Grace to you and
peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen
This text provokes
one question within me that I’d love to ask Jesus:
Please, pray tell, what on earth
did you mean?
Commending the
dishonest steward for being even more dishonest and self serving is not the
stuff of good old Gospel preaching. I’ve
always struggled with this text, and am again today.
Having said that,
what stands out for me in this reading is the verse:
“And
his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for
the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation
than are the children of light.”
Shrewd
The dictionary defines shrewdness as
follows:
“Having or showing sharp powers of
judgment, astute.”
It seems to me that Jesus is telling us
that we have much to learn from others. We
simply do not have a monopoly on wisdom when it comes to carrying out our
mission. One of the things I am becoming
more and more convinced of as time goes on is that we could learn a lot from
the business world. “This is no way to
run a business” is a statement many a business person has thought when they’ve
dealt with the Church. And many a pastor
would respond to that statement by declaring that this is a Church, not a
business.
But Jesus says: “the children of this age
are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of
light.”
Could Jesus be telling us that there are
“best practices” in the business world that we could learn from, and should
learn from, if we are to be more effective in carrying out our mission?
What can we learn from business?
What are the principles that guide
businesses, and how might those same principles help us in our mission?
I did a Google search on business
principles and one of the first items that came up was from Goldman Sachs, the
global investment banking firm. In
recent years investment bankers have epitomized what many would consider
“dishonest wealth”, but before we dismiss them, let’s look at their business
principles and ask ourselves if there is anything we could learn from them.
Goldman sach’s
Business principles:
OUR CLIENTS’
INTERESTS ALWAYS COME FIRST.
Our experience shows that if we serve our clients well,
our own success will follow.
For the church the big question is
who is the client whose interests always come first. Here there is a blunt fact to consider: The most important persons in a dying
congregation are the long time members, the core group. Every decision must meet their interests, and
requires their approval.
In growing congregations, the most
important people are the ones we have yet to reach. I attended a mega Church once and was struck
by their philosophy. Everything they did
Sunday morning was done with the first time visitor in mind. Period.
OUR ASSETS ARE OUR
PEOPLE, CAPITAL AND REPUTATION.
If any of these is ever diminished, the last is the most
difficult to restore. We are dedicated to complying fully with the letter and
spirit of the laws, rules and ethical principles that govern us. Our continued
success depends upon unswerving adherence to this standard.
What Goldman Sachs is saying here is
that at their core, as bankers, they are to be faithful stewards of all that is
entrusted to them.
OUR GOAL IS TO
PROVIDE SUPERIOR RETURNS TO OUR SHAREHOLDERS.
Profitability is critical to achieving superior returns,
building our capital, and attracting and keeping our best people. Significant
employee stock ownership aligns the interests of our employees and our
shareholders.
A business’s success is in delivering
results. Are we achieving the results we
set out to achieve, which for a business is profitability. As a church we have a mission and
purpose. Are we willing to be held
accountable to that mission?
WE TAKE GREAT PRIDE
IN THE PROFESSIONAL QUALITY OF OUR WORK.
We have an uncompromising determination to achieve
excellence in everything we undertake. Though we may be involved in a wide
variety and heavy volume of activity, we would, if it came to a choice, rather
be best than biggest.
An uncompromising determination to
achieve excellence. Does God deserve
anything less than our best? Too often
we settle for mediocrity, because, for example, we think “their heart is in the
right place”. Besides, to be
uncompromising in our determination just doesn’t seem to fit with our nature as
a Church.
WE STRESS CREATIVITY
AND IMAGINATION IN EVERYTHING WE DO.
While recognizing that the old way may still be the best
way, we constantly strive to find a better solution to a client’s problems. We
pride ourselves on having pioneered many of the practices and techniques that
have become standard in the industry.
The Church is typically not at the
cutting edge of innovation. We have a
tendency to believe that if it worked a generation ago, it will work
today. But the world is changing, and
changing times require new approaches.
WE MAKE AN UNUSUAL
EFFORT TO IDENTIFY AND RECRUIT THE VERY BEST PERSON FOR EVERY JOB.
Although our activities are measured in billions of
dollars, we select our people one by one. In a service business, we know that
without the best people, we cannot be the best firm.
As a Church, rather than recruiting
the best person for every job, our tendency is to accept whoever might
volunteer, regardless of their abilities and gifts. This is true even with respect to our
pastors.
