Competency

In their places of work, families, communities and churches, Christians give praise to God by using their time and talents as competently as they possibly can. Their competency is a fundamental service to the world.

The book of Genesis sets the tone. At the end of each day, God looked upon the work he had done and saw that it was good. On the final day of creation “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Genesis 1:31)—very good. That is the creation God gave us. And the very first command God gave to humans was “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28). To subdue is to bring under one’s control, not to destroy. The arena for this service to God is the whole of creation, not just church-related activities.

Our society is so complex and interrelated that we depend on the competency of many others to meet our needs. The airline pilot’s competency is far more important to his passengers than whether he is a Lutheran or Roman Catholic. The competency of those schoolteachers who help educate our children is much more important to us than whether they also teach Sunday school. We depend on the competency of our auto mechanics to keep our cars safe; whether they attend church conventions is secondary. We depend on the competence of our surgeon; whether she sings in the choir is incidental. So, too, competency is crucial for farmers, salespeople, bus drivers, custodians, politicians, pastors and lawyers. Each one, by doing his or her job with high competency, serves God by helping to keep creation very good.

In criticizing the church for not helping people see the importance of competency in their daily lives, Dorothy L. Sayers wrote, “The church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him not to be drunk or disorderly in his leisure hours and to come to church on Sundays. What the church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables” (pp. 56-57). If our daily work is praise of God and service to God’s creation, it is surely spiritual in nature. The term spirituality of work was first coined by Pope John Paul II in his encyclical On Human Work. In writing for the National Center for the Laity, Gregory Pierce says, “A spirituality of work necessitates orienting ourselves toward the divine through our daily activity of improving and sustaining the world” (p. 26). To see our work as spiritual compels us to execute it with the greatest of competency. No longer can a job be seen simply as a means of earning enough money with which to live.

The emphasis on total quality management in business in recent years is evidence that the American work force is not as competent as it could be. Incompetence can be found in all levels of an organization, from the CEO to the janitor. Total quality management recognizes this fact and addresses it. An example of what can be done to increase competency comes from the American automobile industry. During the 1980s Japanese and German cars got a larger share of the U.S. market due to better design, higher quality and lower prices. The trend was obvious. Either the American auto industry had to become more competent in its design, quality and costs or else it would die. Through massive changes at all levels of the industry, some of which resulted in many jobs’ being lost, the carmakers began to reverse the trend. By the mid-1990s, American-built cars were equal to or better than their foreign competitors in design, quality and cost. Aided by the low value of the dollar in relation to the yen and mark, American car prices have become the lowest in the world market. This happened because a total industry became more competent.

Organizational competency is not confined to the for-profit sector of our society. Many human-service agencies operate far below their potential simply because of a philosophy that employees cannot be evaluated with respect to competency. This is the bane of the not-for-profit organizations. It is a serious misunderstanding of the nature of voluntary work. Sometimes, in such organizations, when incompetence is recognized, managers are themselves too incompetent to deal with it. American churches have relied on voluntarism to provide money and assist in the programs and governance of congregations and judicatories. The personal involvement of competent church members is largely responsible for the greater vitality, attendance and feeling of ownership in American churches than in state-supported churches in other countries.

Not only service organizations but also educational institutions need to deal with competency issues. With colleges and universities facing reduced enrollments due to demographic factors, it is the competent educational institution that will survive. Long-time policies that rewarded seniority rather than competency in teaching are being changed in many schools.

Competency in one’s daily life is not confined to one’s paid job. A society needs competent parents to raise our children and give them values. Surely we serve God and maintain God’s “very good” creation as we bring in new lives and, in turn, educate them to use their God-given talents. The challenge has become greater as the number of single-parent families has increased and as the pattern of double wage earners in the traditional family has increased as well. Many parents are overcome with stress as they try to balance the demands of the workplace and the home, with the demands of the paid job usually taking precedence over family needs. As a result, many have an uneasy sense that they are not as competent in their parenting as they should be. Churches need to help people with their priority setting here.

Competency is demanded of us in our community activities. Surveys and polls tell us that Americans are unhappy with the competency of their elected political leaders. Yet, strangely, less than half of those eligible to vote do so, and less than 1 percent of the public ever volunteers to help in political campaigns. Competent citizenship calls for an active role in our political process, for government too can play a major role in keeping creation good. Furthermore, a unique characteristic of American society is the way in which people have volunteered their time and money for human services, the arts and other civic causes. Competent citizens are needed in order to maintain and improve our social fabric—God’s creation.

Competency in one’s job, family, community and church—this is what is asked of us. To strike the right balance in accordance with the gifts God has given us drives us to meditation, prayer and dependence on the Holy Spirit.

» See also: Ambition

» See also: Drivenness

» See also: Promotion

» See also: Success

» See also: Talents

» See also: Work

» See also: Work Ethic, Protestant

References and Resources

W. Diehl, The Monday Connection: A Spirituality of Competence, Affirmation and Support in the Workplace (New York: Harper & Row, 1991); W. E. Diehl, Thank God It’s Monday, Laity Exchange Books Series (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1982); W. F. Droel and G. F. A. Pierce, Confident and Competent (Notre Dame, Ind.: Ave Maria, 1987); G. F. A. Pierce, “A Spirituality of Work,” Praying, Sept.-Oct. 1983, p. 26; D. L. Sayers, Creed or Chaos? (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1949); E. F. Schumacher, Good Work (New York: Harper & Row, 1979); G. Tucker, The Faith-Work Connection: A Practical Application of Christian Values in the Marketplace (Toronto: Anglican Book Centre, 1987).

—William E. Diehl