MY JOURNEY IN ORGANIZATIONAL DISCIPLESHIP
VALENTINE GITOHO | 2017
Towards the end of last year, I met with a professional colleague who, in a nutshell, noted I had been a failure in our profession because I had not continued in my professional career. This was understandable from his point of view. He knew my background as one of the first women who had done very well and was in the limelight early in my career as a professional and in senior management. That is, until I encountered a business failure.
His comments got me thinking.
This company was well known as a trendsetter in its sector. I had been its Chief Executive for about six months when it collapsed. I was with the company for four years, rising from Group Financial Controller to a Finance Director. It was during my first nine months there, at the height of my professional career, that I came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. I worked with integrity and the cause of the business failure was beyond my control.
Through that business failure, I encouraged the staff to stand with integrity as we went through the shaking and the Lord would reward them with jobs. They complied. We prayed together in the office daily. Some of these men and women of integrity were selected by companies to start similar businesses and have done very well. A number of them gave their lives to the Lord and continue to influence their organizations. As Luke 16:10 (NIV) notes, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.”
As the Chief Executive, the business failure left quite a mark in my life for a while. For example, the company owed money to many people because it went into receivership and final closure. Also, by law, I could not be a director of an organization in that sector for several years. My “identity” was tainted. I shied away from my profession, which was a significant part of who I was then. Until that time I had not worked with Christian organizations or Christian owned businesses.
Then last year, 23 years later, something finally dawned on me. After the failure of a similar company, I discovered I have grown in my faith such that my identity has changed. I moved from being identified by my profession and position to where I can now freely say, “My identity is His identity.” The complete healing came as I shared my journey and the lessons learnt from it in two forums. I realized that all along the passion the Lord had laid in my heart through this experience was not only for individuals having His identity, but also for Christian organizations. This is what I call “Organizational Discipleship.” It is about influencing organizations in becoming disciples of Christ. This is our mandate as stated in Matthew 28:18-20: “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’”
I became passionate to ensure that Christian organizations honored their God-given vision, mission, and core values. They often have “His identity” spelt out in most of the vision and mission statements as well as in their core values. Yet there are challenges in implementation due to various organizational practices such as funding mechanisms, partnerships, and systems and structures.
As I stood for integrity in honoring partnership agreements, I got into problems both in Christian and non-Christian organizations. In one Christian organization, the concern was financial integrity over the use of designated project funds to buy land for staff, which was against the partnership agreement. The CEO was very popular with staff on this issue as he was taking care of their well-being, whilst the board was not. After several attempts to deal with the issue, the CEO was dismissed. Afterward he wrote a book about the board called The False Disciples that included a chapter about me titled, “The Dog That Barks.” From this unfortunate incident, I learnt that what I did was right, but the way I did it was not. I now know that in my passion for organizational discipleship, I should always correct and rebuke with love. The Apostle Paul said it this way: “Correct, rebuke and encourage–with great patience and careful instruction” (2 Tim. 4:2b).
Later I dealt with non-Christian organizations on similar issues regarding drifting from their vision, mission, and core values. I was better equipped with a great deal of prayer cover within and without. I stood firm, the Lord being my helper. I recall one person saying to a member of the staff when I took over the leadership of the failing project, “This work will succeed because she is a believer.” I had not told anyone I was a believer. Many stakeholders benefited from the funding due to this, and others learnt that they could go against giants as they stood for financial integrity in Christ. However, cases of continued defiance finally cost me my health for eight months, after which God miraculously healed me. I held tightly to the promise of 1 John 5:3-4, “In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And His commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.”
My saddest experience in the loss of organizational discipleship has been where vision and mission drift happened in Christian organizations due to funding mechanisms and partnerships that have different agendas or that “lord over them.” In one instance the favor of the Lord was so evident in the organization as it grew. Yet some in leadership were concerned about their job security and started introducing layers of costs to sustain their jobs. The costs would be passed on to the beneficiaries causing a mission drift. They were so desperate that documents were being signed outside of meetings, without Board approval. I was involved in stopping this and the deals did not continue. Unfortunately, the essence of upholding the vision and mission was not caught. After I left, other events followed that were driven by a focus on the market apart from the vision and mission. As a result, the organization could not survive. It was bought out by a non-Christian organization; its Christian calling and even its social enterprise calling are in jeopardy. This is evidence of the words of Jesus in Luke 9:23-25, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?”
It was different trying to guide the discipleship of non-Christian privately owned companies and public multinationals. I would intentionally identify the believers in the organization and quietly coach them on fulfilling the Great Commission in their organization. I recall a time when I arrived very early in the morning at the offices of my client. The only person in the office was the most junior employee who used to clean the office. She was a believer. I shared with her the important role and privilege she had in making disciples in her organization, through prayer for each individual as she cleaned each person’s desk and also through prayer for the organization. She continued this practice but later she died. This company now has Monday morning devotions. This is an example of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 6:3, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.” May the Lord help us to see opportunities of making disciples in and of organizations through which we work.
You cannot make disciples unless you are a disciple. It is imperative that disciples guide and influence the governance and leadership in Christian organizations.
“Understanding the times” in organizational discipleship depends on what template we use. The word of God is objective. It is eternal. It is truth. Therefore, in running a Christian organization it is critical to adopt the template of biblical principles. Then Malachi 3:18 will be evident: “And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”