WE OFFER OUR PEOPLE
THE OPPORTUNITY TO MOVE AHEAD MORE RAPIDLY THAN IS POSSIBLE AT MOST OTHER
PLACES.
Advancement depends on merit and we have yet to find the
limits to the responsibility our best people are able to assume. For us to be
successful, our men and women must reflect the diversity of the communities and
cultures in which we operate. That means we must attract, retain and motivate
people from many backgrounds and perspectives. Being diverse is not optional;
it is what we must be.
Diversity is not being politically correct,
it is essential to the mission. Being
diverse means that there will be a variety of gifts to meet the demand of our
work together.
WE STRESS TEAMWORK IN
EVERYTHING WE DO.
While individual creativity is always encouraged, we have
found that team effort often produces the best results. We have no room for
those who put their personal interests ahead of the interests of the firm and
its clients.
Paul put it this way: “Now you are the body of Christ and
individually members of it.”
THE DEDICATION OF OUR
PEOPLE TO THE FIRM AND THE INTENSE EFFORT THEY GIVE THEIR JOBS ARE GREATER THAN
ONE FINDS IN MOST OTHER ORGANIZATIONS.
We think that this is an important part of our success.
Do we try harder? Are we dedicated to do our best? How often would we use the words “intense
effort” to describe our work together?
WE CONSIDER OUR SIZE
AN ASSET THAT WE TRY HARD TO PRESERVE.
We want to be big enough to undertake the largest project
that any of our clients could contemplate, yet small enough to maintain the loyalty,
the intimacy and the esprit de corps that we all treasure and that contribute
greatly to our success.
Sometimes it is easy to focus on how
small we are as an organization. What is
often overlooked is the tremendous amount of resources we have as a Church, if
we see ourselves as part of the larger body of Christ.
WE CONSTANTLY STRIVE
TO ANTICIPATE THE RAPIDLY CHANGING NEEDS OF OUR CLIENTS AND TO DEVELOP NEW
SERVICES TO MEET THOSE NEEDS.
We know that the world of finance will not stand still and
that complacency can lead to extinction.
When people say that they are
“spiritual” but not “religious” what they generally mean is that the Church is
not meeting their needs. As Lutherans,
our core message was framed in response to the needs and questions of people
500 years ago. Do we know what people
hunger for today????
WE REGULARLY RECEIVE
CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION AS PART OF OUR NORMAL CLIENT RELATIONSHIPS.
To breach a confidence or to use confidential information
improperly or carelessly would be unthinkable.
This is a basic issue of trust. It should be a no brainer.
OUR BUSINESS IS
HIGHLY COMPETITIVE, AND WE AGGRESSIVELY SEEK TO EXPAND OUR CLIENT
RELATIONSHIPS.
However, we must always be fair competitors and must never
denigrate other firms.
As an organization you will either
grow by reaching out to new people, or decline.
You cannot stay the same. If we
don’t reach out to others, others will.
INTEGRITY AND HONESTY
ARE AT THE HEART OF OUR BUSINESS.
We expect our people to maintain high ethical standards in
everything they do, both in their work for the firm and in their personal
lives.
We
are in the forgiveness business. We
recognize people’s failures, and on behalf of Christ, declare God’s
pardon. That said, we cannot lose sight
of the fact that Jesus calls us to live with integrity and honesty and the
highest ethical standard of all, loving one another as he first loved us.
So there you have it.
Fourteen Principles that guide the work of Goldman Sachs, an investment
banking firm. A number of questions come
to mind:
1.
Are you surprised at all by the depth and
breadth of these guiding principles of a major corporation in our country?
2.
Can we admit that a major financial firm like
Goldman Sachs, is “shrewder” in its dealings with the world than we are as a
Church? That their success is directly
related to the astuteness of their judgments?
And finally,
3.
Can we recognize and admit that there are many
things we can learn from a business such as Goldman Sachs?
I believe that we have a much more important mission than
simply turning a profit for our investors.
To be servants of Christ Jesus is to be part of a mission to bring life
and salvation to the whole world. That
is the treasure that has been entrusted to us.
We are stewards of the Gospel.
It’s a sacred trust.
There’s one word that is not mentioned in today’s Gospel
lesson that perhaps should be: Humility.
Can we be humble enough to learn from others those things
that might make us more effective disciples of Jesus Christ? That, I believe, is exactly what Jesus is
encouraging us to do.
Amen
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