Some years ago, when I was church planting, I had a “leadership situation”… it was very humbling, but – in the end – also very helpful. We were in the “forming” stage of launching our church, and meeting bi-weekly as a launch team. I honestly didn’t really know what I was doing; I was flying by the seat of my pants, but was trying my best to move us forward. We began opening the group to outsiders, but I wasn’t really clear whether we were going to have “Bible study”… or “launch team meetings”, where we would focus on what the mission and vision of our new church-to-be. Well, after our first meeting that included people outside the original 13 members of the launch team, one of the young ladies who visited talked to one of my leaders, and apparently her concern was something to this effect: “What was tonight supposed to be about? I didn’t get it…” OUCH! It wasn’t that whatever I spoke about that night wasn’t clear, but the intention and purpose of our meeting was not. Were people coming to be a part of a Bible study? Were they being asked to join a new church? EHAT WAS THE PURPOSE OF THIS GATHERING?? And when the leader shared with me what he was told that night, I left a little deflated. I really wanted to succeed at this thing, but… I felt I wasn’t really nailing it.
And God gave me a word: “GIT!”
Yup… you read that right. “Git”, as in, “Git ta gittin’!” (Of course, “git” is Southern-speak for “get”, just in case some of you are wondering… lol) As I contemplated on and considered what had been shared with me, and how I should move forward, here are two things that became clear that I needed to do:
1) GET OUT OF MY FEELINGS!
Too often, we are so thin-skinned that when we – lovingly or otherwise – are challenged as to our leadership, position, performance, behavior, or whatever…. instead of listening to what is really being said, we sometimes receive that message as a “missile,” as if the person is directly and purposely attacking us. But this response puts us in a defensive posture and can eventually sabotage our leadership credibility and peoples’ trust in us. If we can not respond clearly and lovingly when challenged with truth, we might not need to be leading anyone. Of course, this is true for anyone, whether in leadership or not. We must learn to accept constructive criticism and use it to propel us forward.
2) GET BETTER!
I knew… undeniably… that the MAIN thing that needed to happen was that I had to get better… get better at clarity, better at casting vision, better at simply not trying to do so much at one time. But all in all, I needed to GET BETTER. Was that humbling? Durn skippy it was! But I had a choice… get better, or “git ta gittin'”, because people won’t follow for too long a leader who doesn’t know where they’re going.
That night became for me an awesome experience; it forced me to be very clear about our direction. And clear we became. The young lady didn’t stay, because she was looking for a Bible study, not a new church. And that was okay… because now we were specific in where we were and what we were trying to accomplish at the time.
Sometimes God uses people around us to help us “smooth out our rough edges.” All of us, leaders included, have blind spots… and there are times, in order for us to maximize our growth, when those blind spots need to be addressed. Leaders… when that happens… “JUST. GIT.” Get out of your feelings… and get better…
… because the one thing that will stunt our growth is PRIDE… and there simply is too much at stake for us to crash land because we can not get out of our own way.
Now go. GIT!! 😉
The Plum Line 