TWIN CITIES PRESBY TERY
PRESENTATION #2

THE STEWARD AS BIBLICAL IMAGE
EMANCIPATING THE PREACHER FROM MAMMON

March 4, 1986
John M. Buchanan

Pastor
Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago

"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one
and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise
the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." --Matthew 6:24 (RSV)

"This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and
stewards of the mysteries of God." --| Corinthians 4:1 (RSV)

Introduction —
Good to be in Twin Cities
new area for me -
always impressed with what &—

know about the Arts - theatre,
Pinkes

Pisiies Zuckerman, some great churches, tA
eo aecermmertenictna ima
Hubert Humphry, Harmon Killebrew — —} (3 rosts Sluetd
and, of course, Garrison Keillor. i'm a member of sub-cult, i.e. é Gite of
those people who are a little miffed at the rest of the country | ~

for having found out what we've been doing at dinner-time Saturday
for years...

Who are snobbish enough to regard the millions of newcomers
with disdain and to know that we are among the few who know

and appreciate Lake Wobegon Days.

tt's also good to catch up with Pete Slindemantie with
whom | share an interest in Muskingum College, New Concord, Ohio -
which produced Phil Caldwell, C.E.O. at Ford, Chuck Pilliod,
C.E.O. at ees, Al Warren, Vice President for *ebe- Lalor Pt,

fd. at G.M., John Glenn, and still can't be spelled or pronounced

properly.

When | was invited to speak - Diana Barber, Nancy

aan

Farrelll and Pete were quick to let me know a little of their
pete,

agendsand they mentioned two names that got my attention -

Douglas John Hall, whose book The Steward, A Biblical
a ian

Symbol Come of Age, was distributeq_and is to be the theological

footing for the experience:{and Vive fortoes , Orsg: of

en crenrrrprnen,
Homiletics at Unian.- whose tapes on Stewardship have something

Fore %
to do with Hall ~- and which, as are all Bartur efforts, breathtaking.

| confess that my first reaction to the notion of Hall

ie

on stewarship left my head swimming.\ He's the last person
_— ennai

| would have thought would write on the topic. | met him
- eo,

in Ri€fimond, heard him lecture - was stimulated, disturbed -

mame ed

at a Mexican Dinner gf with him which was equally stimulating

and disburbing: {went home and bought Lighten Our Darkness

and The Reality of the Gospel and the Unreality of the Churches,

devaured them, was disturbed by them.}] They are great
ee aE

books. | Hall gets under my skin. |He is not the writer who

adn cel

_

comes to mind first when I'm thinking about the Stewardship

Campaign.

And Forbes - do you remember what it was like to go
er —_—

to the ballpark and watch a Ted Williams, Willie Mays, or

George Brett, and then sense how awkward and uncoordinated

C farut a
you are. jor - even watch.Berge or Everett-Lloyd and then

hit some balis and know - profoundly - the limitis of your

rest Well, Jim Forbes has that effect on ne.| He is the

best, a gifted_preacher/prophet/pastor who is shaping, right

now, American preaching.

| asked the logical question | Why ne? [viny-not Hel

or Forbes. My new frieds were candid: they're both unavailable.

he
And sigameJ feel a little like then Mayor of New York City,
cies

by all the heavy Wie of the Democratic Party (this is

John Lindsey - on the at a political dinner - preceded
coy

both dated and sexist} - Lindsey said ~ "I feel like Zsa

Zsa Gabor's fifth husband or Mickey Rooney's fourth wife)

_

"| know what's expected of me, but I'm mot sure } can make

it interesting." >)

One of the immediate differences between Hall, Forbes

tend

and myself is that | work for, serve, and am paid by a church
that looks a lot like the Mawee from which we need to

be delivered.| To work for that institution - or - frankly -

any institution which participates in our culture, which pays
ied Nitra

salaries with some degree of intentionality and which at least

Se

discusses on occasion the relationship between the percentages

d the percent it keeps for

an
Serbraina ean -

itself - is to be ESRF to deal with the basic theological questions

of its resources it gives away

of Mammon and Stewardship.

