Monday's Assignment

         It is inevitable if you live longer enough, you learn things you never thought you would learn or even be interested in learning.  That has happened to me with regularity.  If we are lucky, we get to spend much of our time doing things we want to do.  Perhaps this is one definition of freedom.  In this sense I have been quite free.  Other than a couple jobs during college, I have had some freedom in choice of work, where to work and even more.  At least, I know I have been fortunate and am grateful.

        One of the things I assumed I had little interest in and assumed I did not want to learn about was business.  I respected folks who went into business.  Growing up on a farm meant, in some fashion, we were our own business.  I learned that you had to make more money than you spent or you were in trouble.  I learned the basics and could have been a farmer and made it ok.  But I was called elsewhere.

        During the process of a great deal of religious studies, studying business would have been the farthest thing from my mind.  And yet, when I look back, there were occasional brushes with the business world.  I had an internship in my seminary days with one of the biggest and oldest Boston businesses.  When the name, Cabot, is on the business letterhead, that is old-time Boston for sure.  I should have suspected more interest on my part than I did.

        Throughout my teaching and ministerial career, there have been quite a few brushes with the business community.  Of course, much of my time at my current institution has been spent with my business colleague.  We have done speaking engagements, seminars, workshops, etc. with little companies and Fortune 500 companies.  I have learned to appreciate the human element that pervades all businesses.  I realized they were more interesting than I thought and more germane to my interests than I could have guessed.

        One of the business folks I regularly follow is Tom Peters.  He is about my age and has been quite successful.  I find his experience, insight and teachings to be sometimes profound.  He has a no-nonsense, brusque way of putting things.  He does not put up with a great deal of nonsense.  This is something my humanities colleagues would do better to learn and implement.  He is not negative, but is to the point.  He reads the tea leaves of our current culture and has some trenchant observations to offer.  I find much of it resonates with my own way of seeing things.  And he articulates things in ways that would not occur to me.

        I follow him on Twitter.  Recently, he offered one such tidbit of wisdom.  Let me share it with you and offer a few comments.  He begins this tweet with his typical terse comment.  He simply says, “Monday’s assignment.”  As I read on into his tweet, I realized this could fit any day of the week.  In fact, it could be a daily mantra.  I was eager to read the rest.
   
        His next thought was a gem.  He charges to make sure “Every individual on your team should be better prepared for forthcoming change on Friday than when the week started.”  Let’s unpack this.  At the core of this sentence is the assumption that change is the rule of the day.  In fact, I am confident change is the name of the game today.  If you are static or even too conservative, you probably operate in peril.  Change is built into the fabric of our universe.  But what is different today is the rate of change---how rapidly change changes the face of the present.

        If you are not sure, pay attention to the technology in our lives.  The iPhone in my pocket is a really great example.  The iPhone came into our lives in 2007.  And now there are already twelve generations of the device.  Unbelievable!  The iPhone did not come directly from the hand of God.  Human beings invented it, innovated it and have sold over two billion since 2007.  It has revolutionized the phone I used in the kitchen when I was a kid!  And it was created by a team.  As Peters says, make your team better tomorrow.

        The last part of his tweet counsels: “Forget longterm BS.  Remember my Theme #1: EXCELLENCE IS THE NEXT FIVE MINUTES.”   As a guy who does spirituality, I wonder if it is the same in my world?  Clearly tradition plays a role in religion, but I also know that people are always in a particular culture and a context.  And those cultures and contexts are changing fairly quickly. 

        We know people increasingly don’t find relevance in churches as they now are.  I wonder what most spiritual people think is excellence?  Do people want what we have?  I spend most of my time with young adults.  I think we need to address these issues.  They expect more out of religion than leftovers and re-heated nourishment.  They have choices and they know things change quickly.  Is what we spiritual folks offering the world adaptable and flexible enough to be meaningful and relevant today and by Friday?

I am sure it can be.  But will it?  That’s our Monday assignment.