Category: Work Culture

Expired Fruit: Why Past Faithfulness Doesn’t Excuse Present Dysfunction

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As discussed in my last post, there is a difference between honoring leadership and respecting image preservation.

While Scripture commands us to respect those who labor among us, it also refuses to place any leader beyond examination, correction, or accountability. Somehow, in many churches, ministries, and organizations, we’ve managed to preach the first half while burying the second, using “protect the anointing” phraseology as an umbrella where insecurity, favoritism, micromanagement, even misconduct are tolerated.

But it usually doesn’t start there.

Most toxic cultures don’t begin with self-serving intentions. They begin with leaders who once did tremendous good.

Perhaps they pioneered something meaningful. Maybe they sacrificed deeply. Maybe they built ministries, companies, schools, nonprofits, or movements that changed lives. Maybe they weathered storms that others never saw.

All of that can be true.

But yesterday’s faithfulness does not exempt today’s behavior from scrutiny.

Past fruit is not a lifetime immunity badge. No organization is above the law. No leader is above correction. No “good old days” testimony can serve indefinitely as a veil covering present dysfunction.

The danger emerges when the narrative becomes: “Look at all the good they’ve done.”

As though that somehow settles every concern. As though the people closest to the problems simply lack perspective. As though those asking questions are disloyal. As though silence is maturity.

It isn’t.

Because the moment preserving an image becomes more important than pursuing truth, the culture has already begun to drift.

Jethro Saw What Moses Couldn’t

One of the most overlooked leadership moments in Scripture comes in Exodus 18.

Moses loved God. Moses was called. Moses had demonstrated extraordinary faithfulness. Yet Jethro looked at him and essentially said: “What you’re doing isn’t working.”

“What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out.” (Exodus 18:17-18)

Imagine that.

Moses—the man through whom God parted the Red Sea—was told that his leadership structure was unsustainable. Jethro wasn’t dishonoring Moses. He was protecting both Moses and the people.

He recognized something leaders often miss when responsibility concentrates at the top: The people suffer.

Jethro’s solution wasn’t blind loyalty. It wasn’t, “Everyone just support Moses harder.” It wasn’t, “Stop questioning and trust the process.”

It was accountability through structure. Shared responsibility. Distributed leadership. Healthy support systems.

“Select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them…” (Exodus 18:21)

Notice the qualifications. Capable. God-fearing. Trustworthy. Hating dishonest gain. Not merely agreeable. Not merely loyal. Not merely protective of leadership’s reputation.

Their purpose wasn’t to become professional yes-men. Their role was to support both Moses and the people.

Middle Managers Aren’t Human Shields

Healthy organizations understand this instinctively.

Middle leadership exists to bridge. To advocate upward and downward. To communicate concerns from subordinates to executives. To translate vision into practical care. To equip teams. To identify problems before they become crises.

They do not exist to absorb dysfunction generated from above. Nor do they exist to suppress concerns to preserve appearances.

If every concern raised by frontline employees dies in middle management because someone fears upsetting the Executive Director, CEO, President, Senior Pastor, or founder, then leadership has ceased to function as stewardship and has become image management.

The lower half of an organization cannot continually compensate for the gaps left by the upper half. Subordinates cannot indefinitely provide the emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, humility, and accountability that senior leadership refuses to exercise.

People eventually run out of capacity. They burn out. They disengage. Or they leave.

“If You Don’t Like It, Leave”

Sometimes that’s exactly what happens.

And ironically, unhealthy leadership often interprets the exodus as validation.

  • “Good riddance.”
  • “The wrong people are leaving.”
  • “God is purging the disloyal.”
  • “They couldn’t handle authority.”

But what if the departures aren’t evidence of rebellion?

What if they’re evidence of unresolved problems? What if sensible people with both healthy minds and compassionate hearts simply recognize smoke when they smell fire? What if repeated turnover isn’t proof of purification? What if it’s proof of suffocation?

The irony is painful.

The tighter toxic leadership closes its fist to secure control, the more people slip through its fingers. The very thing they fear losing becomes the outcome their methods produce.

Because fear can force compliance for a season. It cannot cultivate trust. Manipulation can manufacture unity for a moment. It cannot sustain genuine loyalty.

Unity Is Not Uniformity

Biblical unity was never intended to mean unanimous agreement with leadership.

Why? Because real unity makes room for truth. For questions. For dissent without retaliation. For hard conversations conducted with humility.

