Management or Mercy Part II
I don't think I have ever gone to the same subject twice in a row. I think that this one needs to be revisited. Last post, I shared that many of our management team, in the name of fiscal sanity, have suggested that we cut back on the amount we spend on the poor.
There is no doubt we are facing a significant financial dilemma. There is also no doubt that we are facing the a crisis with the poor in this community like never before. We do need to be conservative in our approach to spending. We are, however, entrusted by the public with thousands of dollars, because they see us as serving the poor.
We face the fact that many of our facilities are aging and that we are struggling to pay many of our bills for operating.
Many of us chuckled a week or so ago when our maintenance supervisor, who is a good man with simple faith, challenged us to pray for someone to give us hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix our heating and cooling system. It is antiquated and is always breaking down. His faith was so simple. He simply stated that since our Father controls the resources of the universe, He can help us in this situation.
I was in a meeting today with two very remarkable people. One of the people is an octogenarian. She has more energy than three of me and is heading up an endowment campaign in one of our smaller communities, which to date, has been incredibly successful!
She simply stated a profound truth. When people of faith do things without a sense of entitlement and getting something in return for their work, but simply do what they believe God has called them to do, He miraculously powers His projects. He gives back more than we could ever ask or imagine. She was not talking necessarily of money, but of blessing. She talked of spiritual enrichment and life fulfillment. She also shared that she always experienced a greater blessing for the project for which she was working when she sacrificed herself and her comfort for the cause.
The second remarkable person was my mentor. He is a confessed fiscal conservative. Let's face it, this man could care less about his own comfort and his own entitlement. His favorite place to eat out is a greasy spoon that has the $1.99 breakfast special, which you taste for three days after you have had it.
He spoke of a morning worship meeting he had attended yesterday. His mind wandered to the fact that we are facing a significant fiscal crunch. While acknowledging the need to be prudent and not wasteful, he shared that he felt somewhat embarrassed as he watched a response after the message yesterday. He thought to himself that he was worried about the wrong thing. If he was faithful to his calling and denied himself, God would take care of the finances, just as He was taking care of the spiritual needs of the people yesterday.
These three people got me to thinking. That is a very dangerous thing I know. Is our lack of resource due to the fact that we have become a people of entitlement and not faith? Are we looking for return on our investment in the wrong kind of riches? Could it be that somewhere along the way we have lost our adventurous spirit of caring poor in spirit and in finance and decided that we would be CEOs of a corporation instead of shepherds seeking the lost? Have we spent on our own comfort and in some way forgotten that our first desire should be to rescue the perishing? Have we domesticated God to the point that we need to manage Him too and not trust that when we are pure before Him that He will provide what we need, not what makes us comfortable?
I wonder have we become a people who have become so sophisticated in our methods of management that we have failed to be simple in our delivering of mercy? Do we just lack trust and faith?
I know that there is need for careful stewardship. I wonder if we have micro-managed to the point that we have left The Almighty out of the equation?
As always I ask, What do you think?
There is no doubt we are facing a significant financial dilemma. There is also no doubt that we are facing the a crisis with the poor in this community like never before. We do need to be conservative in our approach to spending. We are, however, entrusted by the public with thousands of dollars, because they see us as serving the poor.
We face the fact that many of our facilities are aging and that we are struggling to pay many of our bills for operating.
Many of us chuckled a week or so ago when our maintenance supervisor, who is a good man with simple faith, challenged us to pray for someone to give us hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix our heating and cooling system. It is antiquated and is always breaking down. His faith was so simple. He simply stated that since our Father controls the resources of the universe, He can help us in this situation.
I was in a meeting today with two very remarkable people. One of the people is an octogenarian. She has more energy than three of me and is heading up an endowment campaign in one of our smaller communities, which to date, has been incredibly successful!
She simply stated a profound truth. When people of faith do things without a sense of entitlement and getting something in return for their work, but simply do what they believe God has called them to do, He miraculously powers His projects. He gives back more than we could ever ask or imagine. She was not talking necessarily of money, but of blessing. She talked of spiritual enrichment and life fulfillment. She also shared that she always experienced a greater blessing for the project for which she was working when she sacrificed herself and her comfort for the cause.
The second remarkable person was my mentor. He is a confessed fiscal conservative. Let's face it, this man could care less about his own comfort and his own entitlement. His favorite place to eat out is a greasy spoon that has the $1.99 breakfast special, which you taste for three days after you have had it.
He spoke of a morning worship meeting he had attended yesterday. His mind wandered to the fact that we are facing a significant fiscal crunch. While acknowledging the need to be prudent and not wasteful, he shared that he felt somewhat embarrassed as he watched a response after the message yesterday. He thought to himself that he was worried about the wrong thing. If he was faithful to his calling and denied himself, God would take care of the finances, just as He was taking care of the spiritual needs of the people yesterday.
