Musings of a Bystander?
So. What's with the title?
The first part of the answer is in the Peter Drucker quote above. It's from the introduction to his autobiography Adventures of a Bystander.
Those who know or have heard of Peter Drucker would hardly think of him as a bystander. The man was tremendously influential. How can that be if the bystander, as per above, "has no effect except on himself?" Perhaps it would have been better put: "has no direct effect." Let's face it. Peter Drucker impacted a lot of people; he had a great effect on a lot of people.
But that effect was indirect. He had no mega-bucks consulting firm. He led no global corporations. He held no high government office.
Peter Drucker observed. He analyzed. He saw. He saw things that were already happening but that others hadn't seen yet. And then he shouted from the rooftops. He taught. He consulted. He wrote. All prodigiously.
Later in the introduction to his book, Drucker gives the comment an old family friend gave to him as a young boy, when he expressed a rather bold political opinion: "To watch and think for yourself is highly commendable. But to shock people by shouting strange views from the rooftops is not."
In reaction to this he writes: "This is the admonition the bystander always hears, for it is his lot to see things differently...This admonition is well taken. But I have rarely heeded it..."
Peter Drucker shouted his strange views from the rooftops. Many, many people listened and took heed, and the management of businesses, governments and public sector (non-profit) organizations have been profoundly impacted.
Now -- I'm no Peter Drucker. Nor do I have aspirations to be.
But his comments about being a bystander struck a chord with me several years ago when I first read them. I saw something of myself in them. Peter Drucker was a teacher. But I believe there is another appropriate profession for the bystander: preacher of the gospel. There is no other message so strange, shocking and unwelcome as the gospel of Jesus Christ. And yet, as one of my old pastors put it when dealing with a difficult passage in one sermon, "I didn't write the book. I'm just called to preach it." Or shout it from the rooftops.
And this is the calling to which I am convinced I have been called. A good preacher steeped in the study of God's Word sees things differently than others. John Calvin talked of seeing the world through Scriptural spectacles. And that, as Drucker puts it, is refraction, what a bystander does.
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The other reason for the title of this blog is that it forms the acronym MOAB. The Moabites resisted the Israelites as they sought to enter Canaan. For that, God cursed them - for ten generations no Moabite could join the Israelite assembly. And yet, Ruth the Moabitess, upon profession of faith to her mother-in-law Naomi, was accepted. More than accepted, since she became an ancestor of King David, and therefore of Jesus Christ Himself.
I am no Israelite (despite recently discovering one of my great-great grandfathers was Jewish). I'm a Gentile dog. But because I confess my faith in Christ I am now counted part of the people of God, a wild olive branch grafted into the cultivated tree, the wall of hostility having been broken down. MOAB reminds me of who I am (think of Paul's "Therefore, remember..." in Ephesians 2:11ff), and of what Christ has done for me.
Oh...and my mom's name is Ruth.
The first part of the answer is in the Peter Drucker quote above. It's from the introduction to his autobiography Adventures of a Bystander.
Those who know or have heard of Peter Drucker would hardly think of him as a bystander. The man was tremendously influential. How can that be if the bystander, as per above, "has no effect except on himself?" Perhaps it would have been better put: "has no direct effect." Let's face it. Peter Drucker impacted a lot of people; he had a great effect on a lot of people.
But that effect was indirect. He had no mega-bucks consulting firm. He led no global corporations. He held no high government office.
Peter Drucker observed. He analyzed. He saw. He saw things that were already happening but that others hadn't seen yet. And then he shouted from the rooftops. He taught. He consulted. He wrote. All prodigiously.
Later in the introduction to his book, Drucker gives the comment an old family friend gave to him as a young boy, when he expressed a rather bold political opinion: "To watch and think for yourself is highly commendable. But to shock people by shouting strange views from the rooftops is not."
In reaction to this he writes: "This is the admonition the bystander always hears, for it is his lot to see things differently...This admonition is well taken. But I have rarely heeded it..."
Peter Drucker shouted his strange views from the rooftops. Many, many people listened and took heed, and the management of businesses, governments and public sector (non-profit) organizations have been profoundly impacted.
Now -- I'm no Peter Drucker. Nor do I have aspirations to be.
But his comments about being a bystander struck a chord with me several years ago when I first read them. I saw something of myself in them. Peter Drucker was a teacher. But I believe there is another appropriate profession for the bystander: preacher of the gospel. There is no other message so strange, shocking and unwelcome as the gospel of Jesus Christ. And yet, as one of my old pastors put it when dealing with a difficult passage in one sermon, "I didn't write the book. I'm just called to preach it." Or shout it from the rooftops.
And this is the calling to which I am convinced I have been called. A good preacher steeped in the study of God's Word sees things differently than others. John Calvin talked of seeing the world through Scriptural spectacles. And that, as Drucker puts it, is refraction, what a bystander does.
-----
The other reason for the title of this blog is that it forms the acronym MOAB. The Moabites resisted the Israelites as they sought to enter Canaan. For that, God cursed them - for ten generations no Moabite could join the Israelite assembly. And yet, Ruth the Moabitess, upon profession of faith to her mother-in-law Naomi, was accepted. More than accepted, since she became an ancestor of King David, and therefore of Jesus Christ Himself.
I am no Israelite (despite recently discovering one of my great-great grandfathers was Jewish). I'm a Gentile dog. But because I confess my faith in Christ I am now counted part of the people of God, a wild olive branch grafted into the cultivated tree, the wall of hostility having been broken down. MOAB reminds me of who I am (think of Paul's "Therefore, remember..." in Ephesians 2:11ff), and of what Christ has done for me.
Oh...and my mom's name is Ruth.
Labels: About MOAB, Family, Peter Drucker