Paul publicly confronted Peter when Peter’s actions compromised the Gospel (Galatians 2:11-14). The early church gathered to reason together through conflict in Acts 15. Even Nathan confronted David.

Correction wasn’t viewed as betrayal. It was understood as love.

“Faithful are the wounds of a friend…” (Proverbs 27:6).

Yet some environments redefine unity to mean certain cooperation, even silence.

Don’t ask. Don’t challenge. Don’t notice patterns. Don’t connect dots. Just smile. Support. Protect the anointing.

At that point, unity becomes something entirely different. It becomes coercion wearing spiritual language.

Everyone Has a Voice

  • Will every complaint be valid? No.
  • Will every accusation prove true? No.
  • Will every frustrated employee be completely objective? Of course not.

But when concerns repeatedly surface from thoughtful people across different levels of an organization, dismissing every voice as bitterness eventually becomes its own form of deception.

Especially if those voices are consistently met with defensiveness rather than curiosity.

People can accept difficult answers.

What they struggle to accept is being unheard. A voice that perpetually falls on deaf ears eventually stops speaking. Not because it lacked merit. But because it learned the outcome had already been decided.

James instructs believers to be:

“Quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger” (James 1:19).

How often do organizations reverse that order?

Quick to defend. Quick to explain. Quick to protect. Slow to listen.

The Strongest Leaders Don’t Fear Accountability

The most secure leaders I’ve encountered don’t panic when questioned.

They don’t interpret feedback as mutiny. They don’t demand perpetual affirmation. They don’t surround  themselves exclusively with people who echo their opinions.

They understand something profoundly important:

  • Accountability doesn’t diminish authority. It legitimizes it.
  • Correction doesn’t weaken leadership. It strengthens it.
  • Transparency doesn’t destroy trust. It builds it.

And repentance—when necessary—is not evidence that anointing has departed. It’s evidence that humility remains.

Perhaps protecting the anointing has less to do with shielding leaders from scrutiny and more to do with protecting the integrity of what God entrusted to them in the first place.

Because God’s people deserve healthy leadership. Leaders deserve healthy support.

Middle managers deserve the freedom to advocate truthfully in both directions. And organizations deserve cultures where righteousness is valued more highly than reputation.

Christ-centered institutions should be the safest place in the world to tell the truth. Not because truth is painless. But because Christ Himself said:

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32).

Anything less may preserve appearances for a season.

But eventually, every veil wears thin. And when that happens, the question won’t be whether concerns existed. The question will be whether anyone had the courage to listen before people felt they had no choice but to leave.

Cover graphic creds: Pkfuel.com

When “Protecting the Anointing” Becomes Protecting the System

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There’s a difference between pursuing unity and using “anointing” language to pressure people into cooperation and silence.

In recent years and past assignments, I’ve heard phrases like:

“Don’t grieve the Spirit.”
“Protect the anointing.”
“Don’t bring division.”
“Stay aligned.”

Often those statements were sincere calls toward humility, peace, and healthy communication. But sometimes they became spiritualized tools to discourage honest conversations about dysfunction, leadership failures, lack of accountability, or unhealthy systems.

Either way, the impressions have sat with me over time.

Long story short: The Bible never teaches that truth-telling threatens God’s presence.

In fact, Scripture consistently shows that God honors repentance, integrity, humility, justice, and truth — not image management.

Real unity is not built on fear.
It’s not maintained by suppressing concerns.
It’s not preserved by protecting leaders from discomfort.

Biblical unity can withstand honest conversations.

Healthy leadership does not demand silence “for the sake of the mission.” It models accountability first, welcomes respectful feedback, and creates safety for people to speak truth in love without fear of spiritual labels being attached to them.

Frankly, the phrase “touch not the anointed” has silenced more hurting people than it has protected genuine ministry and work cultures.

If an organization only values honesty when it flows upward in praise — but not when it flows upward in concern — that’s not spiritual maturity. That’s control.

The fruit of the Spirit is not image preservation. It’s love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If faithfulness by holy definition requires courage, not silence, then it’s only fair to question any vehicle seeking to quench the very thing it allegedly stands for.

Time to wake up.

Cover graphic creds: ChatGPT

Presence With Purpose: What Companies Must Consider about Remote Work

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As more companies return to hybrid or fully onsite work, I keep coming back to a simple question: If we’re asking people to be physically present again…what are we actually using that presence for?

