{"id":630,"date":"2013-10-17T17:15:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-17T17:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=630"},"modified":"2014-08-13T22:03:16","modified_gmt":"2014-08-13T22:03:16","slug":"please-let-jesus-off-the-hook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/please-let-jesus-off-the-hook\/","title":{"rendered":"Please, Let Jesus Off The Hook!"},"content":{"rendered":"

All of us have had amazing co-workers leave our respective ministries.\u00a0 In these moments, have you ever heard a fellow leader \u00a0who\u2019s about to leave say, “God\u2019s leading me onto a new ministry?”<\/strong> \u00a0Now, I know this can often be true but what happens when you and all the other employees know the back story, organizational pressures and quite often the real reason why someone is leaving!\u00a0 It almost feels like they just used Jesus, because they didn\u2019t have the nerve to say what needed to be said.\u00a0 On the other hand, have you ever observed a fellow employee who recognizes real issues in the organization and makes it their quest in life to change the organization one ugly argument at a time, while in the same breathe say, “I\u2019m doing this to protect God\u2019s work”?<\/strong>\u00a0 Both extremes seem to lack emotional health and place the blame slash responsibility on Jesus rather than ourselves or the organizational dysfunction. \u00a0So I want to ask you, “Can we please start letting Jesus off the hook?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

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This past week while reading Exit, Voice, and Loyalty by Albert O. Hirschman<\/strong> I was struck by the difficulty organizations carry in creating a culture where healthy voice and exit can be embodied simultaneously for the good of the employee, company and parishioner.\u00a0 When either of these important functions are devalued or lived out within imbalance, the company and its employees suffer.\u00a0 The following are three key themes which emerged in regards to \u00a0voice, exit and those left behind in an organization.<\/p>\n

Voice\u2026\u00a0<\/strong> Voice is such an essential function to a church or any Christian organization.\u00a0 Yet, too often in religious based organizations voice is either not used at all due to fear, or is used in its extreme and subsequently becomes an empty gong.\u00a0 The need to speak with clarity, wisdom and power is essential for the overall health of any organization. \u00a0This can also not just happen \u00a0before we are planning to exit.\u00a0 Many times people leaving Christian organizations use the excuse, \u201cI didn\u2019t want to divide the church or the organization.\u201d But then, two weeks after they leave, their willing to tell the whole world about the dysfunction! Seriously\u2026<\/p>\n

Exit\u2026\u00a0<\/strong> The function of exit is powerful.\u00a0 The loss of a valued employee or customer can cause deep internal reflection within organizational structures.\u00a0 Yet, in a post industrialized culture where employees have become inanimate objects of commoditization, exit or mass exit can often be overshadowed by the shear need to fill the hole quickly in order to keep the organization running.\u00a0 Once caught in this cycle, exit loses its teeth.\u00a0 While at the same time, constant turn over demands more training, cost increases, less productivity and more responsibility being pushed onto those left behind.\u00a0 Organizations who desire accomplishing their vision must wrestle with what they can learn from those who leave.<\/p>\n

Those Left Behind\u2026<\/strong>\u00a0 For any one left behind when a valued co-worker leaves, there is a wide array of affects.\u00a0 If the co-worker did not use voice and exit in a healthy way, you may be the recipient of mixed messages.\u00a0 For example, if the co-worker left because of organizational dysfunction, yet while they were exiting said, \u201cEverything was great here, I am thankful for the time God had me here.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 They have created a set up for you.\u00a0 They should have used their voice more, but didn\u2019t.\u00a0 Now, the same pressures exist on you, if not more because of the healthy person leaving.\u00a0 If you now choose to use your voice, you\u2019re set up, because those needing to hear your words will often to refer to those who\u2019ve left before you and say, \u201cWell they didn\u2019t have a problem.\u201d\u00a0 Please, don\u2019t allow this to stop you from using your voice.<\/p>\n

Emotional Health, Jesus & Organizations<\/strong><\/p>\n

When we legitimize our actions by saying Jesus told us to do it, we must be cautious.\u00a0 Too often I here good brothers and sisters in the faith with great intentions, use Jesus to explain away actions which seem somewhat emotionally unhealthy.\u00a0 Sometimes it almost seems like they use God, to run from God.\u00a0 Emotionally healthy leaders recognize they have a voice and use it with wisdom.\u00a0 They also realize that exit is a function which must be used carefully but can be a powerful tool for the benefit of the employees and the organization.\u00a0 And certainly, give Jesus the praise where appropriate, but make sure you\u2019re not using Him to avoid possibly what He\u2019s asking you to do in your organization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All of us have had amazing co-workers leave our respective ministries.\u00a0 In these moments, have you ever heard a fellow leader \u00a0who\u2019s about to leave say, “God\u2019s leading me onto a new ministry?” \u00a0Now, I know this can often be true but what happens when you and all the other employees know the back story, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"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":[2,251],"class_list":["post-630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-hirschman","cohort-lgp3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1962,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions\/1962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}