I read a great blog post recently by a guy named Casey Graham. Casey is a church consultant whose insights I’ve found to be helpful on the church management front many times. This blog post went a new direction in helping me, though. And I thought it was the kind of content that might be helpful to others as well.
Casey discusses the process of going from personally investing time in every client relationship and then growing his business beyond his capacity to sustain that. He realized what I think many of us need to realize as well.
If you are available for everyone, you will become available for no one.
Some have more capacity for emotional connections than others but none of us have an unlimited one. If we become more available to all of our clients or people we serve, we will become less available to our family and friends. And some relationships are so important that they need to take priority.
Read more here.
Tag: paradox
Do the Honey Do List Second
Once in a while, I find myself with spare time on my hands around the house. It’s rare, but it happens a few times per week. When I find myself in that position, I am so unselfish 🙂 that I look for things I could do to surprise my wife:
Wash the dishes, pickup around the house, really surprise her by taking care of some laundry…
One of my love languages is acts of service, so I immediately set to work on one of these small items, knowing that my wife will be so blessed when she gets home and finds this task done. She will, it’s true, but there’s a problem with my thinking if I always resort to this list first…
There are a few tasks in my world that will never appear on a list, my wife will never ask me to do, and she’ll never be surprised that I’ve done them. In fact, she probably won’t even notice – unless I neglect them completely.
Studying the Bible, exercise, praying for our marriage and our children, managing our finances…
These things will never appear on her list, because they’re “my job”. Those other things need to be done and when I have time, I should show honor and care for her by doing them. Never at the detriment of the things that are my primary responsibility though.
Hey dads, are you neglecting “your job”?
Fixed Pie vs. Abundance
I work with a great team in an awesome organization. And one of the things you learn leading a team is that people are different. Okay, duh, you knew that already. But trying to lead a team forward on an initiative, especially a new or challenging one, will reveal lots of “differences” in people. Here’s one example:
Don’t read any judgment into these writings ESPECIALLY if you work with me!
Fixed Pie Thinkers
You know the people I’m talking about. They are always thinking about how allocating resources to this new thing will affect their piece of the pie. Because the pie only has eight slices, so if her slice gets bigger, or if someone new comes in, I’m going to lose some. In ministry, we refer to these people as good “stewards”, because they are really good at managing on a budget and saying no to new things that come along because they don’t fit. When it comes to volunteers’ schedules or a leader’s attention span, there is a limit to how much you can navigate in a church. I contend this is also something you should consider when planning announcements. The more you talk about in a service or meeting, the less people will hear or remember.
Abundance
On the other side, we have people who see “no limits”. There’s always more room at the table, money in the budget, and hours in the day. After all, who needs sleep? In ministry, we sometimes say these people walk in a greater measure of “faith” than the rest of us. While one area that is often considered a fixed pie is the resource pool of your church, I contend that God really does have more than enough finances and volunteers to do everything He is calling you to do. It may require greater vision and prayer or asking in ways that you aren’t used to asking, but there is more out there.
The truth?
They’re both right. The glass is both half full AND half empty. So sit down right in the middle of that paradox and figure out how to navigate forward. You have to esteem both perspectives or you will only bring part of your team along. Both sides of the team will need to be on board to get the victory God has for you. Congratulations, leader; hard as it is, that’s why you are in your role.
Have you ever encountered this?