A Potential Peril of Leadership - 2

Continuing from yesterday's post, I want to focus on Eugene Peterson's comments regarding ordination and loving one's neighbor. While Peterson is addressing leadership within the church, I think his comments apply to Christian leadership in any context.

Peterson begins:

It is a strange thing: the first casualty on the field of ordained leadership is usually the neighbor. The men and women with whom we live and work become objectified; instead of being primarily persons whom we love, whether through natural affection (spouse, children, friends) or by Christ's command (love your neighbor as yourself) they gradually become functionalized. Under the pressure of "working for Jesus" or carrying out the church's mission" these former neighbors get treated in functional terms: they become viewed as "resources" or as "deadweight," as "assets" or as "liabilities." as "point man or woman" or as "dysfunctional."

Do these words and phrases sound familiar? Do you ever hear this language in your church or religious-affiliated organization? As a Christian, have you ever used this language when referring to employees at your workplace? When the organization's good becomes the greatest good, the good of the individual may be consistently subsumed under the organization's.

More tomorrow.