the Monday Morning Debrief: Are You Living a “House of Cards”?
“House of Cards” is a brilliant show! Honestly, it is one of my most favorite shows on TV because it is brilliantly written, amazingly casted and acted and has you on the edge of your seat almost every episode.
The centerpiece of the entire series is Frank Underwood, played by Kevin Spacey. We are first introduced to him as a veteran Congressman who has higher aspirations than just Congress.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa Tom. Why would you bring up such a horrible, TV-MA show on a youth ministry blog? What could you possibly glean from ‘House of Cards’?”
Ok, ok, I won’t promote it anymore but as I was wrapping up season 2 last week, I actually began to wonder about ministry. It made me ask the question, “have I ever lived in a House of Cards type environment in ministry?”. What do I mean? Let me explain.
In “House of Cards”, Frank Underwood (played gloriously by Kevin Spacey) uses deception, lies, backchanneling and peoples emotions to get what he wants. The crazy thing is he does all this evil while still maintaing a good relationship with all the people .
Unfortunately, working at a church or ministry doesn’t make you immune to this type of behavior. In the same way as “House of Cards”, there can be all sorts of deceptions, lies, backchanneling or using peoples emotions to get what we want. I hope it is not as vicious as what Frank does, but I have seen deception and lies played out amongst ministry leaders in the past. I have seen backchanneling happen in order to get what you want in your ministry. So I know this kind of behavior exists.
And, if we are honest with ourselves, I would think that most of us have or currently do experience or participate in this kind activity in some way. Again, I’m NOT saying it as evil as what would happen in the show, but I do think we would be lying if we said that all our ministry and church experiences have been one big utopia of harmony and accord.
So, what do we have to do to reverse these kind of attitudes and action from our ministry or church experiences? There are a variety of things we could do. However, first and most importantly, it begins with us.
We can’t rely on others to make the change, we have to make the change ourselves. I remember hearing a story of a married couple who were struggling with each other. Then, one day, the husband decided to change himself and start being polite, thoughtful and courteous to his wife. That changed the dynamic completely and their relationship changed for the better.
What can you do today that will change the dynamic of how “office politics” are done at your church or ministry so that you aren’t living a “House of Cards” life? It could be making a sacrifice for another ministry to get a “primary time slot in a room” for usage. It could be you volunteering to serve in someone else’s ministry with no “scratch back” expected. Maybe it is simply choosing to approach matters truthfully, openly and with transparency with others on staff.
Regardless of how you choose to act amongst your staffers, if you do nothing and allow “office politics” as usual to proceed, you can be sure that you’ll be living in a “House of Cards” ministry environment. Change begins with you and although acting in integrity and honesty may not seem to be getting you anywhere at first, it will provide an example to others of how the staff can and should act and treat each other.
Thoughts? Experiences? Post your comments below so we can all benefit and learn from each other.
