I am amazed at what God has done through the work of the people of Grace Community Church in the first five years. We celebrated that milestone last week, but tomorrow is a new day. The start of the next five years. As a natural dreamer, I can’t help but wonder what the next five years will bring.
The anniversary caused me to be reflective this week. I thought about some of the obedience of the people following God in Scripture:
Successful projects and teams require meetings to accomplish goals and objectives of the organization. Busy leaders, however, are usually somewhat anti-meetings because of the interruption they appear to be in getting actual work done. I have found, however, that much of the frustration is found in the lack of proper preparation prior to the meeting. Although, when done well, the time spent in meetings can actually make projects better and strengthen the work of the organization. A large part of making meetings better is found in the preparation prior to the meeting.
Here are 7 ways to prepare for more effective meetings:
I had an awesome opportunity a few weeks ago to spend a couple hours with Rick Warren and a dozen or so other pastors. Rick was in town to speak to a conference and Ed Stetzer arranged for him to meet with us. Obviously, this man is bigger than life just because of the book, the publicity he has received, and the impact he has in the church world and society. He is becoming a statesman for the church around the world.
It was a humbling experience. I didn’t choose the seat of honor (I promise), but I ended up sitting next to him in the meeting. Rick talked randomly and conversationally with us and I took notes as fast as I could. There are so many principles I took from our time, but here are 12 random things I gleaned from the time: (Some are quotes…I put them in quotation marks…some are random points of information I heard from Rick’s talk.)
We have a new staff member. His name is Criss Cross. He started in the office this morning (and thankfully I’m out of town).
Criss Cross is our children’s ministries new mascot. We realize churches usually don’t have mascots, but we are passionate about reaching children for Christ. It amazes me to watch children get excited about a mascot at a ballgame. Sometimes they don’t even know a game is in progress if the mascot is nearby. I love watching their excitement interacting with a mascot.
One of my best rules (suggestions) for church planting is don’t try to be a lone ranger. That may work in western movies, but not in church planting. (And even he had Tonto…never understood that…)
If God is birthing a vision in you, the chances are great that He is birthing the same or similar vision in the hearts of others.
Are you feeling stressed? Overwhelmed? Over-worked? Like you can never complete everything you are supposed to complete? Do projects never seem to be as good as you want them to be?
Here’s an illustration I hope will help.
Here is a principle you must understand for organizational efficiency:
Sometimes the best person for the job may not be the person who (you think) can do the job best.
Let me explain…
Think you have a great idea….sleep on it…
If you read this blog regularly, surely you have learned that I’m a risk-taker by nature. I love to encourage big dreams and I want to be a catalyst for idea generation and innovative thought. I’m even a church planter!!! Talk about risk…
In spite of that tendency in me to act quickly, I have learned one principle of leadership by personal experience…this is one of those wisdom learned by mistake kind of things…so listen closely…
I tweeter recently a question. What is one non-negotiable characteristic of a leader you are willing to follow?
Here are some of the responses:
I love exploring Ted.com for exceptional videos. I don’t get to very often, but when I do, I find great stuff.
Here’s one you should consider watching. It’s about 17 minutes long, and honestly he rambles at times, but you’ll get some great wisdom and reminders from a great man. Here’s John Wooden on the subject “What is True Success?”