We can’t rewind to pre-pandemic. Work changed. People changed. Expectations around flexibility, productivity, and trust changed. And for many employees, performance didn’t drop when they left the office—it actually improved.

So, when organizations decide that onsite time should increase, the “why” matters more than ever. It can’t just be about proximity for proximity’s sake or leaders feeling secure within their control.

If people are commuting in, that time should feel different—not just a change of scenery from remote work. It should be where in-person presence adds something you can’t get through a screen:

  • Faster collaboration and real-time problem solving
  • Deeper mentorship and coaching moments
  • Relationship-building that strengthens trust
  • Decisions that benefit from shared context and energy

Otherwise, employees start asking a fair question: What’s the point of being here?

And honestly, that’s where a lot of friction shows up—not in the requirement itself, but in the lack of clarity and communication. around it.

Most people aren’t anti-office. They’re anti-wasted-office-time.

They don’t mind coming in when it’s useful, engaging, or meaningful. What frustrates them is showing up to sit on video calls all day, doing the exact same work they could have done remotely—just with a commute added on top. That’s not collaboration. That’s relocation.

Thus, if we’re going to bring people back in more consistently, maybe the better conversation isn’t how often, but how intentionally.

Because proximity, when used well, is powerful. It accelerates ideas. It strengthens relationships. It builds momentum. But when used poorly, it just feels like distance with extra steps.

Cover graphic creds: iBelieve.com

Supporting Scriptures: Colossians 3:23, Ephesians 6:6-7, Hebrews 10:24–25

Dancing in the Pain: The Secret to Trusting God in the Storm (Intro)

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Quick post today – archiving some thoughts for future reference per a recent conversation at work. My plan will be to build a series off this concept in 2026…

There are times in life when ‘yes’ is and will be the right answer. You may not understand the full ‘why’; the logic may trail the intuition. But obedience as goal, we will ultimately encounter moments when reason must yield to faith. Sometimes, it’s as simple as seasoned patience, waiting for an open door to illuminate the path we’re meant to walk. Other times, it’s like guided flight within cloudy turbulence, watching God correct the trajectory as we cling to Him. Either way, God has a plan, a purpose, and a promise behind the places He takes us (Proverbs 16:9, Psalm 37:23-24, Jeremiah 29:11, Ephesians 2:10).

As for the effect of these places, we must expect variability. At any point, we always have the capacity to learn and grow from something for something. To breathe is to absorb. To absorb is to process. And how we process, in most cases, inclines critical choices from trusting God in the midst of challenging circumstances to those micro-moments every day when we must decrease.

So, what then when these impacts net negative on paper and in person? What if the only meaningful consequences are confined to scars and sagacities fortified in fire? For most, if they can’t carry a positive tangible forward, then they write off the exiting season as a failure. ‘Tis a mentality of the world and wisdom of the flesh.

Yet, in truth, in the Word, and every place that matters, the reality is you can’t quantify growth in motion or scale the ripple effect a fallen face turned hopeful can produce. When lessons learned become fastened to the soul, when they click, find momentum, and plant themselves as fertile seeds, what you have is a vital, appreciable asset – one of the most important of all! Some might call it ‘addition by subtraction’ character-building or by a ‘one step back, two steps forward’ platitude. But those wouldn’t serve due justice, let alone what is full in the Lord’s eyes.

Again, you can’t measure or compute the long-term influence humility has in the wake of voids and failures. Do you have much to learn, much to apply, but have subdued the urge to stay where you’ve fallen? If so, rejoice! Shake the dust off your feet and rejoice again.

My friends, we must not undermine the virtue of endurance as God intended. Forgive the versions of yourself that didn’t know better, that didn’t have the support you needed, that lacked the safe space. After all, you can’t move on if you don’t love on and you can’t love on if you’re committed to a hardened state. Remember what you crave, God already is. So…

Don’t just get up, look up. Don’t just sing in the rain; dance in the pain. Why? Because Christ in you, you can count it all joy because who you’re becoming is far more significant than where you’ve been.

Together we will get there, one more cry and one less ‘why’ at a time.

Cover graphic creds: Harvest City Church

Autside Looking In: 3 Ways to Support Spectrum People at Work

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I’m blessed to serve where I work in this season. As my employer‘s name suggests, the extension of opportunity and grace has proven effective in recent years, a corporate Godsend in the sense I’ve discovered what I can offer within a healthy environment. 

