God is always just on time

It is a big deal in business and industry - just on time delivery. Rather than warehouse inventory the big deal is to have inventory get to you just when you need to deliver it, not before. It saves a great deal of money and is far more efficient.

God works the same way in regard to our needs, whether in our ministries or personal lives. Often, He does not send what we need beforehand but He is never late. He is just on time!

A friend shared last week how they received a gift of $2,000 just as they needed it. Another friend whose ministry has been in real need of cash for a year and a half received one million in financing last week. Here is the interesting thing about that financing: He has been looking for it for a long time but in retrospect he said, it was a blessing it did not come prior to now because of how God used the interim period without that financing to do things that would not have happened if the money had been their earlier. God knew what he did not know and delivered what was needed at the perfect time.

This is where trust and faith in God's eternal and sovereign plan plays into our lives and ministries. He knows what we don't know. He has promised to supply our needs but tells us not to worry about "tomorrow." The tomorrows belong to Him, not to us. And He knows which tomorrow is the tomorrow when our needs will be met perfectly. And He shows up - just on time.

He also knows when to not answer our prayers - at the time - because in not doing so He knows that we will find breakthroughs that we would not have found otherwise. When North Coast Church in Vista was in a relocation process they were held up for several years by a lawsuit from neighbors who did not want them building on their property. The church kept growing however, and they were forced to look for alternative ways of doing ministry. So was born the multiple venue system of worship which has allowed North Coast to grow to over 7,000 before the move and has influenced churches all over the United States and beyond. What they saw as a hassle (a lawsuit) was actually a blessing that blessed thousands of churches across the country.

God is always on time. But it is always His time rather than our time. And because we are in a hurry when He is not we are constantly encouraged grow in faith. As we grow in faith we become more comfortable to live in His time zone rather than in ours.

God asks us to pray for our daily needs. And then to trust Him for His provision, which will show up at His perfect time - not ours. But His time is indeed perfect.

Three questions every leader should ask - in this order

Every leader should be able to answer three questions regarding the team or organization they lead. They are not always easy questions to answer but they will spell the difference between success or non-success in their leadership.

One: Am I absolutely clear on what the outcome of our ministry needs to be? Why start with this question? Because the target drives the next two questions and without clarity on the goal one is simply doing nice things not focused work.

Two: Do we know what activities best support the results we are after? Not all activity is equally effective. The work of a team or organization should be specifically designed to reach the stated goals. Often they are not. So simple but often ignored. How does the activity you have support the goal you are after? And is it the best activity (strategy) to achieve what you are after? Are you satisfied with the answer?

Three: Do I have the right people in the right seat in order to focus on the strategies need to achieve the intended result? This is a hard one because we get stuck in our organizational paradigms and often don't realize that either we are not structured to get the result we want or that we don't have the right people to do so. That requires some hard decisions.

We often start at the beginning when often we need to start at the end (what are we after) and then back up to (what will get us to what we are after) and finally to evaluate whether we have the right people positioned in the right way to get us there.

TJ Addington of Addington Consulting has a passion to help individuals and organizations maximize their impact and go to the next level of effectiveness. He can be reached at tjaddington@gmail.com.

Is your staff more family or more team?

I am working with a church that is in a common spot. Their staff is more like a family than a team and they need to make the transition from family to team.

Staff as family has an upside and downside. The upside of course is that there are loving and caring relationships - which should characterize any healthy staff. But there is a downside when staff see themselves as family. There is often a reluctance to push into issues together that need to be addressed for fear of stepping on the toes of "family members." In other words, collegiality becomes a higher value than robust dialogue or honest feedback.

The issue of results and accountability for results often suffers in this environment. As a family member, I am unlikely to try to hold my brothers and sisters accountable for results which means that staff as family has very loose accountability and often, staff members who are unproductive are not challenged for years even though everyone is aware of the lack of productivity. Even leadership is hard in "staff as family" because in a family system consensus rather than leadership is the key factor with family members uneasy about creating waves or stepping into leadership.

I come from a large family and know the delicacy of family relationships and where one might or might not go or might or might not say. In the same way when staff is family there are clear limits on where staff go with one another, even if it means elephants in the room that everyone knows are there.

Staff as family is often "nice" but not very missional. Families exist as families, not as missional teams. Staff as a healthy team is a whole other matter. It is collegial for sure but it is also deeply missional.

I would describe a healthy team as a group of missionally aligned and healthy individuals working strategically together under good leadership toward common objectives, with accountability for results.

Healthy teams are about alignment of the whole organization around a passionately held common mission. They are synergistic in harnessing the various gifts on the team and focus on the bottom line, which is delivering on the mission - achieving actual results. They are egalitarian in culture where robust dialogue is encouraged and they are led by healthy leaders who love to empower and release team members to do their thing. The ethos is characterized by a commitment to results, good emotional intelligence among members and meaningful meetings.

