Foundation of org behavior

3.1 Assignment. Devotional- The Good Builder – Part 3

Getting Started

Have you ever changed jobs? Changed houses? Changed schools? Changed programs? Changed… anything?

Why?

Have you ever been quite satisfied with where you are at in life and with what you are doing only to have that interrupted for better… or for worse? How did that feel?

As you made “change” decisions, was there risk involved? Faith?

For this workshop we move forward to Genesis chapter 12 and are introduced to Abram. Your devotional reflection for this workshop will help you consider God’s work in our lives and the place of faith in what we do and what we build.

Upon successful completion of this assignment, you will be able to:

· Recognize strong leadership skills through leaders in the Bible.

Background Information

Read or  listen(new tab)  to  Genesis 12:1-9.(new tab)

Put yourself in Abram’s place. Life is comfortable. You have a good home. You have a good job (some evidence suggests that Abram may have been in trade, using camel, oxen, or donkey teams to transport goods throughout the region). You have a good organization around you (servants and hired-hands taking care of the family, taking care of the property, and working in your trade business). You are well-respected in the community. You are even somewhat religious, worshipping the various gods that the community acknowledges, likely focused on a moon god. Then, unlike the gods you are accustomed to, God actually speaks…

"Get out of your country… To a land that I will show you” (New International Version Bible, 1973/1984, Genesis 12:1).

Abram had built that good life. Now, he is being asked to give it up for something more – not just good, but to be great. “I will make you a great nation” (New International Version Bible, 1973/1984, Genesis 12:2).

Great does sound good. But giving up what is comfortable involves risk. It involves faith. It involves belief in someone and something bigger. From God’s perspective, He is responding to the history of human failure – the inability of humans to save themselves and a growing intensity of evil that we see in Genesis 3 through 11 – by interceding with a Divine plan to bring hope and salvation. A trusting, faithful Abram and his descendants will be the key to that initiative. Through them, God will reveal his plan, send the Messiah, and accomplish the work to redeem and restore what he had created – the very good. The great.

What would you have done if you were Abram? Settle for the good? The comfortable? Or reach for God’s plan to be part of something better?

After you have read the passage, consider the following prompts:

1. In your life and faith journey, where have you settled for the good enough? Where might God have (or be!) calling you to risk? To faith? To giving up the good and comfortable to pursue something greater?

2. In your leadership journey, where have you settled for the good enough?

3. If you have a perspective different from a Christian worldview, what does that perspective suggest pursuing something greater?

4. What is the real point of pursing something greater? Of greatness?

5. What are the implications for organizational behavior?

Instructions

1. Review the rubric to make sure you understand the criteria for earning your grade.

2. Review the  Genesis 12:1-9(new tab)  and prompts provided in the Getting Started and Background sections. 

3. Write a one-half to one-page reflection paper (Word document; @250 words double-spaced = one page) that shares your thoughts/perspectives on the themes of this devotional and submit it using the Assignment submission page by the end of the workshop week. Be sure to apply APA formatting guidelines.

· Feel free to utilize the APA formatting resource, Academic Writer in the  IWU Resources(new tab)  page, by creating your account which will give you access during this course.

1. You do not need to “answer” each of the prompts. Rather, use them to stimulate your thinking. Then, write a meaningful discussion of the important insights or even questions that emerge during your reflection.