Christian Leadership Alliance

Dealing with Difficult People

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Managing Your Private World

Order and Beyond
Gordon MacDonald | Outcomes, Nov/Dec 2006

Dr. Gordon MacDonald originally wrote Ordering Your Private World in 1984. He revised it in 2003 to reflect the changes that have taken place in the last two decades. With over one million copies sold, Ordering your Private World encouraged Christians to seek a more genuine, deeper and organized inner life. Many of us, in our twenties and thirties back then, took this book to heart—making changes in our lives that had significant results personally and in ministry or professionally. But sometimes, as we minister and work over the years, our perseverance lessens and we simply don't push ourselves to really reach our potential. Twenty years later (in 2004), he authored A Resilient Life to encourage us to go the distance and finish our lives well … moving ahead no matter what.

CMA is honored that Dr. MacDonald will be our keynote speaker at our 2007 Annual Conference. He graciously took time to talk with us about these two books—with you, our CMA members, in mind.

CMR: First off, can you refresh our readers on how you define someone's private world?

MacDonald: The inner or private world and our soul are in a strange new dimension. In fact, sometimes I wonder what if our inner space isn't as large as outer space. Our inner space contains the capacity to commune with God. But we probably only know the first few feet of our private world, because of a cloud of evil. In our inner private world, we form convictions and we act out on them. Out of these convictions are going to come both good and evil. Jeremiah speaks of this infinite dimension when he says: "The heart is wicked and deceitful, who can figure it out?" The Psalmist cries out: "Oh Lord, search and know me."

A lot of people, men in particular, are not in touch with their inner world. A lot of us simply aren't reflective people. We don't assess our emotions and feelings, but we do archive them. If you're 40 years of age, you're living with 40 years of active memory. Some of these memories are very profound and have a profound effect on us.

As a manager, you need to understand that every person on your team is dealing with memories. If you had an abusive relationship with your father, you probably will have those feelings with your boss, who may be a father figure. If a person hasn't learned teamwork and cooperation early in life, chances are he or she will always struggle with it.