That said, I’m also blessed to have worked in places where support and psychological safety were absent. Granted, those shortages came during a period when people weren’t as woke on the subject of neurodiversity as they are today.

Still, given the uptick of autism awareness in recent years, I want to examine ways employers can assist employees who are on the spectrum or struggling beyond their emotional or mental capacity. Too often, businesses will take reactive approaches to painful situations instead of proactively collaborating in humility. For what is working and what isn’t, consider this breakdown an attempt from experience to bridge the divide.

Let’s dive in… 

  1. Make Space, Show Grace

As one who is high functioning autistic, I can attest to the profound challenges—and lost potential—that come from working in environments where neurodiversity is misunderstood or undervalued. According to the Word, our individual design is not separate from our corporate identity given we are diverse in function and co-equal in value (Romans 12:4–8; 1 Corinthians 12:12–27). If we want to see our organizations thrive, we must understand this extends beyond job responsibilities to the very ways we perceive and process information.

For example, in previous roles, I was occasionally criticized for requesting additional technology, explicit communication, and extra time to process information—needs that stem from how I best contribute. At the time, I was embarrassed in the face of pushback; however, in hindsight, I recognize how advocating for these supports is not a weakness, but a strength that benefits the masses. Embracing neurodiversity requires courage from both sides. Leaders and managers have the opportunity—and the responsibility—to create inclusive environments where neurodivergent team members can excel. In turn, spectrum workers can extend patience and understanding to those who may not immediately relate. By fostering mutual respect and open dialogue, organizations can unlock innovation, loyalty, and a deeper sense of belonging for all.

  1. Withhold Premature Character Judgments 

When we examine an autistic colleague, there are certain factors to consider. For starters, many on the spectrum have heightened awareness not only to sensory stimuli but also rejection, exclusion, or just being misunderstood. Conversely, they can display diminished or skewed responses to social cues and nonverbal forms of communication, such as body language, facial expressions, even social media tact. In certain instances, an acute reaction may result when an autistic worker struggles to find words, senses a lack of psychological safety, and/or discerns discrimination. To the allistic eye, an autistic co-worker may be considered immature, irrational, emotional, or even complicated; however, in reality and within our behavior assessment, the truth is often beneath the surface of perception.

Regardless of our role, we must be slow to judge, if at all. While some mannerisms can seem confusing, the best move in general is to merge authority and/or care with curiosity before delegating constructive criticism. Rather than rebuke an accommodation, seek to understand its necessity. Don’t chastise an essential need when it might contradict your desire for conformity. Instead, assess workplace practices that can be unique and specific to each team member. In doing this, you’ll enhance a sense of security within your organization and decrease the odds of false labeling, treatment imbalances, and premature character judgments. 

  1. Nurture Their Strengths

Whatever you make of the spectrum, one thing is for sure: It is significantly broader and more complex than we think. As new information emerges, more people are discovering their place on neurodivergent planes. For those like me who didn’t discover their autism until adulthood, this can be quite the wake-up call. Yet, when we consider the big picture, we can find peace knowing once a diagnosis is confirmed and accepted, one can better understand how the difference between allistic and autistic is not to be compartmentalized but utilized!

For instance, most agree that autistic people tend to exhibit unconventional ways of perceiving instruction and execution. Some take directives down to the letter; others allot for creative interpretation. While understanding the behaviors, patterns, and preferences of autistic workers may be challenging at times, we must remember there’s value in not only acknowledging strengths and accommodations but nurturing them! For those in leadership, know your profiles, validate special needs, and as needed, receive and calibrate them to company policy without bias. Even though your supporting autistic colleague may talk differently and process more visually, you can still reel in their thoughts and fine-tune their priorities with precision. Be empowered, not discouraged in those moments.

Of course, in all this, taking the time to know the person you’re pouring into is key. On some days, you’ll find a ‘hands off’ approach is best; on other days, you’ll note a direct angle into constructive moments is more ideal. Regardless of the situation, bear in mind an autistic person benefits from stimuli conducive to their focus and security. Why not use your voice and support to be part of what they need to find safety and success in their role?

Now, I turn the podium over to you. What do you think about this topic? What other points would you add to this list? Do you have experience on either end of the spectrum? If so, I encourage you to share your thoughts. In the spirit of building one another up (Ephesians 4:11-16), Lys and I are here as always if you need us. 

God speed and as I always say in closing…

Cover graphic creds: Substack