Can a Christian Survive in Silicon Valley?
00:00:00.000 | Well, can Christlike virtues survive in a cutthroat technology sector like in Silicon
00:00:09.360 | Valley?
00:00:10.360 | It's a great question from a listener named Bill.
00:00:12.440 | "Dear Pastor John, recently the Wall Street Journal published an article titled, 'At
00:00:17.400 | Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks.'
00:00:23.420 | The article detailed the culture at Netflix in which high transparency and bluntness in
00:00:27.520 | firings are virtues to be upheld in high regard.
00:00:31.240 | It's a type of social Darwinism in that only the fittest survive.
00:00:36.720 | Fear of firings becomes a strong motivator to ensure short-term successes.
00:00:42.080 | Netflix is not the only company to rid themselves of underperformers.
00:00:45.080 | Amazon, Facebook, and Apple come to mind too.
00:00:49.640 | In light of the biblical priority on grace, humility, servant leadership, kindness, gentleness,
00:00:55.280 | and many other qualities, how can a Christian exhibit such character qualities in a culture
00:01:01.160 | that perceives them as professional weaknesses?
00:01:04.640 | And how do they harm our witness?
00:01:06.560 | I live and work in Silicon Valley and would greatly appreciate your help."
00:01:10.960 | Let me begin to address this huge issue with an anecdote from my own ministry.
00:01:20.120 | In the early days of my pastorate, the issue arose concerning musicians who were making
00:01:27.480 | mistakes in public worship back in the early '80s.
00:01:33.200 | One leader put a heavy stress on the need for excellence.
00:01:38.000 | The Lord deserves excellence and suggested that if somebody messes up, he should or she
00:01:45.680 | should not be used in worship services musically anymore.
00:01:52.040 | Now, I responded to this by affirming the pursuit of excellence but adding two qualifications.
00:02:01.600 | I said, "First, excellence is a category that is moral as well as musical, and so we
00:02:09.440 | should strive to be excellent in forgiveness and patience as well as excellent in technical
00:02:17.280 | musicality."
00:02:19.800 | The other thing I said was that there is a kind of excellence that can be just as disruptive
00:02:26.040 | to God-centered worship as musical flaws.
00:02:29.920 | I pointed, for example, to a kind of piano solo during the offering where the keyboard
00:02:36.980 | flourishes are so off the charts amazing—you know, you can picture a person going, "Blah,
00:02:43.440 | blah, blah," up and down the keyboard, you know?—so off the charts amazing that they
00:02:49.760 | draw all attention to the skill of the pianist, not God-centered reverence of the moment.
00:02:58.760 | There was no technical flaw in the performance, which is exactly the right word and the wrong
00:03:04.340 | attitude, but the ministry mindset of the moment was profoundly flawed.
00:03:10.080 | It was flawed; it wasn't excellent.
00:03:12.540 | It was a distracting excellence.
00:03:16.600 | So we tried to put all this together with a leadership philosophy of God-centered,
00:03:23.760 | undistracting, merciful excellence.
00:03:28.020 | Three key adjectives—God-centered, undistracting, merciful excellence.
00:03:34.280 | Now the reason I share this anecdote is to acknowledge that there is a real inevitable
00:03:42.000 | tension between the demands of excellence or competence in needed skills, on the one
00:03:49.880 | hand, whether it's church or industry, and the demands of mercy, kindness, gentleness,
00:03:56.960 | humility, servanthood, love, on the other hand.
00:03:59.840 | So let me support this from the Bible, and then we'll see how the tension is handled.
00:04:07.060 | On the one hand, we read, "If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other
00:04:12.720 | also," Matthew 5:39.
00:04:16.440 | And we read, "Forgive a repentant offender seventy-seven times," Matthew 18:21.
00:04:26.260 | We read, "Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you.
00:04:32.160 | Bless those who curse you," Luke 6:27.
00:04:36.540 | We read, "Admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with
00:04:43.560 | them all," 1 Thessalonians 5:14.
00:04:46.960 | In other words, we are told to treat others not merely according to what they deserve—not
00:04:56.040 | according to their competencies and performances—better than they deserve.
00:05:01.480 | We have received freely, we should give freely, we have been forgiven by Christ, we should
00:05:06.760 | forgive others.
00:05:09.040 | That's huge, and that's the question being posed is, "Okay, what do I do with that
00:05:15.120 | in the workplace?"
00:05:16.600 | Now, what we don't often realize is that, on the other hand, the New Testament teaches
00:05:23.160 | that there are at least five spheres of life—spheres of life—where justice shapes the form of
00:05:33.000 | love along with the shaping power of mercy.
00:05:37.840 | Let me give these five examples.
00:05:41.040 | For example, in the sphere of the family, Paul does not tell parents to turn the other
00:05:47.240 | cheek when children disobey, but to discipline them in the Lord.
00:05:53.080 | That may be right at times for a parent to turn the other cheek to teach something, to
00:05:59.800 | illustrate something about mercy, but not usually.
00:06:04.200 | Love calls for not turning the other cheek so that children can be brought up in the
00:06:10.040 | discipline of the Lord.
00:06:12.160 | So there's one sphere where turning the other cheek is not the only way that love
00:06:20.160 | shows itself.
00:06:21.160 | Number two, the sphere of the church.
00:06:23.400 | It is right that there be forgiveness, but this does not exclude the proper use of church
00:06:30.240 | discipline, which may involve excommunication of somebody from the church.
00:06:37.600 | It also does not exclude the demand that elders have certain qualifications for teaching and
00:06:43.680 | governing, and if they fall short of those qualifications, they are not allowed to be
00:06:50.400 | elders.
