In Laurie Beth Jones’ book, Jesus, CEO, Jones looks to Jesus’ ministry for key lessons for visionary leadership. In that same spirit, I thought that it would be interesting to see what Jesus can tell us about being good accountants. Whether or not we have a CPA behind our names—or a passion for number crunching—it’s crucial that we maintain a good account of the many things that God has entrusted us with (money, family, leadership responsibilities, etc). Taking good inventory is a key element of good accounting. As you plan for your ministry or personal development it is necessary for you to review your inventory.
Many principles of accounting can be drawn from Jesus’ use of the popular prodigal son parable. I will give you the story in short form, but you definitely should read it when you get the chance—Luke 15:11-32. One of a man’s two sons asks him to give him his inheritance in advance. The son then travels abroad and wastes all his money. After almost starving to death, the son (now termed the prodigal or wasteful son) comes to his senses. He returns home ashamed, hoping for his father’s mercy. To his amazement his father embraces him with love and celebrates his return. Now here’s what this parable tells us in terms of accounting and inventory-taking.
Know what you have
If there was one thing the “prodigal son” did correctly it was that he knew what was his. He knew there was money that his dad had saved and knew how to access it when he wanted it. As leaders, we need to know what resources are available to us and how to access them if we desire to be successful in our endeavors. A lot of this awareness and knowledge is a product of good research but it is also the result of good organization. I am a Microsoft Excel maniac so I suggest you create Excel spreadsheets to organize your inventory. My wife and I recently worked with the music ministry at our church to create a comprehensive Master Song List database. We neatly organized all the songs that we have in our repertoire in a spreadsheet along with the song writer, tempo, key, etc. This inventory-taking process immediately introduced much needed variety in our weekly song selections. We were able to reintroduce many songs that we had completely forgotten.
Know the worth of what you have Like the prodigal son, if you know what you have and do not know what it is worth, you will likely waste it. You can waste it proactively—deplete it completely or misuse it—or you can waste it passively by not using it at all. I’ll laugh at myself for a moment to illustrate this point. After a lecture given by a business person that I admire (Dr. Randal Pinkett), I had the opportunity to speak with him briefly. I asked him for some advice about one of my business ventures and he replied, “I really don’t know much about that line of business.” Of course he didn’t! Fortunately, I had a few more minutes with him and was able to seek information from him in an area where he would be most valuable to me. But this blunder was a result of disorganization and lack of research.
We need to give huge consideration to our networks and our people resources when taking inventory. My wife and I are learning that involving everyone in the brainstorming stage of the church’s strategic planning process isn’t always the best way to use the church’s human resources. Some people are better suited to the implementation process while others make a stronger contribution on the idea-producing end. The challenge, then, is to have a complete awareness of what (and who) you have and how they add value. The Bible noted that when the prodigal son “came to himself” he realized what was really available to him and returned home to access it.
Now let’s join him in the “coming to” process.
-Atnre Alleyne
