As stated above, Scripture teaches that Jesus is Lord of all; even the mountains melt into insignificance before him. This is the fundamental concept behind holism.
In God’s universe, authority is divinely delegated to humans (Romans 13:1) in five basic jurisdictions; nevertheless, the lordship of Jesus over all jurisdictions remains. Every authority figure reports to Jesus because Jesus is lord over all spheres of authority. The five spheres of authority are
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self-government,
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family government,
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ekklesia (church) government,
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economic government, and
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societal government.
The enemy of holism is dualism, which denies—in whole or in part—the lordship of Jesus. This erroneous bifurcation of the lordship of Jesus presumes that Jesus is lord of some but not all and is common in the secular culture and in Christian communities. This is manifested by separating secular work from sacred work, which is a distortion of truth that denies holism. Following are some examples of how this thinking is commonly found among professing Christians.
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Limiting the use of the word ministry to refer to ekklesia work: Commonly, people refer to ekklesia (church)-related work as ministry, and by inference exclude all non-ekklesia activities.
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Limiting ekklesia teaching and training to sacred topics: There is a dearth of teaching on a holistic Christian view of economics, work, and public policy.
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Commissioning (ordaining) people only to ekklesia related work: Ordination does not commonly include commissioning people to all licit callings.
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Limiting the value of non-ekklesia work: The value of non-ekklesia work is primarily to financially fund ekklesia work.
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Denying the sufficiency of Scripture as the authoritative source for all wisdom and knowledge: Worldly wisdom, disconnected from Scripture, is presumed to be the source of wisdom and knowledge for non-ekklesia activities.
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Supporting secularism is widely embraced: The assumption that the ekklesia’s role in society is limited to proclaiming a message of salvation instead of understanding that the ekklesia is to distribute truth to all jurisdictions.
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Evangelizing is the unspoken priority of the ekklesia: When evangelism becomes the primary goal of Christian leaders, holistic discipleship of all jurisdictions is sacrificed.
Dualism denigrates the lordship of Jesus, which impairs organizational leaders and managers in their efforts to align with God’s purpose. And it impairs the efforts of Christian workers who wish to find and fulfill their life purposes.
As much as possible, Christian leaders should holistically engage in imparting sound biblical worldview thinking and application in every jurisdiction.
Here is your business tip: To lead well, organizational leaders and managers must be holistic—they must embrace the lordship of Jesus in all jurisdictions without equivocation. This means that every issue should, as much as possible, align with the will, ways, timing, and glory of God. When works and organizational leaders so live, organizations will be aligned with God’s plan and purpose. This will be manifested by hiring the right workers who will then serve the right people with the right value proposition, using the right means and methods in the right places and at the right times for the glory of God. The fruit of this alignment with God will be success in accordance with God’s plan and purpose.
