
30 Aug #188 – “Leading Faithfully” Basics – The First Step – RENEW
ESSENCE: The first step on the ancient path from the “as usuals” of business as usual, work as usual, and faith as usual to “a better way” is RENEW. It is the start of a four-step process called Integriosity® to help a faithful leader navigate the journey on the ancient path toward leading faithfully with faithful integrity through business a better way. Each step lays the groundwork for the next: RENEW, RE-IMAGINE, RE-ALIGN and RESTORE. It is about “mind renewal” for a specific purpose–to renew a faithful leader’s mind about things like God’s purpose for work and business, God’s vision for those He created in His image–humans, and understanding work and business from the Kingdom perspective of a BIGGER Gospel. The two key areas of renewal are reordering disordered priorities and reordering disordered thinking. RENEW is transforming the mind of the faithful leader with the help of the Holy Spirit so that the faithful leader is convicted to transform the heart of the organization they lead.
“Leading Faithfully” Basics is about going back and re-examining the basics of leading faithfully through business a better way–business in alignment with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities. You can find more “Leading Faithfully” Basics posts at Integrous | “Leading Faithfully” Basics (integriosity.com)
We have examined business as usual, work as usual and faith as usual and considered the problems they can create, and the missed opportunities to which they can lead, for organizations, faithful leaders and the creation (particularly humans) they touch.
Even before examining those ideas, we described a stark choice and presented a glimpse of an alternative to “as usuals”–a “better way”–and briefly described the four steps on the ancient path to pursuing that alternative we call leading faithfully with faithful integrity through business a better way. In the next few “Leading Faithfully” Basics posts we will dive deeper into the first step on that ancient path–RENEW.
Refresher: The Four Steps Along the Ancient Path
In Leading Faithfully Basics post #160 (The Ancient Path), we said every faithful leader is on a path of some sort, but leading with faithful integrity requires getting on, and staying on, the right path. We believe the right path is the ancient path of Jeremiah 6:16:
Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.
We have developed a four-step process called Integriosity® to help a faithful leader navigate the journey on the ancient path toward faithful integrity through business a better way, each of which lays the groundwork for the next: RENEW, RE-IMAGINE, RE-ALIGN and RESTORE.
Frankly, we believe it is pointless going through the motions of the remaining steps of Integriosity for an organization–RE-ALIGN, RE-IMAGINE and RESTORE–until the organization’s leader(s) is ready to abandon the business as usual thinking of the kingdom of the world and adopt the business a better way thinking of God’s Kingdom.
RENEW
As you might have guessed, the RENEW step of Integriosity is based on Romans 12:2:
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
We are focused on “mind renewal” for a specific purpose–to renew a faithful leader’s mind about things like (1) God’s purpose for work and business and the implications of that purpose for how an organization can and should be managed and operated, (2) God’s vision for those He created in His image–humans–and the implications of that vision for the WHY of business and other organizations and (3) understanding work and business from the Kingdom perspective of a BIGGER Gospel and the implications of a Kingdom understanding for “good but not the best” faith as usual Placebos and Side Roads.
RENEW requires not only information and understanding but also the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Without that conviction, a faithful leader’s mind renewal does not move to heart renewal, which makes it unlikely that the leader will have the intentionality necessary to implement counter-cultural organizational change. Henry and Richard Blackaby warn:
We cannot think like the world does yet have the mind of Christ. We must allow the Holy Spirit to transform our carnal, self-centered, ungodly thinking.
RENEW is transforming the mind of the faithful leader with the help of the Holy Spirit so that the faithful leader is convicted to transform the heart of the organization they lead. In his book For Goodness Sake, Chris Houston astutely explains:
There is no such thing as business transformation without personal transformation. As has always been the case, personal shifts are the fundamental movement of change. There is no substitute for a change of heart, no change management technique, no management theory that will do. Hearts and minds must change and at a deeply personal level.
RENEW is building the essential bridge of a RENEWED mind that allows a faithful leader to do an “about-face” from as usual thinking to a better way thinking –from the world’s way to what we believe is God’s ancient way. In the words of Woodrow Kroll:
If you’re going in the wrong direction, turning around is the only right direction.
