Many years ago I asked a man to paint my house. Painting my house would have been difficult, (2 story) up on ladders and he would have had to get help. He didn't balk but he piddled about. Painted the easy parts. Told me I didn't need some things painted and pretty much didn't paint my house except in the little things he wanted to do. But I was paying him to do so. He just wasn't getting the results I expected.
So, in an effort to justify his paycheck he tackled my deck. I had a marginal deck and it needed extra work. Without my asking he finished out my deck, put up railings, stabilizing piers and sealed it. Did a great job. Certainly was worth the money I was paying him.
He thought I should be happy. I was, sort of. But, my house still wasn't painted no matter how nice the deck was. It didn't get the job I hired him to do DONE. Making the deck wasn't easier, it's just what HE wanted to do at the expense of painting my house.
In the end we parted company. I had to let him go. I had a nice deck but the house was unpainted. I had to hire someone else to paint the house. They did and it was fine. It's what I wanted. It's all I wanted in the first place. Just get the house painted.
Now, the question is, was I correct in firing him? After all he worked hard. He was on the job many hours. He did make significant improvements to my home of great value. He just didn't do what I needed done.
The answer has to be clear. If a person is hired to do a job and they don't get it done, even if they seemingly work hard do you keep them on the payroll because they are doing other work which appears to be helpful to the overall effort or do you make the change needed to get what you need done.
That is the question. I already know the answer. Do you?
2 comments:
It's like some preachers. They use the Word, and they say they preach the Word, but they do not preach clearly the GOSPEL. They omit the Gospel, or they let the Law mess up any Gospel they declare, and the people are left floundering, and askign themselves"what MORE must we DO to be saved?" Here are acouple theses from "Law and Gospel": 1. The Word of God is NOT RIGHTLY DIVIDED when sinners who have been struck down and terrified by the Law are directed, not to the Gospel through Word and Sacrament, but to their own prayers and wrestlings with God in order that they may win their way into a state of grace; in other words, when they are told to keep on praying and struggling until they feel that God has received them into grace. 2. The Word of God is not rightly divided when the Law is preached to those who are already in terror on account of their sins or the gospel to those who live securely in their sins. 3. The Word of God is not rightly divided when Christ is represented as a "new Moses" or "new Lawgiver",and the gospel turned into a doctrine of meritorious works, while at the same time those who teach that the Gospel is the message of the free grace of God in Christ are condemned and anathematized, as is done by some religionists. 4. The Word of God is not rightly divided when a person's salvation is made to depend on his association with the visible orthodox church and when salvation is denied to every person who errs in any article of faith. 5. The Word of God is not rightly divided when the person teaching it does not allow the GOSpel to have a predominance in his teaching. (adapted from CFW Walther's "The Proper Distinction between Law and Gospel") Rom. 1:16 says, "The GOSPEL is the power of God unto ssalvation to all who believe". Come on, paint the house AND build the deck! from H.H.
What got you here won’t get you there...
Let me try to ramble my way into hopefully saying something helpful.
I’ve been thinking about a leadership paradox that confronts me almost daily.
Leaders who refuse to cooperate with this principle get choked to death by it.
Leaders who don’t know about it are perpetually blindsided and bewildered by the implications of ignoring it.
It goes like this:
What got you here (to your present level of effectiveness)
Won’t get you there (to the next level of growth)
If your church is going to grow, the way you spend your time and the activities you perform as a leader should be constantly shifting.
If you keep doing the stuff you did in order for the church to grow from 0 to 100, the church won’t likely grow to 200. If, after the church grows to 200, you keep fulfilling the same functions as a leader, you’ll never see 500. Same for 1000. And 2000. I hear it works this way as you grow to 10,000, 20,000, and beyond.
The idea of letting going and changing positions is particularly hard for founding pastors to digest and apply.
Because when our churches were starting, we did a little bit of everything.
In my case, everything included leading worship, eating breakfast and lunch with prospective members and community contacts (at my own expense) up to five or six times a week, even writing personal thank you notes to every first time guest, just to name a few.
All of this was necessary for our “fetal” development.
But what if I still made the chord charts and posted the mp3s and led worship and preached for 3 services per Sunday?
What if I still wrote personal thank you notes for every first time guest? (There are hundreds every month)
What if I still ate lunch with everybody who emailed the office asking me to? (I’d weigh 400 pounds)
Elevation’s growth and development would be paralyzed from the neck down.
I wouldn’t be able to give priority to prayer and preaching.
I wouldn’t be able to reflect, dream, and receive vision from God.
I wouldn’t be able to devote myself to leadership development and critical decisions about advanced strategic plans.
If I kept on doing what I’d always done, we’d keep getting what we’d always had.
If you want your church to grow, the way you lead must change.
Often and dramatically.
This includes:
The number of meetings you’re in.
The number of emails you see.
The number of phone calls you take.
The number of phone calls you make.
The level of access you allow.
These things must change. Constantly.
This question should filter every decision about how to invest your working hours:
What is the highest and best use of my time at this stage in our church’s development?
But the shift is not just about the way you spend your time. It’s about:
What’s worth the investment of your emotional energy?
What things will you and won’t you mentally obsess over?
What functions do you need to release in order to reach for something higher?
I know it’s counterintuitive, but I swear it’s true:
If you want the church you lead to grow more, you’ve got to do a lot less.
Warning: Taking the steps I’m talking about will result in serious withdrawal pains.
Because you trade the instant gratification of “productivity” (hitting send and receive on your email 50 times a day or approving a purchase order for a microphone)
for the long term benefit of shaping systems.
But don’t you owe it to those you lead to make the shift?
What shift do you need to make in this season of your leadership?
Get your team together, figure it out…and expect an explosion of growth.
btw - to answer your question...
Who knows best how to tune your car, you or your trained mechanic? Who knows best know to treat your cancer, you or the physician? Why do too many pastors try and do everything pushing aside others giftedness and think they know everything, when God anoints others? God places people in places for His reasons. Sometimes, we're all just too blind to see them...
Solutions & results-they're two different things.
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