Power Plays

Relationships of authority characterise our working lives. And power, well-used or abused, is a hallmark of authority. 'Power! It is more intoxicating than alcohol, more addictive than drugs', says John Stott in his new book, Calling Christian Leaders (IVP, 2002). Our whole career structure is premised on it, giving more power (and usually money) to those who, for reasons of merit, experience or sheer influence, rise to the top. Those of us who are lower on the ladder often strive to get higher, motivated not only by increased power or salary, but also by increased opportunity to use our talents, to serve people, or to wield influence for good. Structures based on power are not all bad. Indeed, a system of delegated authority can reflect and honour God's own created order: You made [humankind] a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet. (Ps 8.5-6) Genuine meritocracies can be efficient and make good use of God-given talents and skills. Yet 'power' has become a dirty word, because it is often misused - Mussolini, on our front cover, is but one example of its dark side. God's ordered world is warped and marred by sins of pride, arrogance and an insatiable appetite for control. A common Christian response to abuses of power has been to reflect on Jesus and the appropriate use of power modelled by him. In Mark 10, he tells his disciples: You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mk 10.42-45).

Superman vs the Little Child

Stott believes that our modern world has drunk in more of the power-philosophy of Nietzsche than we realise. Nietzsche dreamed of the rise of a daring ruler-race - tough, masculine and oppressive... The ideal of Nietzsche was the Übermensch, the superman; but the ideal of Jesus was the little child. In addressing the issues of authority and leadership, Stott contends that, 'at no point does the Christian mind come into more violent collision with the secular mind than in its insistence on humility, with all the weakness it entails.' And so he puts forward this challenge: we must choose between the superman (or superwoman) and the little child, but we cannot have - or try to be - both. 'Weakness'? 'Little child'? When ripped out of their biblical context, these concepts may make you bristle. After all, the term 'servant leader' is practically an oxymoron: how can you serve when you are obliged (and in fact empowered) by a position of authority to give the directions in the first place? Yet the oxymoron is a useful illustration of the internal spiritual collision course Stott has identified - as you may already know from trying to put Jesus' controversial teaching into practice in your own working life. Jesus' words in Mark 10 indicate that the basis of our Christian approach to authority will be radically different from our non-Christian colleagues'. One helpful way to think about the concept of 'servant leadership' is to recall Paul's words to slaves at the end of Colossians 3: Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for your masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving (Col 3.23-24). This is true for us. Behind our bosses, colleagues and subordinates stands Christ himself. Behind our bosses, he is the One whom we are really serving - regardless of how they behave. Behind our colleagues and subordinates, he is the One who urges us to serve, just as he has served us - out of love, not because it is deserved. And service after Christ's model transcends the authority we derive from our employment positions - or that we wish we had. As Richard Foster says in Money, Sex and Power (Hodder & Stoughton, 1985), 'servant leaders are people who are servants before they are leaders and will be servants when the tenure of leadership is concluded.'

Problems in Practice

The internal spiritual collision course Stott has identified applies to all of us in our workplaces - whether we are subject to authority or wield it. Take Andrew and Tania. They go to the same church in a suburb of west London. Andrew feels his job is basically thankless. He's part of an IT help desk team located in-house at a large accounting firm and he's either managing the anger and frustration of internal clients who don't understand the computer system and probably never will, or he's trying to cope with the poor organisational skills of his line manager, Geoff. Andrew is fed up with Geoff's inability to structure regular rosters which enable him to spend time in the evenings with his daughter. Tania oversees the ice cream production line at a food manufacturer. The employees under her control are largely immigrants whose English-speaking skills are poor, and who seem to rebuff her attempts to get to know them. She feels that she's getting nowhere in helping them understand the occupational health and safety guidelines that apply to new equipment coming to the line, and she's ready to give up on her attempts to protect them. Authority just isn't working the way Andrew and Tania want it to.

Tania's Problems

Tania has a safety training video, and she knows she can force her employees to watch it, even though it's likely that they won't understand it. But she's concerned to ensure that they really know how to work safely for their own good - and she also wants to guard her company against lawsuits. How can she use her authority to solve these problems?

1. Dealing with relationship breakdown.

Tania decided to ask a small number of those employees whose English is strongest to assist her in planning a tailored safety training program for the rest of the employees. She appreciates her employees' need for guidance and protection, especially because of their weak English skills. She realised that a small representative group might assist her in forming real relationships with the rest of her employees, so that she can help them fulfil their God-given potential in her workplace - even though the language barrier gets in the way at times. Her approach is underpinned by the principle that her employees are each a unique creation of God, created in his image and with particular gifts. She's also concerned to be a wise 'shepherd' of her team in the model of Jesus, the 'Chief Shepherd' (1 Pet 5.1-4).

2. Dealing with language barriers.

Tania prayed for God's wisdom on how to address the language barriers between her and her team. It may seem too small an issue to seek God's particular wisdom, but she was reminded of King Solomon's example of leadership. When he became King, Solomon prayed to God for 'a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong', and God was pleased that Solomon had asked for this (1 Ki 3.4-15). And the answer came: with the support of her human resources manager, Tania decided to ask an interpreter to assist in the health and safety training, to ensure that her employees' understanding of the issues is comprehensive. The interpreter will also return on the first day that the machines are installed. By doing this, Tania also followed Solomon's example by practising protective leadership. He promised God that he would defend the afflicted, needy and weak people in his kingdom from oppression and violence (Ps 72). Indeed, this is God's own model: he is the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing (Deut 10.17-18).

