PM - Article: Getting Dirty Together

Getting Dirty Together
By Steve Schwartz

"Going against the wisdom of economics, we operate Paxton Ministries with a team of well-rounded generalists."

Paxton Street Home was founded on the kind of servanthood that Jesus modeled: to be great you must be a servant of others.

For the past 18 years, working together in all roles from meal cleanup to handling a resident medical emergency to working every fourth weekend duty has been the norm here. It doesn’t matter whether your official position is in housekeeping, social services, the development office or you are the Executive Director.

My college economics textbook stated that specialization is one of the five great pillars of a capitalist society. I.E. The more specialized we become the more efficient we become. For example, administrative staff should not waste their time doing dishes, and business office workers should not spend the first hour of the day in worship and prayer when they could be counting money.

However, at Paxton Ministries we’ve done an efficient and effective job by resisting the temptation to move toward greater specialization. I admit, to do so would make our hiring process somewhat simpler. For example, it is easier to sell a 9 to 5 job where your responsibility ends when you walk out the door...or to hire a bunch of part-time employees. At times we have to wait several months with an open position before we find just the right person who is willing to make the life-style commitment it takes to serve in full-time ministry at Paxton Ministries. But we’ve found it is worth the wait.

Going against the wisdom of economics, we operate Paxton Ministries with a team of well-rounded generalists. And nothing can compare to the ownership and commitment level of a team of Christian staff who care about and understand every aspect of the ministry and every person in the ministry, because they work in every aspect of the ministry and with every person in the ministry.

If we were to become more specialized, not only would we suffer in the area of ownership, but we would have to hire many more staff to cover all the miscellaneous roles that each staff member currently covers. This would lead to increased supervision needs and a ballooning budget. Is there a capitalist out there who can tell me how that is more efficient?

In the meantime, we’ll just keep running Paxton Ministries with our small staff. We get many comments from people that are amazed our housekeeping crew is four persons, our kitchen crew is only three and our total staff is less than 30.

News flash...maybe the prevailing thinking isn’t always right. In a world that seeks status, leisure and power, maybe Jesus knew a better way. And maybe by truly living out His example we can be witnesses to the freedom of simplicity and the joy of servanthood.

I better go now...it’s 3am, I’m on allnight duty and I have to go mop the kitchen floor.

Series: What Makes Us Tick - A Look At Our Core Values
Article #1: Introduction: Traditions Stand the Test of Time
Article #2: Getting Dirty Together
Article #3: A Home Full of Gifted Persons
Article #4: Life In Community
Article #5: On Being In The Way
Article #6: He Leadeth Me
Article #7: A Joyful Heart Is Good Medicine

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