I will not scold you for materialism which is what usually

my 1

happens when we start talking about Mammgn —- for a number

of reasons -lone of which is that I'm not in any position to,

—_

another of which is | don't think it is theologically appropriate
and the most important of which is that you/l - all of us
already feel guilty enough.

a Hall quotes Robert Hempfling in one essay, The Liberation

a
f

of the Middle Class (speaking for lots of our members) -

“I'm tired of feeling guilty about being middle class and being
characterized as mediocre, superficial, and banal in my thinking
and life style. I contend that such sterotyping is neither
fair nor accurate." [p. 85]

Smita

VA People, Hall points out, are rightfully weary of being
m.

ade to feel guilty by their preacher and personally responsible
for third worid poverty \ We are guilty - Hatl contends -

PF ainimmieniiaial Laat

but scolding a single parent who brevety barely is able to

pay the bills - is not fair.

ei”

Ditties nad
is his-etra

I-m not going to scold because | think you and I are -
tired of scolding both as recipients and givers.

Bob Lynn, former Dean at Union, now at the Lily Foundation,

who,with the Taiaeff Institute is doing some creative

thingking about Endowed Churches - says that the most
important theological task for the American church is to come

ed

up with a thology that makes some sense of affluence in a

’ ld - Ise get r. ti bject for
very poor wor or else get poo \ res is a subject fo
another day.

At the very least you and | ought to be able to deal
betaine ane]

with the reality of who we are without rationalizing, excusing

or denying it. |] Even Robert McAfee Brown suggests that
een a tae

denig is not helpful... We Can't resign from the middle class.

The issue ~ Hall will teach - is responsibility. And
a ementceoren,

part of the theological task - the prolegammena to a theology
| ieee ete ae

of stewardship, for me, is a theology of incarnation :[an affirmation
eee aaiatil nial

f f creation, love i ibili
of the goodness of creation, love for the creation, responsibility

for the creation.
I want to make some preliminary observations about

the topic of Stewardship in general - then review with you
F nniiiemmninatoa pew

some of the Hall material which ! found particularly provocative,
a

and then explore some meanings of the Mammon from which
mil

we need to be emancipated.

A. he Pastor's role in "cultivating the grace of liberality

Laial Memento ener ee onal

"is absolutely critical. Aspects of that role:

Cd Pastor as giver - if you don't believe it, nobody
eniemeamr | ee

is going to believe it. | If you don't give, nobod
is going to give. The pastor teaches by making
aan.

a responsible pledge - and doesn't hide it.

(2) Pastor as asker - needs to be able to ask people

to give: must be able.\ If you can't - go back
anton,

and find out why -

Ordinarily we come from pretty modest back
tet .

grounds in which no one asked anybody for money.
ro renee

Or we're so personally insecure we don't want

=)

people to feel ill toward us.

Lainie

Ask — if you don't - somebody else will.

ie
(5 Pastor must preach about Stewardship and money -
Jesus talked about money - more than sing
or salvation. You aren't doing them a favor -
or being theologically nonest if you leave impression
that sermons are too spiritual and money, or

money is too he cai for sermons.

S Pastor pays attention to Stewardship Committee -
os Amaia bow f
Administration - kone es WEEN Guy atte

ie-your=erurch.

ast. pellvesatet people need to give and that

So Wight. aside is. pamecbly ss ed a to give - *

These are the givens — the necessities ~ but not the

Fa
whole story -

~
Stewardship is more than beating the drum for God

a -

and money.

It is - fundamentally and essentially - proclaiming

a a

De
the Cospel.
Oren.
Stewards — ala Hall - are what we abewart to
_ ent a ia oS
become in response to God's love in Jesus Christ.
AS talon

My mentor, Witger Thomas yan "If you want

DT meee ed

to raise money, raffle a Pontiac."

Stewardship involves rethinking the matter of

how we understand and tell the Gospel - in terms of

eet

God's unconditional love for the world and our

re eye

responsibility for the world.