These three people got me to thinking. That is a very dangerous thing I know. Is our lack of resource due to the fact that we have become a people of entitlement and not faith? Are we looking for return on our investment in the wrong kind of riches? Could it be that somewhere along the way we have lost our adventurous spirit of caring poor in spirit and in finance and decided that we would be CEOs of a corporation instead of shepherds seeking the lost? Have we spent on our own comfort and in some way forgotten that our first desire should be to rescue the perishing? Have we domesticated God to the point that we need to manage Him too and not trust that when we are pure before Him that He will provide what we need, not what makes us comfortable?
I wonder have we become a people who have become so sophisticated in our methods of management that we have failed to be simple in our delivering of mercy? Do we just lack trust and faith?
I know that there is need for careful stewardship. I wonder if we have micro-managed to the point that we have left The Almighty out of the equation?
As always I ask, What do you think?
posted by Larry at 8:35 PM
8 Comments:
Wow, you have touched on a sensitive spot for me. I think I woke the whole household up with the gasp I let out when you wrote that someone suggested we lessen our service to the poor in order to survive. Our division is not at the financial crisis it is because of our over generous hearts to the poor. I worked at DHQ when the slide began and was often asked to use my PR skills to assist in stopping the slide; therefore, perhaps I am more intimately aware than others of some root causes. On the contrary, of being here because of service to the poor, we are here because of the mismanagement of funds by those who preferred to invest in their own comfort level, their own perks, than service to the poor.
Personally, I am so tired of seasoned officers telling me of all the things I am entitled to receive. What a crock. I am not entitled to anything. There have been times that I have had to look away in embarrassment because of the greed I saw in their eyes. Plain and simple, The Army owes me nothing. I pray the moment I think otherwise is the moment that I realize it is time to go.
Also, we are at this financial crisis because of an area command decision “to not see the writing on the wall.” They entered into an agreement inexperienced and with blinders on, then when the anchor started taking them down, arrogance prevented them from crying “Uncle.” In the meantime, allocations to the corps were dwindling.
Do not even get me started on how top heavy we are – both officer and non-officer staff. Added on to that, where are the qualifications? Why is our largest social service program being run by someone with a finance degree, rather than a public administration degree? You cannot just know how to count and account for money, you need to understand why it is being given to you and how to keep it coming.
The point of this rant is that there are plenty of other places to cut before we cut our service to the poor. The question is, are we willing to hold officers accountable for the decisions they make in the non-service area? Are we trying to preserve officer and employee lifestyles than rescue those who so desperately need to be rescued? Are we willing to hire qualified employees rather than someone’s son or daughter who needs a job? Are we willing to check our arrogance at the door? Yes, I know we are talking about individuals’ lives, some of whom are very dear friends, so please do not think I making rash statements. In particular, I think of someone who I have been friends with since childhood. This person is great, wonderful, kind, and everything in between; however, this does not translate to my belief that this person’s administrative placement was the right decision. Being nice and having the skills to stop a freight train are two different things. In the end, I must work to ensure the wishes of the 85 year-old grandmother who has entrusted a $10.00 portion of her limited monthly income is fulfilled, than ensuring my friends have an adequate 401K plan.
When we seek to honor Him, then He will honor us - plain and simple.
I made the mistake, the other day, of coming to the realization that our church still exists only because of our work with the poor. The money we raise from that, along with past investments, is the only thing that keeps our church afloat. I had been thinking for sometime that there would come a day when the only reason for our existence would be our work with the poor. That our churches would eventually dwindle down to the point of only existing through the money we raise for our work with the poor. The other day, the obvious finally hit me; that we are there. No other denomination, with local churches running what we do on a Sunday morning, could possibly exist. And they don’t. We’re it. And we do it because of the money we raise by working with the poor.
Cutting back on our work with the poor could finally be the thing that kills us. I wouldn’t advise it.
You talk about being CEO's of a corporation instead of sheperds seeking the lost. I think that many officers in administrative positions at DHQ or THQ must find it hard to be both Administrator and Pastor when it comes to some of the policies and proceedures they have to either enforce or adhere too. How many "minutes" or policies are there regarding finance, purchases, travel and personel, and how many minutes are there regarding Salvation, preaching the word, or saving souls. The Army regulates everything.
At times I see this as nothing but big business. And it is too top heavy. If we were a for profit corporation, half the top would be gone because they are not the ones producing out in the public eye, providing the services that the world knows us by. They are just living off of what is given to us. It is the employees in the field doing the "good works" we are known for. We can hide pretty well under the veil of perceived integritty and trust.
I see officers all the time seeking what they are entitled too because there is a policy that says they are entitled to it. There are a few who do things for the right reason, but others are greedy and want it all.
And when things get tight, it isn't the officers who pay the price. It is the employees. They get laid off, no raises or benefits cut. Have the officers ever gotten together to see what they can do without? I bet alot of the officers in the USA wouldn't be there if they had to put up with some of the circumstances their officer brothers and sisters face in other parts of the world.
