INTRODUCTION:

People from different backgrounds, cultures and historic periods have always sought meaning to their lives. Often life is viewed as doing something with a purpose. Management theorist Douglas McGregor suggested that in this natural state of activity people in effect say, "I am therefore I work." Max Weber asked whether people work to live or live to work. Reformer Martin Luther contended for the later as the true state of man, that as God1s vice-regent he lives to work in the world for God1s glory. Luther1s view is a minority report in a society driven to satisfy economic and psychological needs.

This paper outlines a semester graduate level course that addresses the dynamics of organizational life from a Christian worldview. Its about the relationship of work and life. It examines what is work and why we work. It also looks at how work gets done within organizations, how we perceive meaning and purpose in the workplace and the nature of organizational culture i. e. behavior in the workplace. Specifically, we will explore roles within organizations, particularly leadership, various organization structures, issues of stewardship and accountability and importantly look at managing and leading organizations from an integrated system perspective . While the course content examines concepts and approaches that apply to all organizations, whether large or small, profit or non-profit, private sector or public sector, particular emphasis will assigned to non-profit organizations.

The first section is a theological examination of integrity as the basis for the Christian worldview of life. Section II applies this framework to organizations functioning as an integrated system of relationships. Section III examines dimensions within the organization, such as purpose, vision, values, customers, alignment, systems and processes, people, leadership and outcomes. Finally, Section IV specifically looks at issues of effective management within the burgeoning service and non-profit sector s of society.

SECTION I. The Meaning of Integrity in a Person's Life

Stephen Carter, author of the best seller Culture of Unbelief, writes, "Integrity is like the weather everybody talks about it but nobody knows what to do about it. Integrity is that stuff we always say we want more of." Today there is a gnawing hunger for integrity, especially among the young who seek authenticity in relationships and their experiences. But what is integrity? Linguistically it comes from the same Latin root integras which means sound, coherent, complete or whole as in a whole number that is undivided (as opposed to a fraction). Proverbs 11:13 says "The integrity of the righteous guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity". In Proverbs 13:6 we are told "Righteousness guards the man of integrity, but wickedness pours out lies." The word translated here in Proverbs as integrity occurs some fifty times in the Hebrew Bible and is also translated as perfection, simplicity or uprightness. Thus, often when people refer to someone as a person of integrity they have in mind a person of completeness, serenity, purity . They live an intact, undivided life. That person is genuine and trustworthy. The modern expression "he or she has it all together" is a recognition of our desire for coherence in our lives. Scripture tells us that when one's inner core is centered in Christ the myriad of relationships in the world take on a new significance and expressions. Relationship is at the hub of everything; meaning, purpose and harmony are always in relation to something or someone. Well that it should because perfect relationship, after all, is the nature of the Godhead. And the story of created order reflects something of the nature and character of its Author. Jesus said "Peace (shalom) I leave with; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives." (John.14:27) Shalom is about the enjoyment and blessings of right relationship with God, others, self and creation.

True integrity is unity and consistency of character and behavior , faith and action, and thought, word and deed. There is a Christ-centeredness in which all things cohere. Yet there is a paradox of uniqueness and distinction, unity and diversity. A person of integrity has what C. S. Lewis called "good infection" that permeates his entire system and which he transmits to others who come in contact with him. More often than not, however, people take integrity to mean the conditional variety of laudable qualities, such as being honest when it's expected, convenient or when others are watching or when it doesn't cost personally. A person of true integrity, however, will risk everything, even his life, in doing right for the One he loves. Joseph, youngest son of Jacob, is a spectacular example of integrity under the sweet and bitter providence of life. Scripture calls us to function as a whole person, of which Joseph was a type and Jesus the fulfillment. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:24 that no one can serve two masters at the same time. He designed life so that its focus and our allegiance are not to be fragmented or dissipated away from its well-spring. That is why idolatry is so grievous to God and destructive of life. Warren Wiersbe in his book The Integrity Crisis writes, "Jesus made it clear that integrity involves the whole of the inner person: the heart, the mind, and the will. The person with integrity has a single heart. He doesn't try to love God and the world at the same time...The person with integrity also has a single mind and single outlook ("eye") that keeps life going in the right direction...Jesus also said that the person with integrity has a single will; he seeks to serve but one master."

Where'd We Get This Notion of Integrity?

Why are believer and unbeliever alike attracted to such an admirable, ennobling quality as integrity, even though we lack the capacity and/or the will to see it clearly and possess it consistently? Who set the integrity standard anyway? Where did this notion that life is supposed to gravitate toward wholeness come from? Why do we somehow sense important things are missing in the way we live and then set about filling the gaps? The search for integral life permeates all ages and all cultures as it innately lurks within the human soul1s longing for fulfillment. Heraclitus wrote that all things are one. Lao-tzu said all things are ruled by a single principle. The Suquamish Indian chief Seattle declared that all things are connected. Integrity as ideal has been approximated over the centuries by real people who live exemplary lives, lives of goodness and even sacrifice. Yet if there is one maxim almost every one subscribes to and that is, "no one's perfect." We seem to recognize that true integrity is lacking even in the "best" among us.