On that topic - hear Hans Kung, Does God Exist

[p. 619]

“The first demand on the believer is to say 'mo'

to all the other gods. 'One-god faith dethrones the
i divine world powers in favor of the one, true God...
All the gods before whom moderns bow... the great
God Mammon, the great God Sex, the great God Power,,
the great God Science, the great God Nation, the great
God Party. The one God faith is utterly opposed to
any quasi-religion. it throws down all false gods."

Po eee

[p. 619] The theological issue is always monotheism — )
idolatry. —

We're Not Doing So Hot ~

The competition for the benevolence/charitable
eerie,
dollar is fierce.

No one is predicting a quick-end to the Federal

Budget crisis. |Even the most favorable political Povodcetert
an a ee | Md

predict indefinite period of belt-tightening, which
means less for Education, Arts, Health Care, Research...
[ cmeenehameiiiatienl panseciarmiriny, sree tani Parr en os —_—_

which means that College, Symphony Orchestra, Art,
Music and Hospital - unlike Church - being in and of
the world and comfortable with it, ave hired full-time
elnino
public relations and fund development experts, are
~~ " seat

j paying them competitive dollars and are budgeting
Tent ee

significant amounts to fight for their future.

10.

tti fe wit ise,
They are getting to our people with expertise

lag ©
class and urgency, Wieustertrry highly intelligent,
D mnilline e .

highly sensitive and highly effective campaigns te raise

money | ond here we come with a mimeographed budget

that no one can understand,/and a brochure using language
nae |

no one really comprehends|and a few illustrations the

woman on the Session who got a new Minolta for Christmas

has Provicied and with a team of callers who don't want

to ask, feel uncomfortable asking and consequently

—, —-

don't ask.

(For years Fourth Presbyterian Church didn't

; rd
ask - simply renewed ear pledge unless you requested
a change and was/is proud of never asking for money)

i agree.
en
i don't think we ever hurt ourselves by asking.
The only way | ever was involved with raising
significant amounts of money was to ask for it —- specifically —
by amount - for a specific cause,

Stackhouse et al wil! tell you more about that.

i'm more concerned with underlying theolagy -

the footing.

11.

D. J. Hall, The Steward: A Biblical Image Come of

Age or: Emancipating ourselves from a limited, limiting

a

aia

and inadequate concept of Stewardship.

AL) Begin by letting go of the idea that Stewardship

agree
is the name with which we disguise money raising

in the church (this may be heresy).
-we disguise what we are dbout and we limit the
are emeneaatlnae tiny
concept with euphemisms like —
-Stewardship pledge
~Stewardship campaign
Why norfinancial pledge?
Why not financial campaign?
What is a Stewardship Budget?
Stewardship is the end, nat the means to an end.
nine on
It is a synonym for discipleship.
"Stewards" are what we are to become in
Jesus Christ; not part of what we are to do.
Let's allow for a much larger context for
lon ena ee
Stewardship and for the possibilities that when

we believe in Jesus christ and become new creations -

what we become is a Steward.

12.

That expanded concept has its roots in some very

traditional Biblical material: tet's look -

~A steward in the Bible is not a generous

wPettAnn,
e

giver but a responsible manager ,,,

~A responsible supervisor, manager who
, annie
managers and supervises for someone else -
ordinarily the King
-Ownership is elsewhere. Now this is a

radical concept.

Says Hall/-

"As soon as God is pictured as the owner
and master of that in relation to which human
beings can be, at least, stewards, Institutions
such as the holding of property and the hierarchical
distribution of authority are thrown was a critical
perspective. [t does not require a Marx or a

Freud to voice that challenge" dp. 24]

The Ofd Testament says simply that God's

sovereignty means ownership and our creatureliness
ame ae iets

means we are tennants. |We don't own the place.
ee EAL AT TE iain i

[t is our nature — the essence of our being -
ean eer.

to manage it for the owner.

13.

D. In the New Testament Christianj are “stewards
meee

of the mysteries of God-" responsible for the
prrmtenetiataliaiailAA, ‘

mysteries of God -

Church, in the New Testament, is a stewarding

ra

community whose very nature is to manage, be

mee emerect

responsible for - God's inclusive, unconditional

cmos,

love for the world and for all people, which is
ail ind

Ce) This broadened concept of Stewardship as virtual

synonym for faithfulness never survived antiquity,

what the mystery is.

and is insipid today, Hall says, because of the
a TT! .
intellectual phenomenon call Hellenism.