3. Ensuring her employees are properly trained.

Tania is reluctant to force her employees to attend training sessions out of hours when they won't be paid for the time. With the support of the new employee group, she has scheduled a training session during the standard factory lunch hour, and she is providing a free lunch to compensate. She knows she's taking away her employees' free time, but she has decided to put their safety - and her own honesty and impartiality - first. Therefore, all employees who fail to attend will face disciplinary procedures. Tania knows that she has a Master in heaven who requires honesty and fair dealing by bosses in relation to their employees (Eph 6.9; Col 4.1), including by speaking hard truths in love (Eph 4.15-19).

4. Using her authority for good.

Tania opted for a tailored training program instead of the standard video for her employees. She knew the video would have meant less effort, time and resources - but she also knew that she would not be providing them with what they needed. Instead, she chose to make her own task more burdensome so that others would benefit. Tania's goal is to use the power God has given her for his glory, and for her people - she doesn't want to use it in any way that might harm her relationship with God. She's following Jesus' example. Satan's final temptation of Jesus was to offer Jesus the power of all the kingdoms of the world - but on the condition that Jesus must bow down and worship him. Jesus rejected Satan's offer outright: 'Away from me, Satan! For it is written: "Worship the Lord your God and serve him only."' (Mt 4.8-10). Jesus shunned power which would harm his relationship with God, and valued the limits of his calling. He chose the humbler path, to protect the purity of his worship. In today's world, this may mean turning down promotions or additional responsibilities that will fuel our pride or distract us from intimacy with God and his agenda. It may also mean taking a more difficult path to do what is right.

Andrew's Problems

Andrew is committed to serving Geoff and his internal clients, but his time with his daughter is equally important to him. He whinges to his colleagues that he sometimes feels treated like a slave - but he's trying to take Paul's exhortations to real slaves seriously (Eph 6.5-8; Col 3.22-4.1). How can he solve his problems?

1. Being honest about the problems, and seeking practical and spiritual solutions to them.

Andrew is facing an internal spiritual collision over his lack of wholeheartedness in his work (Eph 6.7). He knows that he has been letting his frustration negatively affect his belief in the inherent value of his work, and this is having an impact on his performance. He has asked trusted friends in his home group to pray for him about it. Andrew also knows that wholehearted service will involve treating his colleagues and internal clients like he would want to be treated himself (Lk 6.31). If he was Geoff, he would want someone to explain the roster problems, and show initiative in working out a solution. So, he has decided to garner support for a fixed roster which allows for shift swaps to accommodate personal commitments, and then take it to Geoff. Andrew is also struggling to work out the boundaries of his job. On the helpdesk, he tends to get asked to do more than he can manage - and this damages his wholeheartedness. He knows that he needs to be realistic about his ability to serve others. With the help of a member of the human resources department, he has prepared a reference list of colleagues who might help do those tasks that aren't within his brief.

2. Being realistic about the future and obedient in the meantime.

Andrew has accepted that Geoff may not change his ways and improve the roster situation, despite his own initiative. If this happens, he has decided to tell Geoff that it creates a serious problem for him personally. He will offer to draw up the roster himself in his spare time, and if this fails, he will think about taking the matter up with the human resources department. At the end of the day, Andrew knows that his employment contract obliges him to obey Geoff's lawful orders and the rules and policies of his company. Indeed, the Bible also requires this of us - in Colossians, Paul exhorts slaves to 'obey their earthly masters in everything', reminding them that 'anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favouritism' (Col 3.22, 25). It may seem obvious, but we're also obliged to obey all of the law that applies to our employment, and this is backed up by Paul's statements about obedience in Romans 13.1-7. The issue of whether or not Christians should stand up to abuses of power in their workplaces is outside the scope of this article. Ultimately, Andrew is glad he's not really a slave - he doesn't want to have to look for a new job, but he is grateful to have the option if it becomes necessary.

Real Power at Work

Our workplaces are evolving local communities, formed out of the space we share with our co-workers and the rules and goals of our employers. In these evolving communities, there is endless potential for Christians to have influence for good, in both small and large ways. J Oswald Sanders, in his book Spiritual Leadership (1967), says: Since leadership is essentially the power of one man to influence another, it is well to consider the almost limitless possibilities of a single life, for good or ill. Both Scripture and experience affirm that no-one can be neutral, either morally or spiritually. The way we do our work, and the way we relate to those we work for and with, can speak volumes about our faith - about our belief in God who created a perfect but now fallen world, and who has committed to us the ministry of reconciling the world to him through Christ (2 Cor 5.14-21). We are Christ's ambassadors, and as Foster says, 'all of us in daily life encounter thousands of opportunities to enlist power in the service of reconciliation.' God's incomparably great power is at work in us to restore and renew our work relationships, and that power is 'like the working of his mighty strength when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms' (Eph 1.19-20). While creation now groans under the weight of sin, we are God's agents of change in Christ, showing his radical and transforming love in our own acts of selflessness, forgiveness, gentleness, patience, and our honest accountability. Is the question, 'would you like fries with that?' (with the cheesy grin, of course) the only way to serve people today? Of course not. We are all in the service industry. The focus of our service might be a line manager, the Executive Director, a factory overseer; or it might be customers or clients - particularly if you run your own business. But at the end of each day, do you pause to remember the One whom you're actually serving - the One who's your real boss - the Lord Jesus Christ?

If you'd like to read further, we suggest:

Chapter 16, 'You're the boss too?' from Mark Greene, Thank God It's Monday (SU, 2001, 3rd ed) Sherman & Hendricks, Your Work Matters to God (Navpress, 1988) Part 3, 'Power' (Chapters 10-13) from Richard Foster, Money Sex & Power (Hodder & Stoughton, 1985)

Anne Messer

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