God’s
Business
Applying
Peter Drucker to Church
Fr.
Tony’s Midweek Message
September
24, 2014
The other day, I came across a summary
of several of Peter Drucker’s “quotable quotes” about innovation and creativity
in business. Drucker was the management
theorist whose ideas did much to revolutionize how companies and non-profits
were run in the 1980s and 90s. I was
struck that several of these quotes still apply a great deal to what we do and
see in Church:
· “Doing the right thing is more important than doing the
thing right.”
· “There is nothing quite so useless as doing with great
efficiency something that should not be done at all.”
We
often get very tied up with doing things right.
We want to get the liturgy just right: the right music, the right
flowers, the most beautiful vestments, the right prayers and sermons, the
perfect bulletin, and the right mix of traditional and new. We want to get our parish and diocesan life
just right: the proper rules of order in meetings, the right process of governance,
the tight observance of the canons.
Drucker here reminds us that doing things right is meaningless, and
downright counterproductive, if in fact we are doing the wrong thing in the
first place. This is the idea behind
Jesus’ parable of the Rich Fool: If you
make a pile of money, that won’t help you at all if the night you are going to
cash it in turns out to be the night you die.
Also
implied here is the idea that in searching and trying to do the right thing,
you may have to get it slightly “wrong” for a while; you may have to work out
the bugs by doing the right thing even if you can’t get it perfect to begin
with. The good often turns out to be the
enemy of the ideal, since doing the wrong thing well is seen as preferable to
trying the messy process of getting to the right thing, and then gradually
learning to do it well. Doing things
right is not a bad thing: it actually is one of the things about
Episcopalianism that many of us find attractive. But finding the right thing to do is what it
means to be a Christian, and a group of Christians.
· “If you want something new, you have to stop doing something
old.”
There
are costs involved in changing and growing.
One of these is that we have to be willing to let go of old habits and
ways of doing things. This is, I believe
the point of Jesus’ parables about the new wine in old skins (they burst!) and
a new cloth patch on an old garment (it rips!).
You have to be willing to let go of the old.
· “People who don't take risks generally make about two big
mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes
a year.”
· “Results are gained by exploiting opportunities, not by
solving problems.”
· “So much of what we call management consists of making it
difficult for people to work.”
Change and growth means willingness to
take risks. They mean being on the
lookout for needs and places of service, places where we can share God’s grace
effectively with others, and then going for it. Caution—whether to preserve the Church
facility, a good balance sheet, the Church’s reputation and social standing in
the community, or even maintaining the appearance of a happy little church
without conflicts or differences of opinion—caution usually tells us to limit
people’s engagement, creativity, or clarity of expression. Ministry is service, and service means being
present for others where they are and helping empower them in their ministry to
others. It does not thrive in cautious,
cramped environments where “no” is the default position. It thrives when we say “YES” to God and God’s
love, and turn over results of things to God’s grace.
Grace and Peace,
Fr. Tony+
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