Hellenism shaped and molded the culture
of the Western world and in the process "spiritualized"
the Gospel.

Hellenism is Chat mishmash of E®yptian,
Persian, Greek and other cultures created largely

by the military conquests of Alexander the Great"

[p. 31]
lt was the Americanization factor of the period.
= earner hen
—————— = ~~ The Gospel was Hebrew - in style. \ christianity |

was born in Hebrew, thought and spoke and acted

naive reer, we
preniee

14,

out of Hebrew background and confronted immediately

a world becoming Greek.

a

delomummenesTen essence of the Hebrew
a

. Wer .
world view - nawely that creation was a whole,
on,

not a layered afi affair, or a bifurcated affair - and

that the whole is deeb When God Sieps | back,

looks at creation, and pronounces i it good, God

is speaking Hebrew. tc Ce
1 HeOrem A ta ta plelsigbit CEN am
Hellenism, on the other hand, harlpred
Warn

what Hefeism calls an ci\owdong suspicion
of matter.

The material world, including of course
human body, was regarded as inferior, the seat
of evil, dangerous, fundamentally unreal. To
get in touch with the Real, ane had to slough
off so far as possible on'e material attachemnts
together with the passions associated with them.
Through such detachment one might rise to the
realm of the spirit. Hence the function of religion -
and philosophy - was to lift persons out of 'bondage
to the flesh' and related them to the transcendent —
realm of pure spirit. Salvation in Hellenism means
salvation from the world." [p. 32]

great 2 pages on Hellenism /Christianity

15/

In Hebrew thought, Sin is broken relationship.
oe antag neal

In Greek, Sin is wrong thoughts and deeds.
een s ididaemed Fe oie natal
In Hebrew - Faith is earthy, God blows
7 en
breath inte a body God has formed from dirt -

—en rns

the body - and afl the wonderful things it does -
is good -?

Evil enters the world - through the human

=

spirit. \"Matter in this faith is the victim of

spirit." fp. 33]

Hellenism inverts that - the materia! world
parE Poa

itslef is evil, including body, and the scorce
of sin.

in its early formation stages Christianity
meen,
WeEguy

as religion — fell under Dearing

total} of Hellenism.

ws ;
And than — because of its strongly anti~

influence (not

material otherworldly tendency - the image of
steward atrophied before it had an opportunity

to grow.

16.

nspi r
ee

after Constaytine, to have’ Christians elieve"

o c
that they didn't have 20 do anything a the
world,’ decide anything about their life in the

Id.

Hall sees a continuing Docetism, a - despising
—

the world - in modern culture.

Foxe
Certainly th ollution of the air we
y the Gap p

eer,

breath,|the water we drink,| acid rain, and the

reer

human traged; of overpopulation and the human

een et Se renter

and spiritual holocaust which is occuring in urban

ghettoes - reveals a deep antipathy, bordering

on hostility to the created world...

Vole

We wet know, if we ever doubted it - that

Se mie ae oe ee

our technology _ will not save us and cannot
antl

a eam

serve as a foil for our despising of creation.
Chale su
The technology we hoped might save us - can

easily destroy us.

17.

Even religion participates in this hostility
ed

toward the world. -[. Media religion continues

ee ae

the docetic heresy, Hellenism in living color,
en ete

ear?

with fountains in the background.

"Perhaps the desire to escape from ‘reality’
has never been so strong as it is in our present
time. It can be observed that the most popular
activities in the Western world today are activities -

that offer the illusion of escape: sex, sports,

food, travel, entertainment. And perhaps the
most escapist activity of all is religion." [p. 43]
Hall proposes a revivification of the Steward Inlage.
It begins with the question -

( 2.4. It proceeds with a realistic affirmation of

one's personal power and influence (related

(ie

to affirmation of goodness of creation and

personal worth) "You have the power to

love and change the world. Will you?

