Administration

I just re-read the story of Gideon found in Judges 7.  Here’s a quick version of the story, with a few of my observations:

Gideon has 32,000 men and is prepared to go to battle against the Midianites who have 135,000 people.  God tells Gideon that he has too many men.  He wants to remove some of them to ensure that He gets the glory.  He trims the group down to 10,000.  From there, He cuts the group down to 300.  These 300 guys defeat the Midianites by making lots of noise and causing this huge army to start killing each other.

Here are my observations:

*In my opinion you can never have too many men when you are going into a battle.

*Could it sometimes be that God needs to remove some people and/or stuff from our lives so that whenever people look at the situation they can only give the credit to God.  I want to be a part of God doing something so huge that people realize that it could not be manufactured!

*Gideon had to be a great leader.  Imagine telling 300 people that you were going to win the battle when 31,700 people just walked out on you.  Morale probably wasn’t at an all time high.  He was able to motivate them to move forward with only a trumpet in one hand and a torch in the other.

*He had 300 people + plus a vision that God had given him.  That was enough to be obedient, which led to victory!

*Just because something/someone is making a bunch of noise, doesn’t mean that the situation is as big a problem as you think.

*God was glorified in a HUGE way!

David led them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them. (Psalms 78:72)

This verse has always intrigued me.  I think it illustrates perfectly that you need more than skill to lead people effectively.  You also need more than integrity.  I would argue that you need both to lead people in a way that is pleasing to God and brings Him the most glory.

You need more than skill.  I have seen people with an incredible amount of skill  but zero leadership.  Why?  Because no matter how talented you are, people aren’t going to follow anyone who doesn’t have integrity.  People are far too busy to waste their time following someone who is sloppy, doesn’t speak the truth, or continually abuses their power.

On the flip side, I have seen people with incredible integrity and no skills.  They love God and love people but they have no idea how to lead them.  It is evident that they spend time with God, but they cannot sing at all.  This is very important and if I had to choose one of the two, I would choose integrity.

However, I think both are necessary to be the leader that God has designed you to be.  I am praying that God would give me both.  I’m a little greedy like that!

The cat is officially out of the bag (Whatever that means!).

Barber here we come!

Disorganization leads to disfunction.

Not sure I have ever heard anyone say that before.  I was typing an email to someone last week and I made that statement and thought, ‘that’s pretty darn good.’  In fact, right now, I’m typing with one hand because the other is patting me on the back.

Seriously, when things are disorganized and there is no structure, it can only lead to bad things.  There have been times in my life when I was extremely organized and there have been other times that I have not.  I will say that the stress level goes way up when I am disorganized.  Things don’t flow. Everything seems forced.

Who’s to blame?  Unfortunately, I am.  Guess that’s reason enough for the hand to stop patting.

Agree or disagree?

We just finished up 2 days of staff reviews.  We do them twice a year.  This may sound strange but I actually enjoy the process.  I believe it is so helpful for everyone to know where they stand.  For example, it is never healthy for someone to think they are doing an amazing job when they are just average.  It also helps those who feel that they are just doing average to know that they are doing a great job.  We do a pretty good job of being honest around here on a daily basis, but this goes to a deeper level.

It is a process that is designed to help each team member get better at what they do.  The bottom line is this….there are TONS of people that are far from God around here.  We need to be most effective in reaching them!

I just read a great article by John Maxwell about attitude.  Here are some of his thoughts:

*It has been said that “Attitude is Everything”.  That isn’t true.  However, attitude is the difference maker.

*Attitude is an outward expression of an inward feeling.

*Attitude is a choice.  You are the person responsible for it.

*There are some things that your attitude can’t do for you:

Attitude cannot be substituted for competence.

Attitude cannot replace experience.

Attitude cannot change the facts.

I recently read a book that listed these reasons for a person not being in the right positions.  The bottom line is that if a person is not in the right seat on the bus, it is an issue with the leadership of the organization.  It is their job to identify that and do whatever is necessary to help people find their sweet spot.

1.  Lack of Knowledge – The leadership doesn’t know enough about the details of the position to decide if the person is a good fit or not.

2.  Lack of Courage – The leadership doesn’t have the courage to make the necessary changes.

3.  The Psychological Comfort Factor – The leadership will not make the changes because it enjoys the comfort of everything remaining the same.

4.  Bottom Line:  Lack of Personal Commitment – The leadership is not as committed as they believe they are.  If they were, they would make the changes required to go to the next level. 

At Freedom Church, our team believes that what God has called us to do is far bigger than any one individual.  This principles were a good reminder to me that in order for us to see a revolutionary movement of God in this city, we are going to have to be 100% committed to the vision.

From time to time, I like to post my daily schedule to give people a glimpse of what I do.  Here’s what today looks like for me:

6:30 – 7:30     Men’s Group

7:30 – 8:30     Check Email, Blogs, etc.

8:30 – 11:00   Went to Northstar Church with J.R.  He was speaking for their summer camp.

11:00 – 12:00 Lunch with my Pastor

12:00 – 1:00   Checked email, made phone calls, etc.

1:00 – 1:30     Wrote a press release for Family Night Downtown in August.

1:30 – 2:00     Called insurance company, storage place, and mechanic about the truck incident.

2:00 – 2:45     Prepared for college group and wrote this blog.

2:45 – 3:00     Took a break.  Walked around the office.

3:00 – 4:00     Worked on reports and financial side of things.

4:00 – 5:00     Checked Email, blogs, prepared for tomorrow

5:00 – 8:45     Hung out with my family.

9:00 – 11:00   College group at my house.

God has been teaching me a lot about time management lately through various people and things that I am reading.  This is an issue that I think every individual deals with, in some form or another.

I just finished reading Practicing Greatness by Reggie McNeal.  In the book was this quote:

Life is wasted in 10 minute intervals.

Wow!  Very true statement.  I wish I had said that.

While watching the season finale of LOST last week, I heard this quote:

Good command decisions get comprimised by bad emotional decisions.

If every leader was honest, they would admit that this is a struggle for them.  They allow their emotions to play too large of a role in the decisions they know that they should make.  It is hard, but a leader has to be willing to throw your feelings, taste, preference, etc out the window for the good of the organization. 

Anybody remember who made that statement on LOST?