At one point in human history mankind did experience true integrity of life and that was in the Garden. Our first parents enjoyed God's beneficence and fellowship intimately without anxiety or frustration. But the reign of harmony and bless became ruined and spoiled. Pride both in the form of self-autonomy and self-deception were then and are now first steps toward disintegration of original integrity . Rather than shalom, we went to war with God and everything fell apart. Life was shattered into pieces. Like Humpty Dumpty not even all the kings men and all the kings horse could put us back together again. However, (and this is key) that experience of integrity lingers in our conscience as a faint echo of our original. God left it there in the recesses as a pointer back to Him (Romans 2:15). Apart from God, the unregenerate muffle even the faint echo as they suppress God's truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18). Therefore, at the deepest level of our being there is a longing for completeness and fulfillment. The problem is fallen man tries everything he can to satisfy that desire with all manner of god-substitutes. "We are looking", says Vaclev Havel. "for new scientific recipes, new ideologies, new control systems, new institutions...." We're looking for new gods that can give us "an elemental sense of justice, the ability to see things as other do, a sense of transcendental responsibility, archetypical wisdom, good taste, courage, compassion, and faith."  Yet without its proper satisfaction in God and God alone, we live divided, empty, perturbed and vacuous lives. The lyrics of "Smashing Pumpkins" described as a "sad reflection of the disorder, dysfunction, disintegration and anomie" recognize some of the ramifications of living east of Eden. Even in our repression we do sense something important and significant is missing, something is terribly wrong in our lives, and that the creation is a good thing gone bad. The search for the peace of paradise on our own terms proves illusionary. As Saint Augustine wrote, "O Lord, you have made us for Thyself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee." Likewise Pascal observed that "we desire truth and find in ourselves nothing but uncertainty. We seek happiness and find only wretchedness and death. We are incapable of not desiring truth and happiness and incapable of either certainty or happiness."

Nonetheless, this innate desire for integrity or wholeness does signify there is a real corresponding object that can indeed satisfy the desire which cannot be had in this world. C. S. Lewis makes these wise observations in Mere Christianity , "There are all sorts of things this world offers to give to you, but they never quite keep their promise...Now there are two wrong ways of dealing with this fact, and one right way. (1)The Fool's Way. He puts blame on the things themselves. He goes on all his life thinking that if only he tried another woman, or holiday, or whatever, then this time he would really catch the mysterious something... (2) The Way of the Disillusioned "Sensible Man." He soon decides that the whole thing was moonshine. And so he represses the part of himself which used to cry for the moon... (3) The Christian Way. The Christian says: Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for these desires exists. A baby feels hunger; well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim; well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire; well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."

Our Deepest Desires and Longing

Scripture addresses what is at the core of our deepest longings and its implications about how then should we live. For instance, Proverbs 11:3 tells us that "the integrity of the upright guides them...". Scripture presupposes integrity in order for us to desire and to seek wisdom. In other words, God has already performed a work in His elect to deal with the radical corruption of sin and to bring them to saving knowledge of Christ. When we are declared in union with Jesus Christ, our position is one of integrity i.e. being whole and complete in Christ. God gives us wisdom then He uses it to drive us to Him. He continues to give wisdom so that we might know how to live practically in Christlikeness. In this sense integrity is prior to everything else we are and prior to everything we do. Scripture presents life not divided into secular and sacred but as a single, rich tapestry which is woven together with colored threads of religious affections and righteous conduct in the daily affairs of life. Character and conduct are inextricably linked in the Book. Old Testament scholar Derek Kidner writes, "You have to be godly to be wise; and this is not because godliness pays, but because the only wisdom by which you can handle everyday things in conformity with their nature is the wisdom by which they were divinely made and ordered." Thus, redemption accomplished on the cross and applied by the Holy Spirit makes people of integrity . In sanctification therefore we are becoming practically what we already are positionally in Christ. Thus, God's wisdom for practical living is in the outworking of restored integrity, the reclamation of original integrity in the Garden. "Its [wisdom] function is to put godliness in working clothes", says Kidner. Wisdom's guidance satisfies the dictates of our conscience which is borne not out sense of allegiance or duty but a desire to please the One we love. The difference with the Fool is that he pleasing himself, not God, with his "wisdom". Thus, people of integrity are the upright who seek wisdom and have a desire and capacity to discern God's will in life.