3 Then Hall offers a new and fascinating new
en

rubric - The Stewardship of all Believers -

as alternate for Priesthood of all - which

18.

if we eves understood we surely don't anymore..

Our people think all it means is we don't
need a priest to pray for us - which doesn't
approach the power of the mete ever +,

[See p. 128/9]

jove
The world needs people who tire it,

Rosemary Radford Reuth says that all the
accumulated problems of several centuries
are coming to crises in the next several
decades.

Nuclear weaponsty, population, economic

injustice - poverty /wealth, and ecology -

19.

Those crises are so large and profound |
that they can only be addressed by a profound
love for the world: \py people who know
God's love for the world and who know how
to be faithful by loving it effectively and

creatively.

I11../Now let's talké about Mammon / \yedt i

1:D.B;
geet wr
/ "a wortd of uncertain Semitic origin meaning wealth, LYK

oad
nanan

a

money, prosperty, profit" ®

There are 2 New Testament references -—
Matthew 6:24
Luke 16:13-
can't serve God and -
Sg: It is more than money | lt is the mystique of
eanencnnsate aa
money, the essence of property, the principality
of wealth.
Mammon - Nancy Farrell suggested is the

eebrcneram ta | Pe ee

"structures of materialism of our culture."

| like that. | It is that - other than God -

‘that forms and shapes our values, plans, hopes

ee piste

and our use of resources including our personal power.

20.

i's more than money: it is that to which

we would sell out. } And it is the "selling out”

that is the focus of the Biblical idiom, | believe

("0 sell out is to be in captivity to it, to
Scr ee

be under its influence — and itis that which concerns

the Bible.

1 think it's akin to Paui's Principalities and

Powers ~ which Stringfellow defines as anything
lt el
that has power over us and renders us unfree.
In Private and Public Faith, William Stringfellow

rere YEA
showed the yosederke =P. § P. are - that most

commonly it is that image of ourselves to which

we are captive.
ee gg esr I

The real Mammon question is who am I serving,

not how much money am | making?

Ani

The real Stewardship question is how responsible

Feeney

am | being for the world and the people in it.

A Tributary -

On money or "stuff" - G. Carlin
We have trouble even talking about money

because we are so sensitive and so uncertain —

aaerewerees

~ because we'd like to make more and yet
mained

feel like we're already making too much.

—— ve

~because clergy shouldn't make much if
aan ne

eet icnietaerern,

anything for responding to God's calt -

21.

wane Average Physician ~ $104,000. [we don't

blanch at $90,000 attorney, $80,000 brokers,
Hee edema a
$50,000 educators - but resist putting money
value on ourselves.
; AeA
We still battle doce tigen ~ ean still feel guilt

and we tive with a lingering sense that because
cities eee’

we make more than some of our people they will

find out and resent it for us).j ! know about

this stuff. [I've been there and still am.

You will not everf approach weaith,| Most

of us, in fact, seem to end up somewhere about
re amet

i

in the middie of our people which | think is where
| aailiee

we ought to be.t And if we're uncomfortable making
Pin

what we're making we really ought to be asking

ee i
what we're doing in the middle of these particular

RTA tae,

people. oye
ty 4

Professor Becker talks about the losses
. ety

of ministry - wealth, family time, privacy, status —
pre erEITes tinal —
values for which many people give a [ot.

You did not take a vow of poverty and if
you did, you should not have, particularly if

you are asking a spouse and children to share

life with you.

22,

What you did, when you becam Presbyterian
ret

clergy was put very precise limits on the up-

=,

side of your earning potential - and you resolved
Len een a

to live in the middle of a particular people through

whose invitation to be théir pastor you heard

:

God's call.

ermal

What you do with your money is a part of

aARAEE MOAR NLT

your Christian vocation.

Fe

Our problem is that w're not sure we ought
to be paid at all to do our work, and we are so
captive to the values of our culture that we're
not convinced that what we cdo is actually worth
money.

