This week it's all about the unseen,
often unconsidered, factors that create church culture. Culture is the water in which our ministries swim.
One of the maxims I try to bring to my ministry setting is the
idea that we can make no mistakes. Now, I am not talking about perfection. In fact, I am talking about the exact
opposite. In our ministry setting, you are allowed to make mistakes, in fact you
are encouraged to make them!
Mistakes lead to discoveries, and discoveries are at the heart of every
launch. There are no successes without discoveries. There are no discoveries without mistakes.
In fact, every successful start-up should have more stories
of mistakes then they do of success.
Mistakes are the lifeblood of lasting success. They are the mark of trying something.
In my meetings with my team this week, I had to tell them that
they weren’t making enough mistakes.
They were playing it safe, doing what they know they can do, doing what
they have always done, in the ways they have always done it. And the problem of doing “the-same-old” – is that it just gets us, “the-same-old.”
I told them, in no uncertain terms, that their job is to provoke, create
a ruckus, experiment, fail, repeat, learn, and then succeed. The only mistake – is not making any mistakes (because the only way to not make any mistakes is to not try anything new.) And, start-ups and launches are all about trying
something new.
Do our teams know we expect them to innovate?
Do they know they are free to deviate from their “work
plans” in pursuit something of bigger, better, and more fun?
Do they know we will have their backs when things don’t
go as planned?
Being excellent isn't about
working extra hard at doing what you're told, it's about making the leap and
doing work that is worth doing. Not starting is far, far worse, than
being wrong. If we start, we’ve got a shot at evolving and adjusting; turning our wrong into a right. But if we don’t start, we'll never get the chance.
“You can make no mistakes. Only discoveries.”
I can’t wait to get up in the
morning and make some mistakes!
Thank you for the good word Jeff. It really uplifted this still wet behind the ears first year Pastor. I have felt bad about the mistakes I have made in my first year, but looking back, they were all made by trying new things and in pursuit of the extraordinary rather than the "we've always done it this way." Thank you, thank you! And prayers and blessings for this new venture, may many come to a new relationship with Christ as other older faithful Christians find their hearts strangely warmed. So nice to see some old familiar faces in the pics, too.
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