What would your reaction be to working alongside someone who has publicly displayed a major flaw in character? What if this had occurred in the most recent past, but this person was being given another opportunity? Could you remove yourself from that personās errors in judgment and work alongside of them and not be critical?
Kathleen Parker, a columnist with the Washington Post, was given the opportunity to host a prime-time cable television news program. There was just one catch: she would be co-anchoring this prime-time news program with former governor and attorney general of New York, Eliot Spitzer, a ādisgracedā politician who resigned after it was revealed that he had been carrying on surreptitiously with prostitutes.
Parker suggested in this quote her feelings about working alongside of Spitzer:
Iām not defending Spitzer or condoning his behavior. Ultimately, I decided that his obvious intelligence, insights and potential contributions outweighed his other record. As far as Iām concerned, especially given that he has resigned from public office, the flaws that brought Spitzer down are between him and his family. Like most Americans, I believe in redemption. (Parker 2010)
How would you respond if given a second chance to do something after failing the first time? In a previous career, the author was an HR manager in an inner-city business where there were employees who had completed the Teen Challenge program and had been hired by the firm. These individuals had lost prior jobs, disgraced their families, and, under threat of imprisonment, humbled themselves to move into a group home to participate in structured activities that promised hope to them to overcome their addictions. Now given second chances as employees of this particular firm, these former addicts, once restored and given a second chance, were some of the most loyal and fiercely dedicated employees in the organization.
Second chances can give us the opportunity to consider that perhaps a gracious bigger picture is at work, and cause us to reflect thankfully on the opportunity to start fresh or undo some hurtful actions previously undertaken. One manager with a brusque demeanor rose steadily in a large successful telecom company until he began offending managers at senior levels in the firm. Eventually his career trajectory was stunted, and instead of recognizing and acknowledging his offensive temperament, he moved on to another firm (Lancaster 1999). A senior manager in his new organization was aware of the new employeeās formerly toxic management style and wondered if the manager had changed his approach. He soon found out that little had changed. Instead of being fired for his offensive ways with his employees, the senior manager provided coaching and enrolled the manager in an intensive leadership program with a psychologist (Lancaster 1999).
The formerly brusque and offensive manager found within the support and honest critiques of his leaders the motivation to change his behavior, and he became a model manager. This story is recounted on the web page of a firm that offers such āmanagement turn-aroundā counseling, but the point is clear: second chances can help change a potentially good employee with obvious weaknesses into a better, more loyal and effective performer (Lancaster 1999).
We often use the word āredemptionā as the term for providing second-chance opportunities. Just a quick search of the word āredemptionā on a general search engine brings up references to stock redemptions or sporting teams and individuals seeking a sort of vindication. In the former case, the stories associated with redemption align more with debt reduction and stock cash exchanges. In the latter case, stories are of teams and individual athletes seeking to regroup from a surprising loss or embarrassing defeat.
In a random review of articles on āredemptionā (minus qualifying words such as ācoupon,ā āred,ā and āannual reportā) collected using the RSS news reader Feedly, 51 articles discussed the redemption of a character in a movie or book, or a game or sports playerās redemption opportunity through victory. There were also 21 articles describing a coupon or product redemption. There were nine church names or songs about redemption or poems. Only one article described some aspect of what Wellman describes as the Christian definition of redemption (Wellman 2014).
Wellman (2014) wrote of the distinction between the Christian definition of redemption and a second definition to make this comparison (Wellman 2014). The author suggested that a random person on the street might qualify redemption as an act of atoning for a fault or mistake. In finance, redemption would represent the concept of the exchange of something for something else of value.
If you asked the average person about redemption, they might suggest that the term contains within it the idea of repurchasing something or rescuing something or someone, or making something or someone more acceptable.
Wellman goes on to draw the distinction of a general understanding of the term with the Christian perspective on redemption being a repurchasing, the life of a Savior (Jesus) in exchange for an individualās life. He includes the thought of rescue but specifically focusing on a rescue from sin. The redemption that God offered through the death of Christ is something of great value, which is very costly and should not be taken lightly.
Wilfred McClay, writing about politicians seeking to restore the public trust after private dalliances or public fumbling, describes redemption as āmeaning deliverance from sin, atonement, expiation, absolution, regeneration, the debt forgiven, release from stigmatization, the ransom paid, the captive set freeāa new beginning, a fresh start, a transformation, a liberation from guilt, a new lease on life, even if not an entirely clean slateā (McClay 2013, p. 32). Far from simply political personalities jockeying for the publicās pardon, McClay describes redemption as a strong fundamental foundation of America culture and one of our deepest moral convictions (McClay 2013).
Redemption is a religious term used in the Bible to describe the process of spiritual restoration and how it transforms persons who allow the process to work in them (Rightmire 1996). Finding its context in the social, legal, and religious customs of the ancient world, the metaphor of redemption includes the ideas of loosing from a bond, setting free from captivity or slavery, buying back something lost or sold, exchanging something in oneās possession for something possessed by another, and ransoming (Rightmire 1996).
