Regular Season or Post-Season

Greg Maddux retired from baseball this week. Greg won 355 games and 4 consecutive Cy Young awards. He is definitely a first ballot Hall of Famer. During his speech, he said that his favorite time of his career was with the Braves.  I paraphrase what he said, "It was a privilege to be a part of such a special team.  During spring training, Bobby Cox (Braves manager) would say, 'Regular teams prepare for the season – not us – we prepare for the post-season beginning today'". 

That quote made me think of how we live our lives.  The difference between people with no hope of heaven is they spend their time preparing for this life (regular season), while people with a hope (confident expectation) of heaven spend their lives preparing for eternity (post-season).  That makes the Church a pretty special team to be a part of.

Do we spend our days preparing for the regular season or the post-season…just a thought!

Here is a great video from Mark Beeson, Senior Pastor of Granger Community Church, regarding the election of Barack Obama. Enjoy!


Beeson's Thoughts from Granger Community on Vimeo.

What Voting Taught Me

I'm amazed at the bitter tone of this political season. I am so ready for the political commercials to end. If I looked only at the news and commercials, I would think that America is so divided to a point of hatred. But that is not what I saw!

I saw people from all walks of life – all ethnicities, immigrants and natural-born citizens, young and old – standing in line together for over 4 hours to vote. There was no hatred or suspicion present – not even complaints for the long wait. It was people, Americans, talking and laughing together. I saw a man with his daughter, interacting with another family (obviously from different socio-economic and ethnic background and most likely with different political ideology) in the most civil, genuine way. The 4 hour wait was not anticipated and this man's daughter was getting hungry. The other gentlemen offered and went to McDonald's to get someone else's daughter a sandwich out of the goodness of his heart. I watched the gratitude and camaraderie of these two families and I was inspired. I saw America at its best.

I learned that Washington does not dictate the attitude I display or the love of my neighbor that I am called to possess. I am in total control of that.

On another note, I have traveled to so many countries that do not have the rights we are blessed with in America – countries with ethnic rivalries often resulting in violence. I did not once consider a 4 hour wait as a nuisance. It is still a privilege.

Yesterday was a good day – I saw America at its best.

Facebook

I must admit that I am not a technology expert and slow to get on board with the idea of blogging (just look at the gap between my last post). I was very slow to develop a facebook page, but am so surprised at the amount of people I have connected and reconnected with. They basically break down into 3 groups:

1. Past friends that I had lost touch with. I am really amazed at the amount of friends I have known who have become followers of Jesus Christ. (also amazed at how surprised people are when they find out I am in ministry!!)

2. Former students that I used to pastor in my brief 3 year youth pastor position. When I see the lives they are leading, it brings me so much joy.

3. People that attend the church I serve at that I do not know well, but through facebook I can get a better glimpse of their lives.

2 observations:

1. People respond to the status posts we list, which gives a sense of care and concern.

2. People are conversing with an authenticity and honesty in Facebook threads that you do not find in a typical conversation.

It's no wonder Facebook is growing at an exponential pace.

I wonder if the church, in general, is aware of the deep desire of people for connection and care.

I also wonder how God is planning to use connection sites like Facebook for His glory.

Letting God Lead

This morning, my denomination begins its biennial conference where we will decide our leadership for the next two years and denominational issues that can keep our church relevant. I am concerned because I cannot remember a conference that was anticipated with the amount of cynicism I feel among my colleagues. There are a plethora of ideas regarding the financial issues we face, but I was reminded by a peer last night of the words of Charles Finney, who constantly urged people to "not grieve the Holy Spirit." Finney believed anytime we try to make decisions about the church without consulting God, we grieve the Holy Spirit. While we possess some brilliant thinkers in the Church of God, I pray that each of us individually and collectively, as a body, will seek God's will for the sake of our denomination and His kingdom.

Knowing When to Relate and When to Lead

I just returned home from Scotland after visiting our missionaries with this guy and another guy from our church. Yes, we did play St. Andrews and it was spectacular (I make no apologies!). On the flight from Edinburgh to New York, the flight attendants were still serving snacks in a frenzied manner as we began our initial descent into NY. I asked one of them why they were in such a rush. It turns out the pilots had played a joke and told the flight attendants we would be an hour late, when we actually were almost an hour early. The flight attendants were literally running down the aisles picking up trash and securing items in order to prepare for landing (they even threw the bags of trash onto the bathroom floor!). They sat down to land within 30 seconds of landing. It was extremely funny because I knew what had happened, but I wonder how it was viewed by the other 200 passengers unaware of the joke. The other passengers probably thought the flight crew was extremely inefficient and unprofessional.

It got me to thinking about leadership. It's important for leaders to relate to their employees and volunteers. This should include many moments of laughter with one another that build relationships. However, leadership involves timing. Just as leaders need to make right decisions at the right time; good leaders know when it's time to relate and when it's time to lead. These pilots didn't understand the law of timing. There are moments that require leaders to lead in a transcendent way:

• When it involves mission – jokes would have been fine over lunch, but the crew should be committed to its mission (making the flight safe, enjoyable, and efficient).
  
• When it affects another person's performance – the passengers unaware of the joke simply thought the flight attendants did a poor job of planning.
  
• When it reflects poorly on the organization – the displeased passengers will remember one thing – the airline seemed disorganized!
  

The real problem is that view of the flight attendants is not accurate. These flight attendants were great! They handled some unruly passengers with professionalism and even handled a minor medical emergency with great compassion. It makes me wonder about my own leadership – do I lead and relate well? Am I intentional about timing my relationship and leadership moments to maximize my employees/volunteers potential for the good of the organization?

What are your thoughts?