Change
At GBCK we are walking through a lot of change in areas of leadership, systems, spiritual growth track, and even our service times. Last Summer there was something brewing inside of me that as a church we needed to change; that is, what got us to our current state wasn't going to get to where we needed to go.
Here are some things we're learning about change, especially from mistakes we made:
• In general, people do not like change. You will always have your "early adopters", but most people adopt change slowly.
• Communication is critical to change. Communicate early. Communicate often.
• Change takes time. People don't soak up change like a sponge; change seeps in.
• Get your leaders and influencers bought into the change early. Don't assume they "got it".
• Change is a process. Plan out the steps to change and then work the plan.
• Vision is the engine to change. Vision makes change a mission. Without vision change becomes a duty.
• Change takes a lot of leadership energy at the front-end.
• Change is good, change is hard.
Bad to Good
I love how God takes a bad thing and uses it for good.
This morning I was reminded of this when reading in Judges 6 the Lord's instruction to Gideon to use the wood from the Asherah pole he just cut down to burn an offering to the Lord. The pole, used to worship the goddess Asherah, was converted to offer the Lord worship and bring him glory.
This should remind us of the Lord's saving and redemptive work in our lives. On a large scale, God took our lives broken by sin (a bad thing) and saved and redeemed us through Christ in order to honor and worship him (a good thing).
But even in our day-to-day lives we should be conscious of the redemptive potential in every situation. Pastor Matt Chandler says we should look for shadows of the Gospel in our daily lives.
Here's a question: If the Lord is in the business of taking bad and using it for good, then what's my part?
Maybe it's praying for a situation, or offering forgiveness, or showing kindness, or taking a risk on someone or something, or obeying that prompting from God, or spending more time with family, etc.
Whatever it is let's participate in God's work of taking bad and using it for good.
"You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." (Genesis 50:20) Joseph to his brothers after they sold him into Egyptian slavery.
“Debt is Dumb”
Clear as Mud
You can never be too clear. Like a window can never be too clean, or water can never be too clear.
Clarity is something we're working hard on at GBCK. Here are some things we're learning, and re-learning, about clarity:
• It may be clear in your head (or in your staff meeting) but it takes a whole lot of work to make something clear to the rest of the congregation.
• Clarity can never be assumed. It's safer to assume things are still unclear, and then keep working at clarity.
• Pop quizzes: one way we want to determine clarity is short "quizzes" that will help determine if something that's being communicated is going in.
• Say it often, differently, and creatively.
• Clarity empowers others and frees them to act. Lack of clarity paralyzes.
• If the leadership is unclear then it's over; what you're trying to communicate will end at the leadership level and never go to the congregation.
• Use sounding boards to gauge clarity. One of my most important weekly meetings is our "Word" meeting where Dane and I go over Friday's and Sunday's sermons. We spend a lot of time clarifying big ideas. "If there's a haze in the pulpit, there's a fog in the pews."
Here are some of the things we're trying to clarify:
1. The vision of GBCK
2. Leadership roles and functions
3. The Gospel
Again, you can never be too clear.
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