We will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church (Ephesians 4:15, NLT).
The concepts behind modern organizations, businesses, and corporations began in the Bible.
In the first century (and preceding centuries), leadership was top-down. A king commanded, or religious leaders issued a decree — and you obeyed! Corporate culture in Biblical times was a leader and way down the ladder — you!
In Ephesians 4:15, we see a loving Christ who is the head of a varied but unified body. Or Christ with you — no separation at all.
Sort of sounds like the goal of all corporations. Leaders lead by becoming a servant leader!
Let’s talk about Peter Drucker. He is considered to be the Father of Modern Business. There were few management books written until Drucker wrote The Practice of Management in 1954.
Read carefully a quote from Drucker about his book . . .
Still, the Practice of Management was the first true “management” book. It was the first to look at management as a whole, the first that attempted to depict management as a distinct function, managing as specific work, and being a manager as a distinct responsibility.
HHHHMMMHHM . . . this sounds like what Jesus did with the church 2,000 years before Peter Drucker was born. Now carefully read Ephesians 4:11-12 . . .
Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.
Not Drucker’s book, but the New Testament was the first book to depict management with a distinct function for a specified task to build up the body of Christ.
Okay, we are doing a lot of “read carefully” today, but please read carefully Drucker’s idea of a successful business in his book . . .
Any business enterprise must build a true team and weld individual efforts into a common effort. Each member of the enterprise contributes something different, but they must all contribute toward a common goal. Their efforts must all pull in the same direction, and their contributions must fit together to produce a whole.
I wonder if Peter Drucker read Ephesians 4:16, written by the Apostle Paul . . .
He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
Or perhaps Drucker read another passage written by Paul about the church . . .
Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other (Romans 12:4-5).
Our final “read carefully” has Peter Drucker discussing the purpose of an organization in his book . . .
It is the purpose of an organization to make common men do uncommon things.
Wow, do we give the Bible enough credit, as Paul writes in a discussion of spiritual gifts within the body of Christ . . .
Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect (Romans 12:2).
Modern business techniques, ideas, and structure originated from the Bible!