I Only Bury Saints

Over 24 years of Salvation Army officership I conducted many funerals - I developed a reputation for “doing a good funeral” - and it always amazed me that every person I buried was a saint. You listen to the eulogies from family and friends and the person was always wonderful, an amazing influence, always happy, always engaged, always caring. They may have had a few quirks, a couple of idiosyncrasies, maybe a wonky choice in footy team selection, but that was always overshadowed by their commitment to family first, the good of all humanity (and the pets too) - and world peace.

And yet, in most cases I knew the person too. I knew that he was at times a grumpy old sod who had little good to say about anyone, I knew that she had little time for others - I knew that the person was just normal, like the rest of us. But at a funeral we paint a picture that perhaps exaggerates the best we saw in a person and we extol the virtue and value of a person as we believe they could have been. (Having said that I did bury some people who I suspect really were saints, great people and wonderful influencers.)

Now, in my new life, and at this time of the year my performance over the past year is being judged, and I have to spend time judging my team. We are rated and our performance (or value) is judged. I know this process is not intended to be nasty, I know there has to be some form of corporate and personal accountability and that the process is not intended to be a validation of our personal value - but we are all human - and from my experience if you judge my work, then you judge me. It is personal. It is about my value. It is about whether or not you value me.

It is important for us all personally, and to any organisation, that we are held to account for our development and performance plans but we need to do all we can to avoid the trap of allowing that management process to dictate to us our personal value. The problem is that, in our humanity, the two are inevitably and inextricably linked. 

As hard as it is, you and I must find ways to divorce our performance value from our personal value - because ‘we value people’ - above all. So, we all have to find ways to value the person and to make sure that we don’t leave it until the farewell or the funeral to tell and show another that they are valued. This valuing is not the sole jurisdiction of Human Resources or Pastoral Care or Leadership it is my responsibility and it is your responsibility.

As a Christian I inevitably turn to the Scriptures to remind me that I am valued: “do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows” (look at Matthew 10:31) and to the example of Jesus who always put the person before the process. But it’s not just a Christian principle to value one another - surely it’s about being humans together?

So, my personal performance challenge is to intentionally find ways to value you, to make sure I do all I can to remind you that ‘God don’t make no junk’ and that regardless of your work, your choice of footy club and your performance rating you are a valued member of the team and my circle of influence and influencers. Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to join with me in selecting ‘value people’ as the default setting in your everyday practice.

We Seek to Understand the Situation of the Poor and Work Alongside them Towards Fullness of Life

I grew up surrounded by extreme poverty and unfairness with parents that have given their lives to doing all they can “to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and meet human needs in his name without discrimination” (from The Salvation Army’s Mission Statement).

I remember Mum spending hours at a Singer treadle sewing machine making clothes for children in homes and orphanages in Sri Lanka. I remember watching the kids walking proudly in alligator file to church in their brand new matching outfits and huge ‘look at me’ smiles.

I remember Dad spending days organising feeding programs and medical distributions for the homeless and the poor. I remember spending hours in an old VW van packed to bursting with bags of rice and corrugated iron as we tried desperately to access a cyclone devastated the community.

I remember going to a very exclusive school and learning to live with the tension between the people I lived among, who had little or nothing, and the kids I went to school with who wanted for nothing. (20 years later I watched as my daughter learnt the same skill.)

Today I remind myself that I signed up with The Salvos and with World Vision because I believe that “from everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked”, (Luke 12:48). My privilege and opportunity - pure accidents of my birth - require that I make those that have little or nothing the priority of my life and passion.

I love the World Vision value statements. I have no problem aligning my life and work to these. The fact that they align well with my spiritual DNA and life script is a ‘happy coincidence’. I willingly sign up to be biased for the poor, I willingly commit to working to understand and work alongside the poor to transform lives and communities with the goal of achieving ‘life in all its fullness’ - for everyone. I will willingly engage with the affluent supporter for the sake of the marginalised and vulnerable—but it must always be for that purpose!

In the priority to align with a supporter centric model I find that I need to remind myself that I exist to “serve the neediest people of the earth; to relieve their suffering and to promote the transformation of their condition of life” (from World Vision Values Statement). I understand and am committed to the fact that to serve the neediest we need to engage with supporters and we need to appreciate the supporter’s perspective. But to offer that meaningful experience where the supporter feels connected and where there is potential to transform their life I have to start not with where they are at or with what they want, but from the perspective of suffering and need and with an understanding of the “neediest people of the earth”.

May we often be accused of having a bias for the poorest and neediest!