Questioning the Value of People

My brother gave me a magazine subscription to I.D. magazine for Christmas. It's a design mag. A moment ago I read an ad on the back cover for BMW. One of the things it said was, "People - Our most prized asset"

It's an interesting thing for a company to say and I immediately thought about how many churches say they value people. For some it's a core value. I know a lot of churches who have a core value that says, "People matter to God and therefore they matter to us." Which is an odd thing to say really, now that I think about it.

These are often the churches who talk a leadership a lot too. They might say something like, "If you have to say, "I'm the leader, follow me." You aren't a leader. (Ever heard that before?) They might also say, "If you have to say, "I'm the boss" then you probably aren't the boss."

Let me take that a bit further.

If you have to say that you value people, then you probably don't really value people.

People who really value people don't have to talk about it. BMW could learn from this, I think. BMW should just treat their people better and let them tell the world.

Starbucks get this I think. Starbucks seems to value people without haveing to say so. The fact that I can tell you all about the benefits package for Starbucks employees, full or part time and when they kick in might be evidence to that.

Church who value people don't have to tell anyone that... they just do it.