Like Augustine, Lewis believed that if there is a God, in whose image we are made and in whom we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:23), then we should have a certain built-in desires or longings for a Joy beyond all earthly satisfactions. Lewis believed that if this were the case we should then expect to find evidence for it in our experience, and he did. This mutuality of head and heart knowledge found its way deeply into nearly all of Lewis writings.

In the world as we experience it there are things that are considered more valuable than others. The world is full of stories that warn about putting arbitrary value on things whose very nature do not deserve it. There is also a sort a universal appeal to right behavior, justice, fairness and goodness. Where do these values come from? Such judgments are either arbitrary and capricious based on convenience or preference or they are rooted in something fixed, a standard that people intuitively know and appeal to with respect to their personal interests as well as those of others (something in The Abolition Of Man he referred to as the Tao). For Lewis this common moral and ethical foundation seen throughout history and among all cultures was put in place in nature and in human conscience by the infinite, personal God (Romans 1-2) as a reflection of His moral character. This is the why there are such striking similarities in standards of behavior among diverse cultures over time and why people feel free, even compelled, to judge the moral conduct of nations such as Nazi Germany or Pol Pot1s Cambodia or South Africa apartheid. Lewis made much of the moral argument, perhaps most effectively in the first five chapters of Mere Christianity. Myths (and all good stories down through history for that matter) reflect fixed moral order and the struggle between good and evil, catastrophe and good catastrophe because we all share a common recognition of and appreciation for an encoded Moral Law. Lewis also argued often that any human longing points to a genuine human need, which in turn points to a corresponding, real object to that need. He uses this argument from desire in the following classic passage which some fifteen years ago made such a powerful impression upon me in my first steps of faith.

Lewis writes: "Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food . A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for something else of which they are only a kind of a copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same."

Another instance where Lewis argued from desire to its object was in The Weight of Glory, which many believe is one of argument most powerful articulations: "A man s physical hunger does not prove that the man will get any bread; he may die of starvation in a raft in the Atlantic. But surely a man s hunger does prove that he comes of a race which repairs its body by eating and inhabits a world where eatable substances exist. In the same way, though I do not believe (I wish I did) that my desire for Paradise proves that I shall enjoy it, I think it a pretty good indication that such a thing exists and that some men will. A man may love a woman and not win her; but it would be very odd if the phenomenon called falling in love occurred in a sexless world."

Existentialist Jean-Paul Sarte well understood the human dilemma when he said we cannot find happiness in anything human or created yet there is at work within us a innate desire to deny this inability to find satisfaction and fulfillment in the world. One of today great young theologians, Alister McGrath, describes these universal sensibilities in terms evangelistic opportunities:

"This feeling of dissatisfaction is one of the most important points of contact for gospel proclamation. In the first place, that proclamation interprets this vague and unshaped feeling as longing for God. An second, it offers to fill it. There is a sense of divine dissatisfaction with all that is not God. This divine dissatisfaction has its origin in God and ultimately leads to God...in the midst of the world, something that is ultimately beyond the world makes itself available to us. We do not need to wait for eternity to experience God; that experience can begin, however imperfectly, now...we are doomed to remain incomplete in our present existence. Our hopes and deepest longings will remain nothing but just that; Our hopes and longings. This bittersweet tension remains real, even for the Christian who increasingly becomes aware of the wonder of God and the inadequacy of our present grasp of that wonder. There is a sense of postponement, of longing, of wistful yearning, of groaning under the strain of having to tolerate the present when the future offers so much. Perhaps the finest statement of this exquisite agony is found in Augustine s cry, I am groaning with inexpressible groanings on my wanderer s path and remembering Jerusalem with my heart lifted up towards it - Jerusalem my homeland, Jerusalem my mother. We are exiled from our homeland - but its memories haunt us."

In closing his spiritual autobiography Surprised by Joy C. S. Lewis explains the relationship between the shadow of something and the thing itself: "It was valuable only as a pointer to something other and outer. While that other was in doubt, the pointer naturally loomed large in my thoughts. When we are lost in the woods the sight of a signpost is a great matter. He who first sees it cries, Look! The whole party gathers round and stares. But when we have found the road and are passing signposts every few miles, we shall not stop and stare. They will encourage us and we shall be grateful to the authority that set them up. But we shall not stop and stare, or not much; not on this road, though their pillars are of silver and their lettering of gold. We would be at Jerusalem.'"

How The Should We Live?

