Pursuing God’s Ways

Pursuing God’s Ways in Organizational Life

Rhythms, hiring practices, and measures of success are three areas of organizational life that reveal much about what we truly believe about God and ourselves.

Rhythms

Luke 5:16 tells us that Jesus “often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” He is the perfect example of godly leadership, and He was never too busy to spend time with the Father. What about us? How much time do we set aside for focused prayer? Is prayer a duty, a routine way to start meetings, or are we taking time—as a leader and as an organization—to listen to God, really expecting Him to speak?

The Bible also has a lot to say about rest and Sabbath. Sabbath is a gift and also a command. When we don’t pursue God’s ways in this, we and our teams quickly begin to burn out. Yet so often we push ourselves and those around us to take on more and more. What beliefs drive that? Do we see ourselves, rather than God, as the savior of those we seek to serve?

Psalm 146 reminds us that it’s God who sustains the fatherless and widow, who gives food to the hungry and upholds the cause of the oppressed. It’s a common message in the Bible. While He does use us, we don’t need to work as if it all relies on us.

Hiring

1 Corinthians 1:26-29 says:

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him.

God uses the foolish and weak. How should that impact our hiring practices? While we probably don’t need a policy of always picking the least qualified person for any job, we should try to look past qualifications to something deeper. The Bible tells us that, while people look at outward appearances (qualifications and great interviewing skills), the Lord looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).

Before, during, and after an interview, we ought to be asking God who He has for the role. It’s quite possible that the God who chose King David over his seven older, stronger, more accomplished brothers has someone unexpected in mind for our organizations as well.

Measures of Success

What is our definition of success? While we tend to see success in terms of growth and impact, the Bible points us toward obedience and faithfulness. In the passage about the talents in Matthew 25 Jesus said, “Well done good and faithful servant,” not “good and successful.”

And yet, the faithful servants were praised for multiplying the talents entrusted to them. And in John 15, we see that as we abide we are promised that we will “bear much fruit.” Again, in Psalm 1, we are promised fruit as we meditate on the word day and night.

We are supposed to be fruitful. But our role is to abide and to meditate on God’s word, not to “go make things happen; come up with great projects and plans.” The Bible also doesn’t promise immediate fruit. In fact, Psalm 1 says the fruit will come in season. God’s fruit comes in His timing. Furthermore, Matthew 13:31 reminds us the Kingdom of Heaven starts with the mustard seed—something tiny and obscure. The challenge is whether we can be satisfied with small, seemingly insignificant things.

Our measures of success shouldn’t be growth and numbers but rather, “Did we strive to follow God’s ways? Were we committed to time in prayer and listening to God? Did we love others well?” If we are faithful in those things, then the fruit will turn up exactly when God intends it.

Conclusion

Pursuing God’s ways means intentionally trying to work out how God would have us operate in every aspect of our organization, rather than following the best practices and societal norms around us. If everything we do as a Christian organization is the same as a non-Christian organization, then there might be something wrong. Whether it’s the rhythm of our work life, our hiring practices, how we measure success, or—as previous articles examined—our fundraising and strategic planning, we need to seek to understand what God’s ways are and how to apply them. In the next article, we’ll walk through some practical steps to pursuing God’s ways.