Editorial

What Heaven sees on the news

Though wearing an expensive dark business suit, the company executive was not on his way to the office.

Julia W. Norcott is the former assistant editor of Ministry.

Though wearing an expensive dark business suit, the company executive was not on his way to the office. Handcuffed, WorldCom Chief Financial Officer Scott D. Sullivan walked in front of the cameras. Along with former Controller David F. Myers, Sullivan is accused of hiding $3.9 billion in an effort to make WorldCom appear profitable.1

As a result of the price inflating, 17,000 of the long-distance company's employees have been laid off, innumeable employees and shareholders have lost their pensions, and many are also in danger of losing their homes.

In contrast, after a brief afternoon hearing U.S. Magistrate James C. Francis released Sullivan on a $10 million bond secured by a $5 million lean on his home in Boca Raton, Fla. Similarly, Myers was released on a $2 million bond secured by two properties he owns in Mississippi.2

America is astounded at the thoughtlessness of top business executives. According to a recent Gallup poll, 73 percent of respondents said that chief executives of large corporations cannot be trusted. Furthermore, the same poll showed that "81 percent think the nation's moral values are only fair or poor, and 67 percent said moral values are getting worse."3

Are America's moral values getting worse? Are more and more corrupt people gaining access to the business world? Do corrupt people seek power or does power tend to corrupt? Is the perhaps-all-too-human greed for wealth to blame? Or is it perhaps too convenient to shake our heads and blame the avarice of the secular world?

Of course, however scary the world can be, the church can be scary as well, especially when we put one foot in front of the other, strive to do our best our human best and forget whom we serve. Whether in a financial establishment or in a ministry for God, the positive traits that steer people in the direction of leadership can be the same qualities that lull leaders into a comfort zone into an anesthetized state, making them unaware of those around them. Management qualities such as vision, organization, and confidence, easily become narrow-mindedness, thoughtlessness, and even arrogance. Thus, administrators can "accidentally" become thoughtless toward subordinates, unless purposely and continually seeking the Lord to live in our hearts and shine out of our lives.

God understands the weight of the responsibilities of leadership. He provided us, for example, with the story of a church leader of Jesus' time. Nicodemus had many of the same struggles we have. Nicodemus also had the clout, the friends, the titles, the robes, the rules; he studied his Bible. Nevertheless, something about Jesus stirred in Nicodemus a curiosity in him a desire for more than the condescending methods of Nicodemus's colleagues. Caught up in the stress of the system, Nicodemus unwittingly found himself caught up in what we now might call legalism, the legalese of being a boss.

In He Still Moves Stones, Max Lucado says that legalism "is slow torture, suffocation of the spirit, amputation of one's dreams. Legalism is just enough religion to keep you, but not enough to nourish you." Lucado continues: "Legalism is the search for innocence not forgiveness. It's a systematic process of defending self, explaining self, exalting self, and justifying self. Legalists are obsessed with self not God. . . . Christians must toe the company line. Your job isn't to think; it's to march. If you want to be in the group, stay in step and don't ask questions."4

Knowing what Nicodemus needed, Jesus didn't set Nicodemus straight about some of the codes or some of the protocol for successful leadership. Instead, he shocked Nicodemus by telling him simply that everyone who believes can have eternal life.

More profoundly, Jesus' point regarding ministering for God is made by the extended metaphor of His own earthly life. Jesus, whose magnetic personality, attention-grabbing, unique realness, and godly charisma filled any room, had the broadest range of possible connections and friends. His friends and cohorts ranged from the ruler of the synagogue to the prostitute (Matt. 21:31; John 8:7),* from the woman who merely sought to touch the hem of His robe (Mark 5:21 -43) to the rich young businessman (10:17-22), from the little children (verses 13-16) to the old and blind and frail (verse 46-52).

"Who is the greatest?" asked James and John. Jesus answered them by referencing the known seating protocol. He pointed out how certain people always seat themselves in "places of importance" at a table. Regarding this practice, Jesus declared that the person who is greatest is he that is humbled, "'. . . for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled'" (Luke 14:7-11).

Similarly, Jesus later said that if we "have done it unto one of the least of these [as in—what we might call the last of these]" that we have done it to Him (Mark 25:40, KJV). He can com pare the lowest possible class of earthly society to God Himself—because, actually, to Jesus there is no such thing as the "little people."

Nevertheless, Jesus' message didn't sink into the minds of the church managers easily. Always concerned with proper conduct and sure they were always right, the Jewish leaders continually pressed Jesus to share His opinions on protocol—to see how "by the book" He would be. Answering these church leaders, Jesus said that what was truly important was to love God and then to love others. Loving God first means being able to love others with God's love; which is patient, kind, without envy, without boastfulness, without pride, without rudeness, without self-seeking, love that is slow to anger, does not keep a record of wrong, does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth, love that always protects, always trusts, always, hopes, always perseveres (see 1 Cor. 13:4-7, KJV).

Thanks be to God that He is the supervisor's Supervisor. He is there to look out for us, there for us to lean on, and there to give us the "pep talks." With the tenderest kindness, He reminds us to pray for humility so that we may entertain the true love of God in our hearts. That way, we who lead will not simply "do what we are sup posed to do," or just "be good to other people," both of which alone can easily include condescension.

Instead, with God's love, calm and strong, we will honestly communicate respect for other human beings whether children, adults, subordinates, superiors, our favorites, or our least favorite people. With that kind of love in our lives, others around will not be able to help but feel the love of Jesus flowing from our hearts and spreading the real joy of belonging to the God we serve. This is an experience that we all, including some of America's business executives, need for ourselves.

* Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is taken from the New International Version.

1 "Former WorldCom Executives Surrender to Federal Authorities," from <www.washingtonpost.com>, August 1, 2002; August 7, 2002.

2 "WorldCom Arrests Made," in <www.washingtonpost. com>, August 7, 2002.

3 "Ethical Fallout," in <www.ocregister.com>, August 5, 2002; August 7, 2002.

4 Max Lucado, Everyone Needs a Miracle: He Still Moves Stones (Dallas: Word Pub., 1993), 127-131.

Julia W. Norcott is the former assistant editor of Ministry.

October 2002

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