Police or Promoter?

My friend Mark was about to quit his job two years ago. He was an accomplished facilities and project manager but over the last few years a major part of his job had degraded into the role of enforcer. He found himself “enforcing” the rules mainly because nobody else (including leadership) was willing or able to take it on. As you might guess, the stress and conflict of just trying to do the right thing added up over a couple of years.

Two finance professionals I know have somewhat similar jobs. They are both experts in their areas but approach their professions quite differently. Sarah, is considered by her peers to be a resource and an interpreter of the complexities of the legalities and policies of her trade. She sees her value in looking for the boundaries and making sure her clients and co-workers don’t cross them. Again, the role of the enforcer or policy police.

Jenna, on the other hand, has an equivalent level of expertise, but if you queried her clients and co-workers about her strengths, they probably would not even mention her knowledge of the rules and regulations. What you would here from them is that she is the person they always go to because Jenna would listen to the nuances of their situation, and come up with really cool ways to help them!

All of us have worked for or around someone who took great satisfaction in exercising their authority to say no, or a least put up roadblocks. For many people, exercising some kind of control or influence (like enforcing rules) feeds their (healthy) need for significance. Unfortunately, it is at the expense of another and often times damages that relationship.

Similar dynamics occur in other situations as well. In families, when Mom or Dad’s role is primarily that of disciplinarian, often value is assigned by their behaviors or more specifically by infrequency of punishment. A child’s value as a person then becomes directly linked to “avoiding” crossing the boundaries. That doesn’t sound too bad until you extrapolate that dynamic into adulthood. Best place to see that played out is in most churches. Often referred to as “legalistic”, the norms and behaviors of such groups are so complex and convoluted; it would take years to figure them all out!

As one of my mentors Gary likes to say “Gatekeeper or Advocate”. The expertise for either is exactly the same… the difference is in the approach. To guard the gate is a slightly adversarial attitude where the gatekeeper is challenging the traveler with their “worthiness” to enter. In almost all cases, the ability to withhold something or exercise veto power is evident and is wielded subtly, if not openly.

The advocate, in sharp contrast to the gatekeeper, has walked beyond the approach to the gate to meet the traveler and has walked the last half mile to the gate with them. By the time they reach the gate, the issue of getting thru the gate (or not) has been overshadowed by the experience of walking together.

In both cases, a hand is being extended. In the case of the gatekeeper their palm is toward the travelers face…“Stop, who goes there!” In the case of the advocate their hand is grasping the hand of the traveler…“It’s not good to travel this path alone!” Gen 2:18

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Mike Hoppe is one of the Associate Pastors at Casas Church, is a graduate business school instructor, and still actively works with companies to develop their organizations after 15 years in management with a Fortune 100 company. Mike can be reached at mikeh@casaschurch.org or www.casastv.com

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