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Long Run or Short Run
One of my mentors told me…
“Most leaders grossly overestimate what God wants to do through them in the short run.”
(When things don’t happen the way they expected, they get depressed and often give up.)
He continued…
“Most leaders grossly underestimate what God wants to do through them in the long run.”
This has always been challenging for me. What do you do to keep a long term mindset?
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Craig,
So true. I remember graduating college and convincing myself that I could change the world in a few short weeks.
With time comes the realization that what you build today may serve to effect what you have 10 years from now. Chances are that the effectiveness that you are having today are a result of the actions and hard work of the past.
To keep a long-term mindset I look at the current success and have realize that most of them do indeed point to laying a good foundation and working hard for a LONG time. I try to look at every task as a small brick in building a great wall. Some days I get tired of laying the bricks. After a long day I can look and get depressed if I think “hey, all i did today was lay a couple of bricks.” I have to remind myself that I am not laying bricks, I am making a wall.
It also helps me to look at successful guys in ministry and then backtrack them. I look at where they came from, how long ago it was, and what the early years were like. We tend to think that effective ministries happen overnight. They are built one (sometimes painful) brick at a time.
Thanks so much for your ministry and insights. Great stuff!
Scot
http://www.worshippl.us
http://www.scotlive.com
I can relate to this post all to well. We just had our first sneak preview service and had 70 people show up. We aren’t doing any real marketing until our official launch on Easter. My point is, did God want a lot more or did I? We had every reason to expect over 150. It’s easy to get discouraged when you focus on what might have been.
The way I focus on the long run is to remember that the short run is only a step in the longer journey. It may not have been as big of a step as I desired but I am still closer none the less.
Craig,
We had a leader speak to me and my teammate as well with the same advice. We began dreaming of new churches before we launched the first one. We cast a vision for multi-site some two 1/2 years ago - just a year in after our launch. It has seemed like we’d never get there. We began with 275 on our launch and grew it to 68 in 8 weeks. I thought about writing a book “How to open and close a church in 10 weeks or less”. But today, we’re hiring staff, we’re preparing for our second site. It’s like the flywheel that keeps picking up steam.
We simply try to grab a hold of the opportunities that God brings are way. To work like it depends on us and pray - because it depends on Him.
I was sitting in our auditorium a while back during a worship gathering. It was packed that day, and we were talking about families - our key thought was “your heritage might not be what you wished it was, but your legacy can be more than you ever dreamed”. I got this sense from God that He was saying “Your legacy as a church can be more than you ever dreamed”. As I looked at the faces, it dawned on me that the people that were being impacted here, weren’t the end of the story. Generations were being affected. Parents were coming to Christ, but they were telling their children, who would tell their children . . . it was an unending story. We don’t often think that way. God is doing, even in the short-term, much more than we often ever realize. That always keeps me going for the long-term!
I think it’s important to have a team around you that balances things. I too overestimate the short-term and get discouraged when I, in all my glory, haven’t done the miraculous! With a team to help balance out your whims and ideas, and then having them help lay out the plan, you can go far. Right now we’re looking for an Executive Pastor to help with that at our church. We’ve blown from 225 to consistently about 435 (may not sound like much but for this town and our facility it’s a bunch) but we need a guy on our team to help manage that, put things in place to flesh it out so those ideas and short-term ideas are all consistently plugging into the big picture.
I can relate with what you guys are saying. The early days of church planting is a roller coaster ride for sure!
Larry, you said you are looking for an Exec pastor. I pray God leads you to the right one.
When hiring, someone taught me to hire someone with double the people in mind. For example, you have 435 people coming. Can the person you hire be effective at 870? Not all can.
I often hired for the present instead of the future. Not good.
Craig,
That’s a great insight. Have you read any of the “Simply Strategic” books by Tim Stevens and Tony Morgan? They speak of that concept in one, I can’t remember which one.
All of us on staff have been at larger churches and are trying to think that way, but as anything, it takes time.
In your comment “I often hired for the present instead of the future. Not good.” I think that is common to all of us. When things are growing like crazy you in a sense have to staff for now and when it’s really growing like crazy (I’ve kept up with Life for years so I remember hearing stories of the growth and even came up a few times) it seems like it would be hard to stay ahead of the curve. I think that’s one thing our team has struggled with. I told them one time that we don’t have the luxury of being a consultant firm where we can watch from the outside and make suggestions, we have to run the church at the same time.
So my question for you and others is this: how do we stay ahead of the curve, staffing for growth, programming for the future, etc while doing the day-to-day things we have to do to keep our heads above water?
Larry, You’ve asked a great question: “How do we stay ahead of the curve, staffing for growth, programming for the future, etc. while doing the day-to-day things we have to do to keep our heads above water?”
I don’t have a great answer for you. I hope others will contribute thier thoughts.
For me, I force myself to schedule regular time away from the office with other key staff members to work on the ministry. I can’t remember who said it, but most people “work” the ministry, few “work on” the ministry.
Most of us don’t believe we have time to stop, think, plan, dream, brainstorm, pray, etc. Truth is, we don’t have time not to.
Other thoughts?
Craig,
Exactly. I was just reading Confessions of a Reformation Rev by Mark Driscoll. He said that he got to a point where he had to stop working in the church and start working on the church.
I am continuing to block my week in order to get the things done and am even building in time set aside for big picture planning. I fighting for it not to get shoved to the back.
Also, there is quite a buzz with the book Getting Things Done. It’s next on my read list.
Peace!
I once heard a guy named Tommy Oaks preach a message entitle “Think Eternity.” The premise of his message has guided me ever since. Look up at the ceiling and focus on the line formed at the intersection of one of the walls and the ceiling itself. See where it starts and where it ends. Imagine the far left-side of this line represents when time started, and the far right-side represents eternity itself. Now, visualize what your lifespan would look like on that particular line. It would be as big as, well the period at the end of this sentence. A dot. So, all our failures, our troubles, our trials - in the realm of eternity - amount to nothing more than…dots. However, there are three things that actually extend longer than a “dot” on this imaginary timeline - God, His Word, and people. So, when I’m wrestling with a “long-term mindset,” I ask myself, “Will this amount to more than a dot, or not?” If it will, I give it every ounce of my time and attention until completion. If not…it’s just a dot! Hope this helps.
Man does my heart resonate with this thread of comments. Nothing has come easy for our recently relocated church plant.
The ups and downs have been so sharp and steady that I wonder if I’m too small to be in this ride.
The truth is…I am. God has given me a BIG dream, but He is achieving it one SMALL step at a time. It’s all to easy to want to just stop the ride and walk away feeling dizzy ~ but something in me just can’t!
A helpful book is “The Making of a Leader” by Robert Clinton. As a leadership development specialist, he’s identified 5 stages of leadership development the God will bring you through.
My good friend and new mentor, Dr. Lon Allison is helping me see how God is using the kinds of things we’ve all been discussing to develop my leadership, one stage at a time.
Think of Moses, 40 years herding sheep in the desert, all the while knowing that he was supposed to be some kind of deliverer. I guess God’s work IN us is so important, that He simply will not cut corners.