unidentified and unresolved inner-life issues. When that time comes, they have a profound and pivotal choice to make: Will they \u2026 as Annie Dillard has written, \u201cride the monster all the way down\u201d, allowing God to do his healing, restorative work in long-buried areas of personal pain and shame?\u201d[1]<\/a> This is a courageous question that not all are willing to answer.<\/p>\n

The issue amongst my clients is not just restricted to church or organizational life, for the issues of pain and disintegration are embedded within their own family systems. One\u2019s work environment is intertwined with one\u2019s own family of origin. Those who wish to pursue integration must choose freedom from ways of thinking and behaviour that have been embedded since childhood. I often counsel families that in their philanthropy they must create processes that take them away from their Thanksgiving Dinner table and role within the family system (for example, as the paternalistic parent, the eldest domineering child, the spoiled baby of the family, etc.) and employ sound organizational structures to allow the family\u2019s philanthropy to survive and thrive.<\/p>\n

This process will not happen overnight. I found the composting metaphor utilized by McIntosh and Rima especially useful in considering this movement toward a healthier dynamic. With the shadow actions and attitudes of our leadership, it is important to allow these to be composted. And, to state the obvious, composting will necessarily require time (perhaps years?), darkness, and bold identification of what should be cast aside. \u201cWhat the process of composting tells me is that there are parts of my personality that are not usable in their present form, but are nevertheless indispensable. Composting also teaches me that I am responsible for participating in the process by identifying what is in need of transformation, by putting my refuse in a designated place, and then waiting as transformation occurs. Composting asks me to trust that I will eventually bear witness to what only God can do.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

For healing to come to Christian family philanthropy systems, some of the key ingredients to cast onto the compost pile are power and privilege. Thayer Willis was a speaker I heard years ago at The Gathering[3]<\/a>, an annual event bringing together families of wealth who significantly give to Christian ministries. Her book, Navigating the Dark Side of Wealth<\/em>, and her psychotherapy practice, both focus on the debilitating characteristics of inherited wealth to one\u2019s identity and how it impacts the family.<\/p>\n

My summary of her work is that free money is toxic. Listen to her reflection on the inheritor\u2019s Golden Rule: \u201cHe who has the gold makes the rules.\u00a0 A nasty thought, granted, but if you have ever been in a close relationship involving a great disparity in the \u201cgold\u201d possessed by both parties, you will readily see the truth in the maxim.\u00a0 There are exceptions, however. They consist of those humble, generous individuals who refuse to wield their power, despite the circumstances.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

Individuals in wealthy families, even generous people of faith, can have blind spots. But those who refuse to wield the power of wealth are those who are well on their way to freedom from the dark side that can control and oppress even the most intimate of relationships.<\/p>\n

There are a plethora of studies on the dark side of leadership which highlight abuse of power as a common trait. Combine the privilege of position with the power of money, and you have an explosive cocktail that is volatile; the slightest disruption can cause it to go off. Stephen Linstead et al. explore the relationship of capitalism, easily relatable to philanthropy, to the dark side. They theorize that \u201c\u2026[C]apitalism constantly needs to creatively destroy itself, to test its own limits to destruction\u2026 but that there is no way of knowing whether specific events of destruction will prove creative and rejuvenating or not. The dark side may be an indelible feature of capitalism,\u2026 but whose mechanisms are obscured, whether by conscious and conspiratorial actions of the dominant classes or simply its unfolding systemic logics, of which participants may be relatively unaware. It may be naturally hidden or deliberately concealed.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

Under power and privilege, deep within a capitalistic worldview which commodifies everything in its path, lie seeds of a future hidden destruction that will painfully destroy. For the Christian philanthropist to uncover a healthy pathway forward, one must choose to surrender the privilege and leverage the power, and cast both onto the compost pile. Acknowledging that these gifts will actually bear greater fruitfulness when composted is key to discovering the joy of philanthropy for the Christian family.<\/p>\n

____________________________<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> McIntosh, Gary L., and Samuel D. Rima. Overcoming The Dark Side Of Leadership: How to Become an Effective Leader by Confronting Potential Failures<\/em>. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2011), 23.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> McIntosh and Rima, 161.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> The Gathering website, https:\/\/thegathering.com\/<\/a>, Accessed March 1, 2018.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Willis, Thayer Cheatham. Navigating the Dark Side of Wealth: A Life Guide for Inheritors<\/em>. (Portland, OR: New Concord Press, 2003), 72.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Linstead, Stephen, Garance Mar\u00e9chal, and Ricky W. Griffin. \u201cTheorizing and Researching the Dark Side of Organization.\u201d Organization Studies<\/em> 35, no. 2 (February 1, 2014): 165\u201388. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/0170840613515402<\/a>. Accessed on March 1, 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At first glance the life of a leader in Christian family philanthropy has it made. Not only is there apparent spiritual peace and integration through one\u2019s faith commitment to Christ, but the resources to effect change in the world are also present in abundance. Many gaze longingly at the role I undertake, for example, declaring, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1170],"class_list":["post-16844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-mcintosh-and-rima","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16844"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16849,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16844\/revisions\/16849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}