Who Has The Power?

Who has the Power?

Luke 8:16-18

Rabbi Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz

Luke 8:16 “Now no one lights a lamp and covers it over with a container, or puts it under a bed; but he puts it on a lampstand so that those who come in may see the light. 17 “For nothing is concealed that will not become evident, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light. 18 “So take care how you listen; for whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken away from him.”

When I got to my first full-time ministry assignment, the senior pastor went on a six-week pastoral exchange with a pastor from England. I learned more from those six weeks that I did with two years with the senior pastor. I also learned a lot about English Methodism. The exchange pastor’s first name was Steve. He taught me how to do home communions properly, among a few other things. One thing he told me was that he was going to become chairman of the circuit. Since I didn’t know anything about England Methodism, I asked what that meant. He told me that it would be equivalent to being a bishop here in the United States. However, in England the chairman of the circuit is a six-year term, and then you go back to being a pastor. He informed me that knowing that he was going to be the chairman, which means he’s the boss of the circuit, and knowing that he was going to go back to the parish, he would do things a lot differently than bishops in the United Methodist Church in the United States. Oh yes, he did.

In the United States, United Methodist bishops never go back into the parish, unless they are retired. Therefore, they can do mostly whatever they want as a bishop. They tend to upset the clergy if they want to because they know that they’re never going to have to worry about being assigned to a church they would rather not be assigned to. I know this might sound bad, but you have to be cautious in United Methodist politics because if you upset your bishop, he or she can assign you to a church you would rather not be at. In other words, you can get a demotion or even shipped out to the furthest corners of the conference.

The Scripture is from the Gospel of Luke chapter 8 verses 16 to 18. What I just told you is a real-life story about verse 18. You should take care of things that you have because one day you may not have them. Steve’s attitude about being the chairman of the circuit is that he knew that he would have power for six years, but one day he would have to give up that power. Therefore, he was careful not to abuse his power. One day, one of the pastors in his circuit would become the new chairman, and I think you see where I’m going with this.

If you are in a position of power, whether it be in your family or at work or at your church, you should understand that one day you may not have that power. How are people going to treat you when you don’t have the power? A man named Max DuPree was the CEO of Herman Miller furniture company. He wrote some magnificent books on leadership, and I urge you to look him up on Amazon or your favorite bookseller and get some of his material. He wrote a superb title called “Leading Without Power” in which he explained that when he retired as being CEO, he got more involved in his church. Furthermore, he got into a position in the church of some authority. He dictated to his committee what was going to happen, and very soon discovered they didn’t pay attention to them. Just because he was a chairman of a committee did not give him the power to get the volunteers to work. He discovered that volunteer organizations do not work the same way as a business. In his furniture business as CEO, he could make a proclamation and people would jump. Why? Because they got paid, and they will lose their jobs if they did not. However, in a volunteer organization like the church, you cannot dictate for long because the people will revolt. Thus, he had to learn how to lead without power.

Even if you have power, you should learn how to use it to the best advantage. I worked for a man who abused the power he had over my department. The six members of my department came to dislike him and couldn’t wait until he was gone. We had absolutely no respect for him. When he took over our department, he said, “I will not take a bullet for you.” To those of you who have not been in business, that means if something goes wrong, he was not going to defend us. Needless to say, none of us defended him, so when the complaints were occurring the members of my department would say it’s our new boss' fault that these things were happening. I was a part of an information technology group and problems happened quite a bit. Our new boss was an accountant and had no understanding of what we did and how we did it. He tried to micromanage us, and he did not take the bullet for us. So why would we take one for him? After two years, the plant manager decided that the information technology group should not be a part of accounting.