How Come Churches Often Lag Behind the Business World Providing Us Examples Of Unity Like We Read Below?

In Dr. Henry Cloud’s book 2023 book Trust In Life & Business: Knowing When to Give It, When to Withhold It, How to Earn It, and How to Fix It When It Gets Broken, he identifies the five essentials of trust: Understanding, Motive, Ability, Character, and Track Record. In Chapter Five, while exploring the second essential, Motive, he relays this experience with a client corporation.

“One of the most powerful drivers of trust is knowing that someone’s motive is rooted in a higher calling principle or value that transcends their own interests. I recently conducted a retreat for the executive team of a major US company. Their accomplishments were legendary, outpacing their competitors exponentially and returning massive equity growth for their stockholders. The team had just emerged from successfully managing the worst of COVID, and it was time to set the next season’s strategy.

To begin the retreat, I wanted to see how the team of executives grasped the strengths that had driven their success in the previous couple of years and how well they understood what had happened and why. I gave them a simple assignment to begin: Take a few minutes and write down what you think is the greatest strength of this team.”

When they turned in their answers, I was astonished. I have never seen such unity among a group of executives. Unanimously, they said their greatest strength was one thing: “our commitment to our corporate purpose.” Not one person said it was their marketing savvy, their innovation, their creativity, or their research and development. They all said their greatest strength was their unity around the corporate purpose. And here’s the real magic: their corporate purpose is centered around serving others.

The fact that they all served a higher purpose allowed them to behave and to execute in a manner that everyone could trust. There was no silo behavior, no pushing of department agendas, no careerism to be found. They were all devoted to the higher purpose they had come together to achieve.

This resulted in an unprecedented level of collaboration – sharing resources, people, information, power and the like. These people truly worked together. Certainly, they had different opinions at times, but in a way that was always in search of “the best answer” instead of “my best interests.” These were not people who didn’t care about profits or accomplishments; they did. But they weren’t only motivated by profits. Their driving force was serving others and the purpose of the company.

As a result, the employees of this company trusted each other. When someone did something another person might question, the question wasn’t rooted in suspicion. Instead, it came from an attitude of “I wonder why she did that? I know she must have had a good reason.” This kind of trust goes a long way to avoid politics and division.

Trust is a powerful force, and as we’ve seen, it yields powerful results in everything from brain development to marriage to economics. In fact, trust is the fuel for all of life. The takeaway here is that trust increases when we know that someone’s motive is just not about themselves, but rather, about us and about a higher purpose that we all value as well.

Bottom Line: So why then are our “fragmented” friendships, relationships, marriages, families, churches, communities, states, and nations, so lacking in their “Unity of Purpose?” Especially since God wired us biologically to trust from infancy, learning that trust followed by satisfaction builds more trust, that we by placing our trust in God and other persons makes every system about us develop and ultimately thrive, and that for us to trust is human… and when we can’t trust, we handicap much of our future potential for His rich and rewarding human experiences….

My first thought after reading this account, was just how could a congregation ever begin to exhibit this level of unity in their purpose? And that was followed rapidly by the second thought to me personally, how can I contribute to such a unity being lovingly exhibited “in & around, out & about” as we live & build His Kingdom Today? Perhaps after being Unshakable in ’24, 2025 will focus on TRUST as being our fuel for all of life.

Next Up: We’re planning to be in Panama for two weeks finalizing our visas so we’ll see what else transpires, written or otherwise. Blessings…