The Spiritual Manager: How to Bring Heaven's Influence to your Workplace

The Spiritual Manager

How to bring Heaven’s influence to your workplace

Wayne Back

Copyright 2012 Wayne Back

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Section One: Building influence

Chapter one: Building the presence of God at your workplace

Chapter two: Building your influence: The basis for leadership and effective evangelism

Chapter three: Management, leadership and other team roles

Chapter four: Culture and systems: The spirit and the letter?

Section two: Building team climate

Chapter five: Team climate and organizational culture

Chapter six: Providing clarity

Chapter seven: Giving responsibility

Chapter eight: Setting appropriate standards

Chapter nine: Increasing flexibility

Chapter ten: Giving rewards

Section three: Developing teams

Chapter eleven: Conflict resolution

Chapter twelve: Fostering collaboration

Chapter thirteen: Developing people

Chapter fourteen: Developing teams

Conclusion

About the Author

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all the companies in Australia and Asia - Pacific that I have worked with through Management Training Australia that have given me and our trainers the privilege of helping their staff to develop their management capabilities. I know that I have learned so much preparing for them, understanding their strengths, questions and frustrations and journeying with them in their development as companies.

They have helped me to understand what management practices are really needed, what works and doesn’t work and what is essential for on the ground managers. They have also helped me to leave behind any academic drivel that many of our Universities fill lectures with (only two of the twelve university lecturers I had in my Masters of Management program had business experience behind them.)

I would also like to thank the many Spiritual managers who have agreed to have part of their story told in this book. They have for many decades applied their Christian faith in their management roles. Their stories have enriched the principles of management outlined in the book and will help the reader to more fully grasp the practical application of Biblical principles of management in the marketplace.

I would also like to thank my tireless editors Steve Keil and Hilary Back who not only give me great encouragement of the value of this book but also won’t let me publish without making sure that I am absolutely clear in what I am saying. They are both high achievers and very busy managing their own teams and I appreciate greatly the time they spend with me to produce books of a much higher quality end result.

Introduction

I have been managing people for thirty years and have been a pastor and preacher for twenty years. I have also been developing management training material and training people to manage other people through Management Training Australia (www.mtaustralia.com) since 2005. However, in writing this book I have also discovered to a greater degree how much the Bible has to say about managing people. From building influence and performance management, to creating a positive work climate, the Bible is full of great wisdom that helps us to bring a Kingdom presence and culture to our workplaces.

The word management has received a bad rap in some Christian circles as it is widely believed that it is better to be a leader than a manager. This fact is reflected in the number of books dealing with leadership as compared to the number of management books. At the age of forty I also believed that management is not as important as leadership. In the ten years since I have seen the best and worst of managers and realise the importance of both good management and leadership. The focus on leadership at the expense of management has resulted in is some very poor management practices in Christian circles. Good leadership should never be used as an excuse for poor management. The reality is that good management and good leadership are equally important and should be outworked together.

Leadership and management from a Biblical perspective is a broader topic than what you may realise. As a Church Planter, Senior Pastor, Executive Pastor and Bible College Principal, I’ve learned many wonderful aspects of leadership - receiving and casting vision, setting culture, influencing people, setting structures, establishing systems, communicating to groups and individuals, as well as helping people to develop their character, ministry and leadership.

However, when dealing with businesses I’ve learned things about leadership and management that I could have never learned in church life. For example, in church leadership, a vision is not usually questioned (surely it is from God?) and the values of the teams and organization are very similar (surely they are Biblical values?). These are not givens in non-Christian businesses. This and other management and leadership issues means that business leadership requires a different set of skills than does church leadership.

In this book I have brought a Biblical foundation to management as well as given a concise and comprehensive manual of practical management skills. Developing these management skills will help you bring more of the Kingdom of Heaven to your workplace.

Section One: Building Influence

John Maxwell famously stated Leadership is influence, a statement that clearly communicates the importance of building influence in a leader’s life. It is true that every time we influence someone, we are leading them in some way - to follow our vision, to imitate our actions or to become our friends.

Luke 6:31 And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.

The preceding Scripture, otherwise known as The Golden Rule, is the basis of building influence. It says that if we want to influence someone to treat us in a certain way, we should first treat them in that way.

This book is primarily about influence. As Spiritual managers and leaders, we need to commit ourselves to influence others. We should do this not only because it is potentially good for the organization and the individual, but also so people will listen to our message of the gospel. Our customers, team members, peers, supervisors, suppliers and every other stakeholder already have a number of other influencers whom we are competing with.