It's helpful to remember that all those are

theological questions - the most basic one of all,

alti

the Stewardship Question, is who am | serving.
cians LAT a oy a

Where did your ideas about money come from:

-family /parents/past - trace it

relationship to Depression is significant
48 or older — either a child, young person
‘Minticnapknomecneee

or born, during depression
anamaarteendetrtan ams or ject

48 or younger — at hest your parents were

deeply affected by depression.

23.

Your children's children will be first generation
in century not to be deeply influenced by Great
Depression.

if you are from working class family you

carry that depression experience with you
- frugality
Leeann
-fear of debt
| ieee eaten J

-boarderline hostility for those who accumulate (¢-,}.(
oat

cagizal insecurity
bc]

The biggest difference between my parents

any

and me ~ is that | have the opportunity they

didn't - to be responsible - to Jove the world

and change its} They were barely able to make
it on their own,

A warning - for those who feel they make

too much -—
eet

If R. R.'s plans work - a system which slowly

has been developed to help you live a full life

will pass away and you will be marginal -

e.g. — let's talk G.S.L.'s and education -

bial
: : . Nu W
my move to Chicago simply made it possible for

wi
me to get G.S.L.'s and four paying tuition ~
eet,

I'm not wealthy!

24,

D. More critically -
—e

-Boes Mammon shape you?

reel
Does a form of Mammon shape your

church and you and make you unfree -

or from what. Mammon..clo.youmedcd AQ

be liberated?

Cy i'{] never say you need liberation from
O

the paltry dollars you make
a nal
But we may need to be liberated from

the model of success/growth to which

our culture sells out and which is

very, very enticing -

"What form does this tal

i.e. you're not faithful unless things

are bigger this year than last

-essentially members and budgets -
yc TV evangelists have caused some

of this. We are inclined to fawn

our bigness - we play games with

ba nea

each other - to reveal our numerical
eee

strength — or innovative programs ~

that's Mammon

25.

c. | operate on assumption that the
einen’

reality is probably never quite

as glowing as it sounds when we

begin to compare statistics...

d. Sometimes | think we excuse ie PYR

La ania
too easily :{sometimes churches

aren't growing because they're

dena mn ren eteeniemielaiilll

net getting the leadership they need.

But in other cases churches
oT

don't grow because they're in situations
that won't allow growth —-

We're called ~ not to be successful -
Ce eee diate

but to be faithful - and sometimes
™ WE ea

if we're trying too hard to be successful

we stop being faithful.

Need to be liberated from an image

of ministry that comes from outsiders

Saal ee
-from culture or church = i.e. holy
= . ee rian

person, great faith, mnuce prayer,

—_

spiritual.

-You can break loose by living your

humanness have a stake in your community

el i —
(ala Stringfellow - live in it) don't
try to save it imperially - even from itself -
- il

simply live thoroughly in it.

26,

Or perhaps the Mammon from which
Fn ial

you need liberation is from the image
ae

of your predecessor and the expectations
wee eT

that you will conform to it, and the
knowledge that you are being measured
by it.

Or from image derived from Seminary

mentors:fwe torture ourselves with
cee

self-impoSed image of perfect

pastor /prophet so that we can never
de enough - make enough calls or
liberated enough of the oppressed,

Our Special Mammon is our bondage

to an image of ministry which reflects

a cultural definition of the successful

is,

professional.

jae

the culture

eae

a. How we need this:

rewards hustle, drive, winning,

ee

~_— hn,

sales, production. | We can't replicate
it so -

b. We compensate with a self-imposed
Fine iain anette
work regimen that can be obsession

and demonic and destructive.

27.

c. Weimpose a curse of busyness
oT

on ourselves ~ most of which comes
ro

from our deep need to feel and

eee

appear successful, worthful.
ie

--the casualties of which are health,

marriage, families, self-esteem. Ss

(Alternate ending

The guilt we bear
at
we ar sted byf grace, not works

baba)

We nged to hear bospel oes admonishing our feik,
rate Ne

the shgep," ay need to remember that we are
I

among the sheep that need to be fed.

a
ane

Be

I don't work Saturdays (even though I know others, for good reasons,
chose to}. I guard evenings much more than I used to and regret that I
didn't start much earlier. It can be done - I'm convinced.

