I have worked in and around Call Centers for a good number of years, and one thing that never ceases to amaze me is the negativity that seems to prevail. Part of it could be that the Call Center agents only really take calls from the customers who are having problems. Think about it, when is the last time that you called your credit card company just to thank them for being there when you need them? Instead the only time that you are going to make the effort to get in touch with them is when you are upset about something. And this is the Call Center agent's job...   to talk to unhappy customers all day long. So I can understand that it would take a lot to keep positive when it seems like everyone you talk to has a problem. But I think that there is a deeper issue, something that we can all relate to, going on here.

How about this perspective...   Have you ever worked with someone who just hated their job? Every day they come into work miserable, and they complain about how bad things are in that job/company all day, and then split right out the door as fast as they can at the end of their day. Seriously, why do these people continue working somewhere that they are obviously so miserable at? Now imagine that it is your boss that has that bad attitude! Some of you know exactly what I am talking about. I had one once that just bashed the company that I enjoyed working for every chance they got. That attitude made it very difficult for me to work and connect with that boss at all.

As we look at the next qualification for the manager-leader, we come to one that requires one to "hold [the] mystery of [the] faith with clear conscience." There are a couple of things at play here, but in order to understand the principle that we can apply to the workplace with this one, we must first understand the principle in the church. So, we need to understand what Paul meant by "mystery of faith". Some interpreters take this to mean that there are things that as Christians, only we can truly understand. These things include ideas like what salvation is, and understanding who the Holy Spirit is, and much more. So the idea here is that there are things about being a "member" that one should not only understand but "hold" on to without question (a clear conscience). I like to think of these things as the spirit (little "s" intentional) of the family (of Christ).

I believe that the same thing holds true in the workplace. Employees, especially those in any sort of leadership role, should be able to capture the "spirit" (again, little "s") of the company. This manifests itself in a positive attitude about the company. The person that can capture the spirit of a company probably knows exactly what its goals are, and is an evangelist for its products and services. The person is the company's biggest fan, and they feel good about their reasons why. When leaders have this type of attitude (as opposed to the one discussed earlier), then it makes them much easier to follow. They will walk with a certain excitement about being there, and have a great amount of energy to accomplish great things. These people are much more fun to follow...

There is another school of thought about this piece of Scripture, and that goes further to explain practical reasons why one must hold the mystery of faith. The idea with this point of view is that there are some things that are harder to understand (making them mysteries). Therefore, as a leader (in this case a Deacon), one must be able to understand so that they can explain them to other people. Now I do not believe that this falls much in line with the "capture the spirit" mindset, but still think that there is more workplace application here.

With this different perspective, the mysteries could be like the rules, regulations, and deeper inner-workings of an organization that are typically learned by people with more tenure and/or leadership. To follow our "so that" we can then state that manager-leaders are in a position where they must understand some of these "mysteries" so that they can help train up others and pass the information on as needed. Basically, this is a teaching task. And when we look at the executive-leader qualifications, we see one that says that they must be able to teach. So, it seems that part of this concept is a pre-cursor to being able to fulfill a greater, later requirement. One must be able to understand and hold onto the "mysteries" so that they can share them, but they may eventually have to teach them to others.

Even though both of these concepts seem to follow slightly different interpretations of the same verse, I believe that both concepts are relevant and valid for the workplace today. Capture the spirit of your organization, and hold onto it. Better yet, understand and share it with others, even if only on a small scale.

Questions to consider:
Is the company that you work for one that you feel like you can stand behind? If not, then what is keeping you from going to work somewhere that you feel comfortable in? If so, how have you "captured the spirit" of the organization, and how do others know that you have done so? How can you share this spirit with others, or at least practice raising other people up by mentoring them with the knowledge and understanding that you currently have?