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No
Cussing in Church
I had
just moved from my home in the Metroplex, out to a small town in the
country, about an hour away. After settling in, it was time to find a
local barber, someone to take care of the cars, someone to take care of
the animals when I traveled, and a church.
I
looked in the local newspaper (it comes out twice a week) and noticed a
full page of ads for the various churches in the area. I decided to
start with a visit to “First Church Of Smalltown” – the services started
10:30 Sunday morning, with Sunday School at 9:00.
I woke
up too late to catch Sunday School, but had plenty of time to find the
church. Driving down the rural road the sign appeared up ahead, and as
I approached it I knew I was at the right place – it read “First Church
Of Smalltown”, followed by the times for the various services, and the
note “No Cussing In Church”.
I
pulled into the parking lot and walked up to the church building. It
was a contemporary building, with large glass doors. On each door was
the word “Welcome”, and right below it, in smaller letters, was the
reminder, “No Cussing In Church”.
I
entered the foyer, and was met by a friendly usher who provided me with
a bulletin and then reminded me that there was to be no cussing in
church – the ushers kept an eye out for anyone who broke the rules.
I took
my seat, and…what do you mean? Your church doesn’t have any signs or
reminders about cussing? The ushers don’t monitor for bad behavior?
Good grief, what kind of church do you attend?!?! How can they hold a
church service with all of the profanity?
You
don’t have a cussing problem in your church, even though you have no
signs, no reminders, and no ushers monitoring the crowd. Interesting.
It must have something to do with “Context”, the whole issue of where we
are, who we are with, and the knowledge that cussing is not only
inappropriate in that setting, it would get us ostracized in a
heartbeat. Think about it, the Context exercises that much control.
In
your company the managers and employees also have Context, an
understanding of the behaviors that are endorsed and those that are not
acceptable. That Context is managing even when no supervisor is there,
even when no rule is posted on the wall or in an employee handbook.
Management and supervision is important, but Context is everywhere, all
of the time, and we ignore it at our peril. It is peer pressure,
personal values, the knowledge of what earns us the work group’s respect
and what can make lunch a very lonely hour.
We
have to manage people, and to do that well, we have to manage the
context in which those people operate. You may need to remove some
negative influencers. It means taking the time to share some values and
vision. You will no doubt have to recognize some folks who are setting
a positive example – not just at work, but outside work as well.
“Corporate Culture” describes the values people are supposed to embrace
while at work – Context describes the world your people live in all of
the time.
Why
bother? Because people don’t cuss in church….even when nobody is
watching. |