We want our team members to add discretionary effort, our customers to buy more, our suppliers to give us priority, our peers to provide resources and our supervisors to treat us favourably. Even more, we want them to respect what we have to say about spiritual matters. All these people have their own list of priorities. We need to build our influence so that we are also in their priorities. Many managers focus on other people’s failure to follow rather than on their failure to influence and so excuse their ineffectiveness as an influencer.

This first section focuses on four aspects of building influence. In chapter one we look at building an organization that houses the presence of God so that people who engage with our team or enterprise are directly influenced by His presence. In chapter two we cover building influence with people through giving to them with the gifts that God had given us. As mentioned, we build influence through giving and the easiest thing that we can give is that which we receive freely from God. In chapter three we unpack the four primary management and leadership roles that we can be called to operate in as well as the different styles of leadership that we should draw from whilst leading and managing. In chapter four we look at the two main drivers in organizations – the systems and the culture and discuss the need to operate these according to the spirit and not the letter.

Chapter one: Building the presence of God at your workplace

Psalm 139:7-8 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into Heaven, you are there; If I make my bed in Hell, behold, You are there.

According to the preceding Scripture, God’s presence fills the whole Earth as well as Heaven and Hell. This means that wherever we are, we can access His presence. So even if our workplace seems like Hell, it can still house the presence of God! Since we can access His presence everywhere, we can also access all of His attributes everywhere we are, including our workplaces. This does not mean that His will or His attributes are automatically released in every place and in every situation. It takes our involvement to see the release the power of His presence. For example, we should pray that His will happens on Earth as it is in Heaven (Matthew 6:10). We have a part to play in His plan to release the power of His presence on Earth - into our home, place of business, school or university or whatever other endeavour we are involved with.

Heaven is filled with the power of the presence of God and since He desires Earth to be like Heaven, His plan is that all places on the Earth are also filled with His power. That means that a business or church or indeed any other organization may therefore be filled with His power. However, He doesn’t empower a church simply because it has Christian or Church in its name, nor does He empower a business simply because it has a fish or a cross in its logo.

What group of people does the Spirit empower?

The simple answer to whether God’s presence manifests in an organization is that God will use whatever group of people will welcome Him. Examples of this come from both the Old and New Testaments. The main place where the presence of God manifested in the Old Testament was in the tabernacle and the temple. In the New Testament, it is in the church. But the presence of God resided on people and groups outside both of these. For example when people came into the presence of the company of the prophets in first Samuel chapter nineteen, they prophesied even though these people were not seeking God in any way. The presence of God was manifested on these prophets even though they were not a part of the formal structure. In the New Testament, Jesus told John and the other disciples in Mark chapter nine that people who were casting demons out in His name were fine to do so, even though they weren’t in the main discipleship team of twelve(Mark 9:38 – 41).

We should be convinced that He wants to fill businesses and other enterprises with His presence. We should also be convinced that He wants to fill our enterprise. The starting point for us is to check our motivations. Our main motivation in welcoming His presence into our organization should not be that it results in making money. It should be that people are benefitted.

We should reflect on the position of our heart and read the account of when Simon the sorcerer tried to buy the power of God for profit. Peter responded to him with you have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God (Acts 8:21). God’s presence will not be manifested in our organization if our motives are self-centred, such us proving ourselves or financial gain.

What do I mean when I say that a business or organization can carry the presence of God? There are five important aspects to consider.

1. Spiritual people should carry the Spirit’s empowerment

The first way that our workplaces can be empowered by the Spirit is that Christians involved with the organization should carry the manifest power of God. We should understand the difference between being filled with the Spirit and operating in the power of the Spirit. Every Christian is filled with the Spirit at conversion. The Holy Spirit comes to live with them. However, we operate in the power of the Spirit when the Holy Spirit releases an aspect of who He is in us to flow through us to help another person. The Holy Spirit has many attributes like wisdom, healing, peace, joy and so on. It is the release of these attributes that causes us to operate in the power of the Spirit.

Jesus was filled with the Spirit and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness (Luke 4:1) but returned in the power of the Spirit (Luke 4:14). During the time between verse one and verse fourteen in Luke chapter four, Jesus fasted and resisted the devil’s temptations. There was a process between being filled and having power. We should also expect a process of empowerment that involves lack and testing of motives just as Jesus had in the wilderness. (It is interesting to note that the first recorded evidence of Him being empowered was His teaching).