Think about the contrast between a culture of "family" and a culture of "team." The first reminds me of "Minnesota nice" where only nice things are said and truth often gets lost in the shuffle. The other is deeply missional and synergistic around a mission one is passionate about under good leadership.

The transition from family to team is not always easy. A new set of rules need to be learned. Relationships need to be renegotiated around mission rather than "best friends." Some make the transition well - usually those who are committed to real results and missional effectiveness. Some never make the transition because it imposes a whole new work ethic and level of personal discipline.

In fact, your best players will be frustrated with staff as family precisely because it lacks the missional focus, synergy, discipline, focus on results and leadership. They will flourish, however, in staff as team if it is a healthy team with the right players.

If you are on staff, which paradigm describes your staff: family or team?

Conversations - why they matter

I recently was asked to sign a document that I could not in good conscience sign. Thus I asked for a conversation with the individual who was requesting it. What I received instead was an email that stated a position based on incorrect assumptions and fears. Not only did it shut down any dialogue but it was decidedly not a conversation.

When there is an issue to be resolved, email missives rarely resolve them. Often they escalate rather than deescalate conflict. They are one way communications that state positions which is not a conversation. When dealing with conflictual situations they are by nature impersonal and decidedly one sided. 

Conversations, on the other hand, are an exchange of ideas, positions or concerns that have the potential to clarity and get to issues that underlie one's concerns. It allows for questions and clarifications between two mature individuals. Often, even if there is not full resolution there is much better understanding from such dialogue.

If the individual above had been willing to converse I believe that many of his concerns would have been alleviated. Instead, by shutting down conversation (stating a position in an email with underlying wrong assumptions) he lives with his unfounded fears.

Where there is an issue, don't negotiate it by email. Try a conversation. It is more productive and certainly the more mature route to take. Any of us can state positions by impersonal email. Being willing to engage in a conversation demonstrates both greater humility and EQ and it has the potential to resolve thorny issues.

Reflect, focus and refocus

New Years is an important time for all of us. It is a time of endings (the past year is behind us) and beginnings (a new year is ahead of us). It should therefore be a time of reflection, focusing and refocusing.

Reflection on the past year is important. How have we experienced God's goodness in our lives? What lessons have we learned. How has the Holy Spirit shaped us? Even for those who don't normally journal, jotting these things down will remind us of our growth in Him, His faithfulness to us and it becomes a milestone in our journey. 

Focusing on what we need to pay attention to this coming year is also important. Often that becomes clearer to us as we consider the year past. For me this involves the three to five truly critical things that I know I need to focus my life on.

The refocus is thinking through how I ensure that those big rocks I need to focus on get into my calendar for 2014. What will it take for me to accomplish what God has put in front of me? It is connecting the compass (my priorities) with the clock (my calendar).

I am thankful for seasons because they bring new beginnings, new possibilities and closure to situations that I would rather leave behind. Some have recently commented to me that they want to leave 2013 in the rear-view mirror. Now it is. The question is what we will do with 2014. It is in the headlights before us. Together with God, let's make the most of it. With each year the milestone numbers go up and the number left go down.

Why I am leaving the "ministry"

A fascinating post about professional ministry in America

Why I am leaving the "Ministry"

When leaders struggle with disillusionment

Ministry is not for the faint of heart or the easily discouraged. Disappointments can be many and even the best of leaders struggle with disillusionment from time to time.

Usually when we do so it is because we have lost perspective on the part we play in God's redemptive history and the part He plays. They two are not the same! We are players in a much larger drama that is being directed by God, not us. 

When discouragement and disillusionment come we as leaders need to be reminded of what we tell others...

One: God is good all the time even though we live in a fallen world. His goodness can always be counted on and must be trusted in for if He is not good the very character of God proclaimed in Scripture cannot be trusted.

Two: God’s goodness does not preclude us from suffering. Indeed, we share in the fellowship of His sufferings and our scars become divine scars if we trust Him in the mist of our pain.

Three: God’s ways are indeed inscrutable to human eyes: majestic, eternal, sovereign and divinely good in ways that we cannot understand this side of eternity. We exist as part of a divine drama on a stage so large and complex that we often can only comprehend a small portion of the unfolding story.

Four: There is an eternal purpose in all things that transcends our limited understanding.  But that purpose is good and will be fulfilled in the glory of God being known across our globe. Often, failure and pain are the antecedents to amazing glory and eternal success.

Five: We play a humble part in God’s eternal purposes and cannot personalize His ways as our responsibility.  We live with the joy and pain and difficulties of this life. When we carry burdens He was meant to carry rather than us we become weary, disillusioned and often angry. They are His purposes, His burdens, and a part of His inscrutable plan. We must leave them to Him.

When we become disillusioned it is usually because we have taken on responsibility we should not take on. And, have usually lost our perspective on the part God plays and the part we play in His purposes.

All of T.J. Addington's books including his latest, Deep Influence,  are available from the author for the lowest prices and a $2.00 per book discount on orders of ten or more.