Issue 176
Anyone who has worked in any type of trade, industry, or profession will have heard at some point in their working day the cry “Who’s in charge here?” Many of you will have been party to discussions where the reason for failure was a lack of leadership; no clear controls or no final taking of responsibility are regularly seen as the epitaph of a doomed project.
On the positive side, when there is clear leadership, responsibility, and authority a fantastically successful project can ensue, while a failing project can be turned around.
There are times when you are working on a process or on a team and the CEO arrives. The big boss is here. If he or she is good this will be an encouragement, but whatever the result you usually know they have arrived. Someone is in charge and however flat your management structure is you still sit up and take notice. As humans we need leadership. We need authority and we thrive with a benign and supportive ‘first’ among us.
If you go anywhere near a carol service this year you will hear a very strange name being given to Jesus of Nazareth. He will be called “Mighty God”. Most people just don’t get this. Lost in a synthesis of Santa Claus, gentle Jesus meek and mild [incidentally not found in the bible] and yo-ho-ho, we completely miss the point that the Christian claim is that God has turned up – the CEO is here. The biggest boss of all bosses has visited the local branch and he means business. This is not some dreamy fisherman’s friend dispensing soothing lozenges in vague innocuous terms to anyone who formed an encounter group. This is Mighty God.
So when you see the power of a wave, you realise it was reported that he calmed a storm. When you see the inevitability of death remember that he was reported to have raised a dead person. When you ask ‘is there a God?’ remember that this supposedly gentle Jesus went about identifying Himself as God, living up to his name, performing powerful acts and infuriating those who knew exactly what he was claiming. They picked up stones to pelt him for precisely the reason that in their words “You are a man making Yourself equal with God”.
The irony of course is that if you allow him to take charge in your life the project will run better. You will be released to be the best you can be. The point of Christmas is that we need someone to be in charge, not in a malevolent distorted role, but who truly has our best interests at heart and who can actually do things which will change the whole dynamic and turn things around.
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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