If you’re going in the wrong direction, turning around is the only right direction. (Woodrow Kroll)
The RENEW Process
There are two key areas of renewal we will explore in the RENEW step of Integriosity.
Disordered Priorities. The first involves reordering disordered priorities. We call this “Keep First Things First”. It focuses on four key Biblical principles that we believe are the “first things” that a faithful leader needs to “keep first” in order to lead with faithful integrity through business a better way. Business as usual — business in “the way of the world” or, more precisely, according to “the kingdom of this world”–generally puts “second things first”. The four first things are:
• Righteousness
• Kingdom
• Love
• Humility
These key Biblical principles that form the foundation of Integriosity are embedded in the word itself: Integrity (and its components Righteousness and Kingdom) and Generosity (and its components Love and Humility).
Disordered Thinking. The second key area of renewal involves reordering disordered thinking. We call this “Five Key Mind-Shifts”. They capture a new way of thinking about the WHAT, WHO, WHY, HOW and WHEN of faith-work integration. Leading an organization with faithful integrity through business a better way requires mind-shifts that lead to heart-shifts, both in the leaders and in the organization.
Unfortunately, many faith-inspired leaders begin the process of re-alignment with the best intentions but without even knowing about the key “mind-shifts” necessary to have a solid foundation for their changes. In fact, we believe much “faith/work” content, testimonies and rhetoric misses these key shifts and actually directs leaders off the ancient path onto one or more of the six Side Roads that “miss the mark”.
In considering the reordering of disordered priorities and the reordering of disordered thinking, we like this description of “renewing the mind” from Charles Stanley:
Renewing the mind is a little like refinishing furniture. It is a two-stage process. It involves taking off the old and replacing it with the new. The old is the lies you have learned to tell or were taught by those around you; it is the attitudes and ideas that have become a part of your thinking but do not reflect reality. The new is the truth. To renew your mind is to involve yourself in the process of allowing God to bring to the surface the lies you have mistakenly accepted and replace them with truth. To the degree that you do this, your behaviour will be transformed.
The reordering of priorities and thinking will allow transformation of heart and behavior, which is what is required, and what prepares a faithful leader, to move to the second step on the ancient path–RE-IMAGINE.
PERSONAL NOTE (from PM): The RENEW step of Integriosity is at the core of my personal mission statement in more ways than one. Integrous and Integriosity were born out of finally having my mind “renewed” as to God’s incredible purpose and potential for work and business and then comparing it to the reality in our broken world.
My eyes were opened by the writings and talks of authors like N.T. Wright, Jeff Van Duzer, James Hunter, Tim Keller, Os Hillman and Michael Stallard. They were opened through friendships with people like John Seel, Bob Varney, Lance Wallnau and Henry Kaestner. I then began comparing the incredible potential to what I experienced for nearly 23 years in a business built and run on worldly principles with no pretense of trying to be faithful to God’s purposes. But I also compared it to what I witnessed in businesses and leaders that did profess to be integrating their work or business with their Biblical faith. They were “doing good” but there seemed to be so much more. I sensed the missed purpose for organizations, the missed calling for leaders, the missed flourishing for people and the increased misery. In speaking to many leaders with deep faith and the best intentions, I realized that they had never been told the “truth” of God’s purpose for work and business. They had never considered the relationship between organizations and God’s vision for humans. They had never been told the implications of the Four-Part Gospel for work and business in a way that made practical sense.
During a retreat at the We Want More house in Bridgeport, CT in 2016, we did an exercise to develop a personal mission statement. What came out of the process for me confirmed what I had been feeling for several years. My vocational mission is “to redeem work through the impartation of wisdom, spotlighting God’s truth and connecting its meaning to organizational cultures and practices.” I do not claim any new ideas. My hope is that I am able to synthesize the ideas of many brilliant people in a way that makes sense, is exciting and can be applied practically, albeit with a necessary leap of faith.
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Photo Credit: Original photo by Photo by Ivan Bertolazzi on Pexels (photo cropped)
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