Remember What (and Who) It's About!

In the wake of the launch of the KONY 2012 campaign and the subsequent issues with one of Invisible Children's founders, a very important issue has been brought to the forefront of our minds once again: What and who are ministries, churches, and non-profit organizations about?

If they are Christian, they are (or should be) first and foremost about God and furthering His Kingdom through discipleship, service, mercy, and other acts.  And regardless of whether they are Christian, they are about fulfilling the organization's mission, period.  In any credible organization, one thing they aren't about is the people who run or work in the organizations - with few exceptions, if they become about the people within the organization, their mission is necessarily compromised and damaged in major ways.  If people see the leader or others in the organization as the organization or if the organization will fail if the something happens to the leader, that organization has some serious problems.  And this is a great thing because everyone who has ever led an organization and everyone who will ever lead an organization suffers from the same fatal flaw: he or she is human, and therefore is depraved and severely limited and flawed.

Unfortunately, our society often forgets this fact and places too much faith and importance in organizational leaders and/or spokesmen.  In the case of Invisible Children, I really hope that this doesn't happen.  Though Jason Russell's actions have definitely had a negative impact on the KONY 2012 campaign, I really hope and pray that people can look past his one-time behavior (which has proven to be caused by a condition that caused him to act way out of his character) and focus on the work that IC is doing in Africa to bring justice and shalom in an area that needs it in so many ways.  I pray that people can make their decisions on the work that is being done on the ground by IC, not on the flawed human beings that run the organization.  If we base our decisions on the day-to-day activities of the organizational leaders, we will constantly be disappointed and let down by them, and we will not get behind a lot of great things that God wants us to be involved in.  Trust me on this one - I'm one of those organizational leaders that will disappoint if faith is placed in me rather than in the only One who faith should be placed in.

Now I'm not saying that we can't look to the leaders as a marker of the organization's integrity and credibility.  What I'm saying is that a healthy organization is about much more than its leader, and we should not discredit an organization's impact and mission because of a human being's poor decisions or actions taken in isolation.  After all, we are all merely one bad decision away from being a negative headline - one bad decision that we are all capable of making (despite what we really want to believe about ourselves).

At Providence, we know this first-hand - we exist to inspire and equip others to love orphans, widows, and at-risk communities as God loves them.  Fortunately, God has placed amazing people in our organization that are working to fulfill this mission in many ways.  We are creating families for orphans, educating many children with excellence, providing medical care to all of Honduras, developing community leaders, and loving well in many other areas.  But we are also flawed human beings who make mistakes (some bigger than others), hurt each other, do stupid things, and . . . the list goes on and on.  If you don't believe me, just ask my wife, kids, and staff, and they'll give you a long list of ways I'm not perfect.  I'm just fortunate that my life is not under a microscope and most of my thoughts and actions are not on the 10:00 News.

Again, I'm not condoning Mr. Russell's behavior or saying that a leader's character should not be considered when evaluating an organization.  What I am saying, though, is make sure to look at the big picture, in context.  Make sure that you recognize that every organization has to be run by a flawed human being and that the organization, if it is worthwhile, is about a whole lot more than that person.  Also, and just as important, recognize that the person is about a whole lot more than one publicized act or statement taken in isolation.