A Faith-Oriented Perspective
In considering the term redemption in the New Testament, there are two complementary themes: the release from enslavement and the payment of a price for that release (Palma 1993). In the New Testament, three Greek words from two root words are used to represent redemption (MacArthur 2005). The first two Greek words come from the same root wordāāagorazoā and its compound formāāexagorazo.ā Both those words are translated āredemptionā in the New Testament. An example of this in use is the following: āBut false teachers also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought (agorazo) them, bringing swift destruction upon themselvesā (2 Pet. 2:1). The Greek word āagorazoā means to buy, to purchase, or to acquire ownership by payment of a price. This is a common word in the Greek, yet it is also one of the great words in Scripture used to describe a believerās redemption by Jesus Christ. The Greek root of both is agora, which means āmarketplace.ā How appropriate to consider this root in our search for redemptive behaviors demonstrated by managers in the marketplace.
The other Greek word used in the New Testament for redemption is ālutroo/apolutrosis.ā An example of this in use is the following: āIn Him (Jesus) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of Godās graceā (Ephesians 1:7). The Greek word translated āredemptionā here in Ephesians 1:7 (apolutrosis) is an intensified form of lutroo, which refers to paying a price to free someone from bondage.
In the Roman Empire during New Testament times, if a person wanted to free a loved one or friend who was a slave, they would buy the slave for themselves and then grant the slave their freedom. The owner would testify to that deliverance by a written certificate. The root word ālutrooā was used to designate such a transaction (MacArthur 2005).
From a theological perspective, according to Anselm of Canterbury (1099), the Almighty God received satisfaction from the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus Christ (Anselm 1099). This āatonementā reconciled the Almighty and Holy God to the sinful wandering and selfish mankind (Hebrews 9:11ā28). The Apostle Peter states it clearly here: āHe (Jesus) himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healedā (I Peter 2:24).
Our more contemporary view of a redemptive work is distinctive in its context from the spiritual type. A common understanding of redemption, as mentioned by (Wellman 2014) would allow for those persons deemed worthy in the public arena to find some satisfaction in overcoming personal loss with a final triumph. The church is not immune to this: in some circles, those children of God who may suffer loss here on earth are celebrated as they overcome certain obstacles and find final vindication, being able to give God praise once they have triumphed over their circumstances. This is really not redemption but a justification in the public square. It is not at all complete like the redemption provided through the work of Christ. This redemption is also contextualized by the perceived importance of the triumph.
And yet, the reformed view of the Christian faith sees very clearly the message of the gospel and the purposes of the church in redeeming man and restoring Godās creation (Wolters 2005). There is a decided effort in the reformed faith tradition to take redemption beyond the walls of the church. A natural extension of this tradition is the valid and valuable effort on the part of those in this faith tradition to follow the pattern of Jesus and invest in individuals with weaknesses by seeking to restore them to useful service, both for the work of the kingdom of God and for future success in life. This task admits that weaknesses are real, and by acknowledging the need for assistance in overcoming weaknesses, individuals will receive the help and the training they need to again add value to the world around them, and likewise continue the process themselves with other such individuals.
RedemptionāKey Words and Phrases
ā¢ Putting oneself in the place of another
ā¢ A second chance because someone else paid for the first mistake (sin)
ā¢ To buy back: repurchase
ā¢ Where punishment was due, instead forgiveness and grace and another opportunity. Same rules but new confidence.
ā¢ Clean slate
ā¢ Reconciliation
ā¢ Managers cover their employees with their reputation in order to give them a second chance and retrain, reteach, renew, and retain.
ā¢ Managers who see value in someone in whom others have given up hope
ā¢ Atonementāa repaying or covering or atoning for a justifiable debt
ā¢ External vindication, when we were unable or incapable
You can ask anyone who has made it through Teen Challenge or a similar program and been given a second chance, and they will tell you that the fresh start to rejoin family and get back to their former activities is sweet, but it all came about at a steep cost. Yet the benefits of offering second chances can often be lost on managers who see more headaches and concerns with the employeesā previous bad habits resurfacing.
In previous research by this author, a survey was conducted of a group of business professionals with clearly stated faith-based values. The focus was on gauging the impact of a managerās faith and its influence on managerial decision making, investigating particularly whether the influence of a religious faith that has a redemptive philosophy at its core would influence the possibility of a manager offering āsecond chanceā opportunities to employees with a past or present display of terminal behavior. It was thought that if any managers might consider implementing such practices it would be those managers who have publically declared that their faith unequivocally guides their decision making. The results of the survey suggested that just because a managerās faith guided their decision making, it did not necessarily mean that a manager felt compelled to offer second-chance opportunities to their employees (Bucci and Bruce 2008).
Many of the managers surveyed expressed that they were strongly active in fait...