Tag: Vision

Defining the Direction

garyalbrittonLeave a comment

Earlier on in my marriage I had gotten a new phone. It was one of the first smart phones with GPS built in. My wife and I were going out to eat in Dallas for our anniversary, so I put in the name of the restaurant and headed for Dallas. Going from Cleburne, it is easiest to jump on HWY 67 which basically drops you off on the outskirts of downtown.

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As we approached 35W, the GPS began telling me to head north on 35W. I am driving and thinking to myself, “this GPS has no clue what it is talking about.” So, I keep on going thinking it will realize the “correct” way to get there, but it does not. It begins says, Recalculating… make a U-Turn. After the second and third Recalculating, I begin talking to the GPS (as if it could hear me) “No, I will not make a U-Turn!” Finally, after realizing the errors of its ways and my superior intellect, it remaps our trip the way I want to go. We are flying and everything is going good I was right and the GSP was wrong.

About 10 miles from Dallas a warning appears in the middle of the screen, “Warning Construction Ahead, expect delays.” Now, my own phone was mocking me, as if the bright red stream of taillights illuminating the night sky was not enough, my phone needed to rub it in. So we wait, and wait, and wait. Eventually we made it to the restaurant, and yes, the GPS would have gotten me there much faster.

It knew a better way to get there and had a much more complete picture. The problem was it did’t show me the bigger picture. If it had taken the time to say, “Gary, if you go this way you will get there, but you are going to get stuck in Dallas Construction Traffic, so go this way, trust me,” I would have done exactly what it told me to the first time.

As a leader, you have to try to paint a clear picture for people of where you are going and how you plan on getting there. People want to follow someone who has a plan. People want to follow someone who knows where they are going. So if as a leader, you are not real sure of where you are going, or how you are going to get there, or what it is suppose to look like, then you will always have a hard time convincing people to follow you.

Many times the problem leaders in the church face stem from not really knowing where we are going. Leading when you don’t have clear direction as to where you are going is next to impossible. So, as leaders it is really important that we work to define three things. One, where we are heading. Two, how we plan to get there. Three, what will “there” actually look like.

As you are defining the ministry, begin with the end in mind. You are not just building with what you currently have, but what you hope to have. So, below are several questions to help you as you define the ministry that you are leading. It is also very important to revisit these questions on a regular basis, clarifying and redefining as you are growing and learning.

Where are you going?
Who is this ministry trying to impact?
What is the purpose of this ministry?
How does this ministry play into the over mission of Shiloh Road, to KNOW God and make Him KNOWN?

How do we get there?
What resources do we need for this ministry to be successful?
What are the challenges you anticipate along the way?
Draw an organizational chart for the teams and positions you need in place for this ministry to function at its fullest potential?


What does “there” look like?
We will consider this ministry to be successful if…
What will be the first indication that this ministry is no longer effective in fulfilling its purpose?

A few reminders as you engage in this process. 1. Priority of prayer throughout the process. 2. Invite other people into the discussion who are passionate about this ministry. 3. Begin with the end in mind. 4. Think big. We serve a God who is more than enough, who exceeds our expectations. 5. If you want to go deeper into this process, here is a strategy-worksheet_srcc we have adapted for Shiloh Road. It will go much more in-depth into this process of defining ministry.

This is a series of blogs for Shiloh Road Leaders (staff, shepherds, deacons, and ministry leaders) to help you prepare and plan your ministry as we move forward into the new year and beyond. If you lead a team, get together as a team to work through these exercises. If you are over several ministries, encourage those ministries you oversee to make this a priority.

Looking Back Before Looking Forward

garyalbrittonLeave a comment

This will be a series of blogs for Shiloh Road Leaders (staff, shepherds, deacons, and ministry leaders) to help you prepare and plan your ministry as we move forward into the new year and beyond. If you lead a team, get together as a team to work through these exercises. If you are over several ministries, encourage those ministries you oversee to make this a priority.