I simply refuse to miss one - time only cencerts or games in which my
progeny have a part if it is humanly possible. JI am shameless. I will
simply say, "I can only be here for 30 minutes. My son is starting

center this afternoon Piste ig, ond Le gon bled | af? bey bea ww

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Now tbheedachetrerpent rt temd.cepeiudtte-stiaeeemicaiy, I conclude that”
the most serious detriment to our happiness, even our sanity, in ministry is
he nearly patholo iCal attachment most of uS have to busyness; and conversely
our refusal to stop and give 2 time to self. -{ i 'd like to call on Wayne Oates
to help us. Oates is the distinguished Préfessor of Psychology of Religion
at Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville. Ten years ago Oates wrote a
book, Confessions of a Workaholic: The Facts About Work Addiction, in which
I found most of the ministers I know.

Workakolism, according to Professor Oates, is (eaasetson to work, the
compulsion o of uncontrollable need to‘work incessant lt has its beginnings

in childhood. It becomes acute in second and third decades of life. If it is
not reversed or arrested in the forties or early fifties, it becomes chronic

and may lead to death in one form or another in the late fifties and/or sixties."

(p. 1)

How can you tell if you are a workaholic? } AA has helped us to be sensi~
tive to the warning signs of alcohol addiction in ourselves and those we love.
What are the early signs of workaholism?

S} A workholic, in the middle of social conversation will tell how early he

came to work; how late he stayed; how little sleep he's been getting,
comparing himself favorably to Thomas Edison, who, everybody knows, never
slept at all.

2. A workaholic, in private conversation, will compare the amount of work she
is capable of producing with the paltry amount achieved by her peers. A
workaholic is always busy: even at leisure she is tightly programmed and
running slightly behind.

3. A workaholic can't say "no". A familiar litany is, "If I don't do this
job, who will." 0 yi -he is, likely take on
-» more and more and above his Tibed activi . #
} tionist b i Oo SO Many peop er t use of his skills
that j ell. This results in an iety depression

4. A workaholic has real trouble with leisure. Batti trett-e-peyehosanalyst
by the name of Fercuczi observed "Sund Urosis" in busy executives.
By Sunday afternoon they were expepréncing anxiety,“physical distress,
depression. A workaholic take ittle if any tinfle of f, often forgoes
vacation, or Works while on,“acation, works i day Saturday and Sunday
morning, and is simply jetapable of relaxjaig in leisure.

/5. A workaholic is "other-directed", rather than “inner-directed". Senid_

Riesman in The Lonely Crowd, coi the phrase “other directed”. It means
behavior determined from outs#de “rather than fl autonomous self that
makes decisions on the is of a care eveloped value system." (p. 14)

A workaholic doesn' 4ve an inner life, the prerequisite for a strong

sense of identity.

6. A workaholic has problems with the theology of grace, the idea of God's
unearned love. He or she cannot deal with forgiveness without paying,
and whenever the Gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed simply doesn't ‘hear
the Good News. Workaholics believe they can produce everything they need,
alone. If they need spiritual benefit, they'll get it by working for it 5
not by receiving an open-ended offer from God. Thus life is invested in
building a "mighty fortress" - an impregnable bastion of security...in
public esteem, in professional skill, in real estate — in money. The
name of the game is working for salvation.

Those are the signs. We see all of them in some people and some of them

in all. _ \ | ewe CEP =

The real problem with the workaholic, however, is that he or she is
applauded, praised and supported by the culture.{ Excessive work is seen,

not as a problem, but as evidence of commitment, love, loyalty, and self
sacrifice. { The Protestant work ethic - the drum to which most of us march —

is very suspicious of idleness and the model of the successful, upwardly mobile
man or worman is the one who works harder than anybody else, is at the office
earliest, stays latest, and works through lunch. Organizations love workahol-
ies. William H. Whyte, in his classic study, "The Organization Man", dis-
covered that large organizations depend on those ascetics who will subordinate
all for the organization and, of course, will pay him or her handsomely.

