MOVE THAT STONE….How about a dose of spiritual reality for Leadership?
Jesus told Peter he would become fisher of men. I can picture this, a carpenter tells a life long seasoned fisherman to use a different technique. Right! What would be going through the man’s mind? How would Peter use his fishing skills, his impetuous temperament to heal and teach, the two lynch pins of Jesus’ ministry? In 1 Peter 4:17, Peter writes that we lead best when we lead from our gifts. We are to apply our gifts as though we are serving the Lord. When we do not use our talents to glorify God, we will not catch fish. We will not be able to heal within organizations. We need to listen and cast our nets to the other side.
We will be preparing for Easter shortly. Easter is about new life. How many times one can get stuck “in the tomb”? One of my favorite gospel readings is John 5:1-10 Jesus asks the man “do you want to get well?” and the man replies with an excuse. Those killer phrases: We can’t do that here; we’ve tried that before; that’s too radical; it’s contrary to policy, too obvious; we need more data; we’re doing alright without it; it won’t work, yeah but, and even: we’ll pray about it. Jesus doesn’t want a discourse. It’s a yes or no answer. Does an organization want to repent (change) [Move the Stone] so that their culture can become “whole” “healthy” and even “holy”? What would happen to our organizations if they became whole, healthy… holy? Moving that stone helps us to transform into who we are meant to be. As Chris Lowney states in Heroic Living, ”the time for the civilization of self is over.” Knowledge is not power, applied knowledge is. St. Jerome stated “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ” I say, “Ignorance of the application of Scripture is even worse”