When I was in Cleburne, my good friend and secretary Lisa Jo alerted me to a bad habit I had developed. I have a tendency to get frustrated with people when I had “throughly and adequately” explained something to someone. Once I realized they did not understand I would explain myself again. This time only slower and louder. The instructions would not change, just my tone and frustration level. I would keep saying the same thing, hoping it would finally get through.
So many times we do this in ministry… What is the plan for the coming year? Same thing as last year. What do we need to budget this year? Same as last year. Sound familiar? The scary thing is many churches and ministries operate like this.

Elemental

Here is the problem. We serve a creative God. More than that, you were made in this God’s image. Yes, the God who created the heavens and the earth made you in His image. That means you are oozing with creativity. Most of the time when I tell people that, they respond with, “oh, not me.”

My guess is as a kid you had an amazing imagination, you were a doctor, athlete, policeman, fireman, nurse. You never left your home but could travel around the globe. You had the ability anytime, anywhere to let your imagination fly. My guess is somewhere along the way someone convinced you it was no longer necessary, or maybe even dangerous to have such an imagination.

So we find a routine, we get comfortable and we settle in. It’s life. However, I believe God called you to more than just a routine. He has invited you into his story to serve, lead, and impact the kingdom. His desire is for you to fully engage your mind and your creativity.

Most people think the creative ones just “shoot from the hip” and everything is just thrown together haphazardly, but I would disagree. The most creative people I have come across are planners. The carve out time to think and dream and plan.

There are so many things I am thankful for at Shiloh Road and I am so excited about what God is doing. So as we move forward into 2015 I want to invite you to sit down and evaluate and dream. Over the course of the next 3 weeks, there will be 4 blog posts (Evaluate, Define, Dream, Focus) to help you to effectively and creativity plan with 2015 and beyond. This is not for a grade, you do not have to turn it in, this is simply to help you plan for 2015. You will get an email link for each one, where they will be posted to my blog, garyalbritton.com.

PHASE 1: evaluate
1. What did you do this year? (not in terms of tasks, what did you do that made a difference as we strive to make God KNOWN.)

2. What aspects of your ministry did you enjoy most over the past year?

3. What aspects of your ministry did you enjoy least over the past year?

4. What are the things in your ministry that allow you to serve out of your giftedness? (ie. communicating, organizing, artwork, etc)

5. Are there areas in your ministry that are outside of your giftedness which you could pass on to someone else? You do not even need to have someone in mind. (ie. communicating, organizing, artwork, etc)

IRONMAN 70.3 FOCUSING ALONG THE JOURNEY

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Do you ever have a tendency to lose focus?  I do.  It started to become more and more evident during my Ironman training.  One afternoon, I was running by myself, a seven my mile run, very hilly loop in the country.  The first two and half miles include about 350 vertical feet of climbing.  I started out great around an 8:30 pace.  For me it is great and I managed to keep it sub 9-minute miles through the first half of the run.

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The run flattens out nicely for the middle part and finishes off with more climbing.  What was fascinating, was as I was running on the flatter portion of the run, I looked down at my watch and found my pace had gone to around 10:30 a mile for the middle part of the run.  I was not breathing hard.  My heart rate was in the mid 130’s.  I was fine and so I picked my pace back to finish out my run.

So why does it matter?  Do it too often and you aren’t getting better, your just going through the motions to do them.

Is it possible this happens to us from time to time in our walk with Jesus?  We simply lose focus.  Things get easier; we “get the hang of it.”  We start doing things not push our self and grow but simply to do them because we are “suppose to.”

We have to learn to become nearsighted and farsighted at the same time.  I know that makes no sense, but it is important whether you are an athlete, a leader or a follower of Jesus.  I was far sighted.  My mind was set on April 7th.  All I knew was I would step up, well actually swim up, to the starting line of a 70-mile race and if I were not prepared, I would not make it.  A date had become my focus.  The problem was I began just doing all the things needed to get ready for the date, rather than focusing on all of the steps in the journey and getting better along the way.