Yes, at times it is nothing more than big business, and it can be really good if you know the right people. They don't even know how to find good people, because somewhere, someone knows someone who needs a job. The officers like to be in charge, but when the chips start to fall down around them, it must of been the officer ahead of them that started the problem. And if I ignore it long enough I will be out of here, and the next guy will have to deal with it. In big business those at the top are held accountable or they are out, completely.
We must learn to be comfortable with what we have. If you have a roof over your head, a comfortable place to sleep, and food on the table, count your blessings. And if you have the ability to share your wealth with others, than God Bless You. The point is not to see who has the most when you die, but who has done the most. That is how you should be remembered.
"Doing the most good". I wonder how true that really is.
tawny,
slow down gf...actually, i think our largest social program is run by a good person with a great heart, who with the experience gained is going to be fine. the problem is, you need to surround that person with good people and to support them from a supervisory level which has not always been done.
as to your point about business people not be able to administer social programs, i wonder what the world would say about a preacher who has a management degree? if that was a disqualifier, i would be disqualified.
donald,
as a dhq officer and former thq officer, i can assure you at times there is great conflict in our souls. while i don't doubt that our policies are put in place to hold us to integrity, i also know that often, human nature causes us to see how we can get around things.
i have no quarrel with compensating people well for what they do...as long as they do it well. having been a corps officer, i have had some varying degrees of success and trial when it comes to congregational life. the last corps entrusted to us by God and the Army grew incredibly quickly, because i believe it was poised for that. it was blessed financially as well.
the corps prior to that, was incredibly strapped financially, but we were rich in people. we made some incredibly hard choices there to turn finance around, yes, part of it was letting people go. i agonized over it. it wasn't that we lived in a great home either or drove a great car. our mini-van could not go over 35 mph and the large van at the corps had a hole in the floor that you could see through to the pavement.
i see entitlement more as those who do not produce and then still ask for the best. i also think the overwhelming majority of the officers around the world and in the US work extremely hard. to make blanket statements about all officers is not fair. yet, we should hold our brothers and sisters accountable.
I agree that it is not fair to make blanket statements. I also believe that it is a little…well, its poor form to suggest that Corps Officers (in particular) are living the high life on the salaries they make. However (and this is truly treading on ground that is both ugly and offensive), I do think that the wages an Officer makes are a sacrifice for some, but a goldmine for others. What I mean by that is that there are officers who are clearly qualified and able to make a much better wage working out in the real world, but there are many, many others who clearly aren’t and becoming a SA Officer was a bit of a jack pot for them in financial terms. For those where this is the case, I can’t help but question the logic and discernment in putting them in charge. For one thing, we aren’t helping ourselves out at all. In fact, we’re giving ourselves a very poor reputation in many communities. For another, what does it say about Army Officership?
Sometimes it appears that neither calling nor qualifications matter when it comes to Officership in the SA. We appear desperate and willing to take anybody who'll sign the dotted line, no matter how obvious it may be to those around them that they simply aren’t called, gifted, or qualified for pastoral leadership. Three years later we’re all supposed to act shocked when those people just don’t work out.
I never like the ubisquitous "we" I have to take your statements/questions/points as if you apply them to me. I never accept a blanket statement, I have to consider my placement in a specific condition.
And within this posting I have to say - people are important to God's ministry. People make the touch of God relevant, personal, visible.
And many of those who I am with are poor. Just as many are so prosperous they are searching for trusted channels to apply that wealth. It is an amazing blessing, and humbling challenge that they have turned to our ministry as that channel.
Not because I am fantastically talented and beautiful.
Not because Dave is electrifyingly charismatic and persuasive.
It is because we are connected with ministry to the poor.
This week while I was within the ministry of our building, as my children and I shared lunch I knew there was someone there who needed my meal more than me. Ordination within TSA didn't instruct me to offer my food to another - the overflow of God's compassion compelled it. I could eat later, they could not.
Fiscal management makes my head spin - but I have to do it. Lists of numbers blend together into a mess enough that I need to apply the technique of using a person's face, a family's home, an unemployed vet to the equation. "What does this mean to them?"
The simple delivering of mercy and the simple requests of faith - they move mountains, restore courage and give people the opportunity to look UP.
Entitled - definitely not.
Humbled to be used within God's work - definitely a daily occurance
I'd suggest that in most situations, we do have adequate resource - not always plenty, but enough. When we are faithful to serving the poor, and use good stewardship regarding resources, God does (generally) provide.
Tim, you are so right about some being able to earn much more outside, and others most likely having to take a definite lifestyle 'cut' were they not officers. Not too many people can come out of college into the housing, vacation and perks that someone gains after two years of training, especially if both spouses are not working full time.
Had I not become an officer, I imagine that my income would be higher than it is now, but I wonder what my lifestyle would be like? While I might drive a convertible (OK, dream on), I probably would live in a more modest home, two choices that I would like to be able to make but can't.
And Larry, those are two incredible people - we have much to learn.
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