It is possible to laugh at most of those observations. Oates means his
book to be amusing. What isn't funny at all is the price nearly everybody
in medicine, psychology, religion, and management agrees we must pay for work
addiction: burn out - divorce - family alienation - ulcers - alcoholism -
heart attack - depression - suicide.

What I see is the guilt. We know the price we are paying personally.
We see the effects in our relationships, we know what we are neglecting, the
joy we are missing. The guilt itself becomes a heavy load to _—

What is the answer? One is tempted to propose the logical antidote:
rebel, revolt, react. Some do. Some must. Some sell out, cash in, retire the
business attire and take up pottery in the mountains of West Virginia. That
seems logical, but obviously everybody can't do that. In fact, somewhere in
this exercise I want to say something in praise of hard work and in defense of
self sacrifice for goals that are intrinsically worthy, such as the security
and well-being of one's family, the education of one's children, the cultiva-
tion of professional skills or the planting of a straight row of corn. Work-
ing hard, by itself, is not indicative of addiction. Somewhere in this I want
to testify to the grace of hard work, the fulfillment of extending oneself and

IO

and accomplishing and completing and ending the day with a sense that some

_ things are a little better for what one has done. I'm grateful, frankly,
that there are people almost possessed with their work to find a cure for
cancer. I'm glad for hard working, self sacrificing lawyers and bankers
and teachers and carpenters and preachers. The solution is not laziness,
unemployment, sloth.

is

f e antidote is, first of all, the simple responsibility each of us has,

/ regardless of age, station, or status, to assign priorities to all the de-

/ mands made of us starting With our personal needs, relational needs, profes-
sional requirements, and avocational pursuits. They are not all equal. Our
personal needs come first - when that list gets out of order, unhealthy things
begin to happen.

The solution is, second, to come to terms with the need each of us has for
an inner life. We may have buried that need. We may be frightened of the very
idea. But each of us needs inner space, time, a lonely place to use Jesus'
phrase. We have no authenticity, no core, no identity without that.

It is, finally, I am convinced, a theological issue. It is a matter,
ultimately of coming to terms with grace - and that may mean the necessity of
a conversion experience for many of us/ Our addiction to work is theological.
It springs from our inability to trust anybody else or conversely, from our
egotism which keeps telling us that we can be self-sufficient, self-reliant,
that we need nothings}

te I was touched tof read Professor Oates's recollection of his conversion
from a lifetime of workaholism. He became aware of his addiction when his
child kept remindifg him how much he was missing. His awareness grew when a
back problem which became worse when he overworked. The crisis came when his
eldest son was inj Vietnam. Oates writes: "He was a combat sailor, a machine-
gunner on a smalJ river assault boat in the Mekong Delta. And for the first
time in my life/I was helpless. None of my actions or work could change a
thing. I foung myself fallingback heavily on extra work to handle my anxiety.
In the summer, my major defense was gone...I realized that I could not face it
alone, but théAt I needed God's help and the help of all the other people I
could get." |

And so gne man changed his way of living, and started coming home at 6:00
without exgeption, and became very careful about extra commitments, and began
to trust that God indeed would save him, and that he didn't have to do it all
alone. Hfs testimony is that it worked and that the amount and the quality
of his wdrk has not suffered at all. And this is perhaps the worst - but also
the be&t/news of all.

(the Good News of the Gospel is that in Jesus Christ God loves us./ That
graceful love requires no_work, no merit, only our receptiveness. | That grace
is sufficient...it can liberate us even from our addiction to work. It frees
us for full life, it frees us from all the schemes by which we try to assure
our security.

i We need to help one another. /1£ the jaetd-tusdanal church is feeding

Our addiction: | if you are a volunteer for any reason other than that you
want to be; fif you are away from a family and feeling guilty ~ please resign.
Let us help*each other./ Let us help each other to use the time God has
given, responsibly, effectively, and gratefully, { Let us support the person
who decides to arrange priorities honestly, and to take time to do the
important things. Let us never judge or condemn when we see it happen.

And in the midst of it all, let us covenant together to remember that our
chief end, according to those wise old theologians, is not to work till we
drop in our tracks, but to glorify God and enjoy im forever.

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