Toward the end of my training, about 3 weeks away from the race, another swimmer at the pool I train at name Chris put it in perspective for me.  Chris is a great athlete; he is in his mid 50’s probably and has done some amazing endurance events including super marathons and full Ironman’s.  I asked Chris one day what his next big event was going to be.  He looked at me and said, “well I am going to swim the best I can to the other end of the pool and then I am going to swim back.”  I was expecting to hear, I am doing a marathon or an Ironman but his entire focus was on swimming the next 50 yards in the pool.

It occurred to me maybe I had missed the point of my training.  It was not to just do it; it was to get better.  Maybe we do the same in our walk with Jesus.  Focusing so much on the big picture and how the journey ends that we miss out on growing through all the little steps along the way.  The reason we read scripture is not to know the Bible better but to know Christ better.  To understand his will.  To spend time with him simply because you are hungering and thirsting for Him.

God feared this would happen to the Israelites, he feared they would lose focus.

10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.11 Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. 16 He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.

It is amazing how easily we can lose focus as the terrain becomes easier.  It is in the difficult times we cling to the Father, we focus on Him and thirst for Him.   But when things are easier we tend to lose the nearsightedness required to walk with Christ.  It is in the difficult times we focus more on one step at a time.

In the last few weeks we have seen the Boston Marathon bombings, a Fretilizer Plant explosion in West, TX, have good friends who lost a child and others trying to understand the magnitude of a young father suffering with cancer.  It hurts me to see so many others in pain and I rush to say, “God where are you.”  Maybe his response would be the same as it was for Israel.  I am their leading you through this vast dessert.  Notice, God did not take Israel out of the dessert He led them through it.  And there is a huge difference.  He provided for them in the midst of their struggles, but he did not take their struggles away.

This song from Laura Story is such a great reminder of a God who walks with us through the trials…

Blessings

Maybe it is not until God has led us through the pain and heartache of the dessert that we are able to look back and see his finger prints all over canvas of our life.

THE VISION OF A LEADER

garyalbritton2 Comments

Vision, it is one of our five senses and just like all of our senses we tend to take for granted that we can see.  I can’t imagine what it would be like to live without sight.

Yet, many people are completely capable of living without sight; they find ways to make it work.  However, they will never be capable of doing everything they could do as if they could see.  A lack of vision greatly limits life.  In leadership a lack of vision is magnified many times over and is far more detrimental.  In a leadership role lack of vision no longer simply affects the one without sight, it also effects all who follow.  It truly becomes the blind leading the blind.

I find it amazing; with vision being as important as it is, how easily as leaders we lose sight of our vision.  For a church when the leadership loses sight of the vision the people lose their way.  When the church loses sight of the vision it turns inward.  Once the vision turns inward it is impossible to truly follow Jesus because Jesus was constantly focused on what was happening out in front of Him.  He was constantly focused on building His Fathers kingdom.  Think of it like this, Jesus said in the Great Commission to “go into all the world.”  Going requires vision.  Of course you can go with no vision, but you will never be capable of accomplishing all God is calling you to as a leader if you can’t see where you are going.

As leaders there is an incredible burden to continually be refocusing yourself and others on the vision.  But how as leaders do we stay focused?

  1. We must continually be pursuing Christ, through prayer, study and communing with Christ.  As leaders we should be saying to people, as did Paul, “follow me, just as I follow Christ.”  As leaders we must fight against vision loss in followers, but that fight begins by making sure we do not lose sight of the vision our self.
  2. We must continually check our direction.  It is so easy to lose sight of where we are headed and it is even easier when people feel there is no one leading them to wander away.  How do you check direction?  With a compass.  As God gives you vision you must be developing action plans and goals from that vision.  You have to have a way to measure and see where you are.  This should be done on a weekly basis, because it does not take long to get lost.
  3. Most importantly keep pushing forward.  It is far too easy to lose sight of where we are when we stop moving.  What can cause us to stop moving?  Other people can distract us from the vision, through complacency and complaining.  Busyness can also distract us from the vision.  It is imperative as leaders to learn the word no.  We have to learn to say no to good things for better things.

Leaders, I want to encourage you to stay focused on where you are headed because your vision is vital to your leadership.

Where there is no vision, the people perish.  Proverbs 29:18