00:06:51.400 | You don't turn the other cheek to an elder who can't teach and say, "Oh, we'll let
00:06:55.200 | you teach anyway because that's—you'll make you feel better."
00:06:59.520 | That's not the way love functions at the eldership level or even at the membership
00:07:04.640 | level.
00:07:06.240 | Number three, the sphere of government.
00:07:09.560 | Policemen do not protect society mainly by turning the other cheek when criminals assault
00:07:15.120 | people.
00:07:16.120 | 1 Peter 2:4 says, "Governors exist to reward the good and punish the evil."
00:07:24.560 | Sphere number four, business.
00:07:27.080 | No economic order can function where there is pervasive cheating and deception and contract
00:07:35.200 | breaking and fraud and corruption and stealing.
00:07:39.480 | Those sorts of things will bring ruin to an economy and result in anarchy and probably
00:07:45.000 | the result of a dictatorship.
00:07:47.200 | Proverbs 11:1 says, "A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight
00:07:55.040 | is his delight."
00:07:57.200 | And when Jesus told the parable of the talents, which is the sum of money to be invested,
00:08:03.520 | the slothful employee who squandered his business possibilities with his talent is removed and
00:08:12.960 | called wicked and slothful.
00:08:15.640 | Matthew 25, 26, "You wicked, slothful servant, you ought to have invested my money, you incompetent,
00:08:23.840 | you know, slothful person.
00:08:25.680 | You ought to have invested my money with bankers, and at my coming I should have received at
00:08:31.000 | least interest.
00:08:33.160 | You should have had that much competence."
00:08:35.920 | Sphere number five, education.
00:08:38.680 | Jesus refuses to give any answer to a person who tries to answer his questions the way
00:08:46.800 | they do in Matthew 21, 23 following.
00:08:51.800 | He does not give to him who asks.
00:08:54.760 | In one place he says, "Give to him who asks."
00:08:57.120 | Well, in this case, Jesus does not give to him who asks.
00:09:01.360 | He will not educate those who simply try to manipulate language to avoid trouble.
00:09:06.480 | I mean, two plus two is not five, and any manipulative effort to get a good grade for
00:09:15.840 | saying it is five is rejected by Jesus, not rewarded.
00:09:21.000 | So you don't give an A to a person who gets all of his answers wrong just because it will
00:09:27.440 | make him feel better and that's a more kind and gentle and patient and forgiving things
00:09:31.400 | to do.
00:09:32.400 | So here's my conclusion, and my answer to Bill's question.
00:09:37.320 | Christians are people who bear witness to both of these realities, both the justice
00:09:43.840 | and the mercy of God, requiring appropriate competence in certain spheres, but also mingling
00:09:53.280 | mercy and patience.
00:09:56.520 | Our aim is to show that in this world, both justice and mercy are forms of love.
00:10:06.280 | It's right to insist on competence while also being patient with everyone.
00:10:15.120 | Now if that sounds imprecise and attention and complicated, it is.
00:10:23.160 | I mean, parenting with mercy and discipline, doing church discipline with mercy and holiness,
00:10:32.720 | governing with a billy club and kindness, educating with the necessary standards and
00:10:39.800 | patience, doing business with competency and compassion, none of this is precise.
00:10:47.560 | This is why our minds—I'm thinking of Romans 12 here—this is why our minds must
00:10:55.320 | be transformed in the renewing of them so that we can be saturated with the Word of
00:11:03.320 | God and led by the Spirit.
00:11:06.320 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:11:08.840 | And Bill, thanks for the excellent question.
00:11:10.760 | If you work inside a high-pressure business world, what challenges do you face?
00:11:14.920 | Tell us, we'd like to know.
00:11:15.920 | Email a question to us that we can address here on the podcast in the new year.
00:11:19.600 | Send it to AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org.
00:11:23.360 | And speaking of 2019 drawing to a close, the end of the calendar year is a big time for
00:11:28.120 | us budget-wise here at Desiring God.
00:11:30.360 | That's because almost 40% of our annual budget comes to us in December from our generous
00:11:36.240 | ministry partners.
00:11:37.240 | 40% of our budget that it requires to fund our year-round work comes to us from donors
00:11:42.520 | in the last month of the year, and that month is almost over.
00:11:47.240 | So if you've been blessed by the many resources we offer free of charge, like the Ask Pastor
00:11:50.640 | John podcast, would you consider donating to the ministry before December 31st?
00:11:55.400 | In fact, you can do so right now at DesiringGod.org/give.
00:12:00.480 | That's DesiringGod.org/give.
00:12:04.920 | And so many of our ministry partners listen to this podcast, and I just want to say thank
00:12:09.440 | you for partnering with us in this ministry of labor.
00:12:13.160 | You make this podcast possible, and I am deeply grateful to God for your donations and for
00:12:17.720 | your prayers over the many months and years that I've been at DG.
00:12:22.080 | I am Tony Aranke.
00:12:23.600 | We'll see you on Monday as we begin a little series addressing your great questions for
00:12:27.720 | Pastor John on Bible reading.
00:12:30.320 | There's some great ones in the queue.
00:12:32.760 | All new episodes beginning Monday with Pastor John.
00:12:35.800 | We'll see you then.
00:12:36.320 | [End]
00:12:38.320 | 1.
00:12:39.320 | What is the purpose of the Bible?
00:12:40.320 | 2.
00:12:41.320 | What is the purpose of the Bible?
00:12:42.320 | 3.
00:12:43.320 | What is the purpose of the Bible?
00:12:44.320 | 4.