There is just retribution for every act, for every act includes its answer or consequence. Scripture is replete with teaching on the principle of cause and effect (e. g. Proverbs 11:18; 22:8). It tells us the first step to living the way we were designed to live is recognizing the difference between good and evil and wickedness and righteousness. The standard to make such determinations is God's Word, not the standard of self-righteousness.Scripture has nothing to do with the idea that "everything is relative", which even the church has bought into. Rather God1s Word enjoins us to be become intimately acquainted with God's wisdom (Proverbs 2:9; 4:27) and tells us our day-to-day decisions have consequences, some for better and some for worse. Some consequences we reap immediately, some later in our life or many times in the lives of our children. In any event, Scripture reminds us that right now, this very moment in time, counts forever. What we do, what we say and what we think have eternal consequences. We become what we think about. "For as he thinks in his heart, so he is." (Proverbs 23:7) The care with which we guard what goes into our minds affects our ability to know God and to do his will. Garbage in, garbage out.

No one ultimately gets away with anything. Fools are "flee-ers" from the gaze of a thrice-holy God and are set upon the road of self-destruction. At any given time on that road one is either moving toward the kingdom of God or away from it. It's either more self as god or more God as God. Its a matter of what one loves - self and the things of this world or God and the things of God. And it all starts in one's heart: sow a thought, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character reap a destiny. As Steve Garber puts it "it is the habits of the heart that characterize the individual's effort to live a coherent life ...centered in the deepest convictions about what is real and true and right." One day everyone will be judged perfectly according to their character i. e. by the desires and affections of their hearts put on display in this life by one1s conduct and behavior. So in this sense, if we desire to make right decisions, to avoid foolishness day to day, and to live in the presence of God forever, then our only hope is seeking God's wisdom now .

Living a life of integrity, therefore, is not about doing but being, i.e. character. Doing flows out of being. This is also the distinction between reputation which is what people perceive us to be and character which is really what we are. Management consultant Stephen Covey writes in his popular best-seller, "The most important ingredient we put into relationships is not what we say or what we do, but what we are. And if our words and our actions come from superficial human relations techniques rather than from our inner core, others will sense that duplicity. We simply won't be able to create and sustain the foundation necessary for effective interdependence [with other people]. So, the place to begin building any relationship is inside ourselves, our own character." A person of integrity therefore doesn1t just talk about mercy but lives it out among this neighbors seeking to meet their spiritual and physical needs. His faith is not personal or private matter but is an outward expression of the reality that God has worked into his heart. For him the nature and character of God is not an intellectual exercise but is a calling on his life for humility, forgiveness, holiness and servanthood. He lives out life the same whether in the public spotlight or in the privacy of his prayer closet. Life is not segmented compartments of sacred and secular or public and private but life is one in Christ, the author and finisher of his faith. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:31, "whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God." As John Piper so helpfully reminds us, "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him." A person with a heart of integrity is not self-satisfied but satisfied only and always in all that God is Christ Jesus.

One of my favorite movies is the academy award winning movie Patton. George C. Scott gives a riveting performance about a man seeking to fulfill his destiny in a modern world which has devalued his ancient warrior instincts. At the end of the movie we hear the controversial, quixotic General recounting the glory of the warriors of the past whom he so reveres:

"For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeters, musicians and strange animals from conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conquerors rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children robed in white stood with him in the chariot or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting."

Dr. Laura Nash in her book Believers in Business quotes former Secretary of State James Baker at the 1990 National Prayer breakfast, "Someone asked me what was the most important thing I had learned since being in Washington. I replied that it was the fact that temporal power is fleeting." Baker went on to observe that once driving through the White House gates he saw a man walking alone on Pennsylvania Avenue and recognized him as having been Secretary of State in a previous administration. "There he was alone - no reporters, no security, no adoring public, no trappings of power.Just one solitary man alone with his thoughts. And that mental picture continually serves to remind me of the impermanence of power and the impermanence of place."

Having spent twenty eight years in Washington in various senior policy and management positions in the government, I too have often been struck by the same images. There are former colleagues and associates who were once at the top of the game only to become at best a trivia question at a Georgetown cocktail party. Walker Percy's warning about getting all A's but flunking life is faint in the world's most influential city. While they last the trappings of power can be a pretty heady brew, but it doesn1t last - after all they are merely trappings. For many who have roamed the halls of Congress and have occupied lush executive suites, the power, influence, and success they beheld and partook were vapors. Right now - what we do, what we say, what we think - ultimately counts not for right now but forever. Apart from Jesus Christ all we perceive at the moment to be wonderful, exhilarating and rewarding are as writings in the sand. What is true at the moment is that in our midst there is One far greater and a life far nobler than anything the world can imagine or offer.

Indeed the world's glory is always fleeting; yesterday's heroes are soon forgotten; discarded for new ones. U-hauls don't accompany the funeral hearse to the cemetery. Patton was relegated to a desk job in post-war Germany and died not on the field of battle with other warriors but in an automobile accident. Glory is not ours. It is not intrinsic but extrinsic, sovereignly and graciously bestowed upon us by God as His adopted children, who reflect the glory of Christ Jesus, our older brother. And His glory is not fleeting but radiates forever and ever and ever. As John Piper again reminds us, "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him."