Luke 4:14-15 Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region. And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

A workplace can be filled with the power of the Spirit when believers in the workplace are operating in the power of the Spirit. They can impart the result of their empowerment from the Spirit to people around about them.

Gaining and releasing the power of the Spirit always comes through our relationship with Him and not simply through doing spiritual disciplines. The Scriptures, however, reveal some noteworthy facets of people’s relationship with God whereby they gained empowerment from the Spirit. However, we cannot simply copy one of these people in an attempt to be empowered. For example, if we fast simply to be empowered, we may just be engaging in a hunger strike until we get what we want. If, however, through our relationship, He leads us to fast, then that pursuit will help our empowerment. Mere application of spiritual principles leads to powerless frustration or even worse outcomes. The Sons of Sceva (Acts 19:11-20) found that out the hard way. Without a relationship with Jesus, they attempted to cast out demons by the Jesus whom Paul preaches (Acts 19:13). The result was that the man with the demons attacked them and they fled naked and wounded (Acts 19:19).

The following are some spiritual activities that, if done in obedience and in a relationship with God, can personally increase the power of the Spirit on our lives.

Ask in prayer

1 John 5:14-15 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

The preceding passage from the Bible says that we can expect to receive anything that we ask that is according to His will. We should therefore become convinced that His will is for us to be empowered. We should be encouraged that Moses asked to see God’s glory (Exodus 33:18) and God showed him. Elisha received a double portion of empowerment because he asked (2 Kings 2:9). The early church prayed for boldness and received it when the Spirit fell on them (Acts 4:29-31). Spiritual empowerment requires our desire, so we should activate our faith as we pray for that empowerment.

2 Timothy 1:6 Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

This Scripture tells us that we should stir up the gifts of empowerment that we have. The word used in the preceding Scripture for stir can be otherwise translated as rekindle. We probably already know what gifts we have and have probably already used them. We should re-ignite these gifts through desire and practise.

Be obedient in the empowerments we already have.

Luke 16:10 He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.

The preceding Scripture tells us that when we are faithful in what we have, more will be given. This is true for all aspects of life in the Kingdom of Heaven. We will not increase in the empowerments on our life if we neglect to give of what we already have.

Acts 5:32 And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.

This Scripture also tells us that obedience to God leads to greater empowerments. This principle is reinforced by the activity of the early deacons. Seven deacons were chosen to serve in the Book of Acts (Acts 6:5), but Stephen and Philip developed more than the others. All seven were men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom (Acts 6:3). We don’t hear about five of them again after this reference, but we know that Philip became an evangelist and Stephen became a prophet. We don’t know what the others did and didn’t do but we do know of specific accounts where Stephen and Philip obeyed the Spirit. Stephen had his focus on the Lord when he was being stoned (Acts 7:59) and Philip obeyed the Spirit to preach to a range of different people (Acts 8:5-40).

Operate with humility

1 Peter 5:5-6 Be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.

Grace is God’s ability or power released in us. The preceding Scripture tells us that grace is released in us as we show humility. The apostle Paul said he became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God (Ephesians 3:7). The ascension gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher are gifts of grace (Ephesians 4:7). The motivational gifts in Romans chapter 12 are according to the grace given (Romans 12:6). We will also grow in grace or the Spirit’s power as we operate in humility. Humility means that we consider God’s interests to be pre-eminent and other people’s interests to be as important as our own.

Receive impartations from others

Deuteronomy 34:9 Now Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him.

The power of the Spirit can also be imparted from one person to another. To benefit from this principle, we should consider who we can access who has developed a resident power or anointing from the Spirit. We should then seek to have that anointing imparted to us. This is not simply about getting them to lay hands on us and pray for us in a once off event. Transference of an anointing to minister is normally is a longer process. According to the preceding Scripture, Joshua had wisdom because Moses laid his hands on him.

Exodus 24:13 So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up to the mountain of God.

This impartation from Moses to Joshua was not the result of a one off experience of Joshua meeting Moses. It was through a servant relationship - doing life together, being discipled by Moses and, according to the preceding Scripture, praying and worshipping together. Moses had laid hands on Joshua in the sense of taking him under his wing rather than simply praying for him once.

We can also see this principle at work in the life of King David. Before he was King, David fled to the caves of Adullum to escape being killed by Saul. A bunch of people joined him there.

1 Samuel 22:2 "And everyone who was in distress, everyone who