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Learning From Your Misfires
Eric Bryant writes, "Often we learn the most when we mess up the most. Looking back over 2007, so much went well and yet several things went really badly. Some of my “favorite” misfires which taught me the most include forgetting I’m not the Savior, listening to the wrong people, and missing an opportunity..."
“I’m Not the Savior”
So often in ministry we forget we represent the Savior of the world because we are too busy trying to be the Savior. We slip into thinking everyone needs me and what I bring to their lives.
I found myself getting sucked into this mentality during this past year. Even when I wasn’t at a meeting or an event connected to ministry, I was at home on the phone or emailing people with my blackberry (a.k.a. “crackberry”). After months of sweet requests and reminders from my wife and kids that they need me in their life as well, it finally hit me in the summer when I came across an old familiar passage from Exodus 18.
Moses was so busy helping people (day and night) that he sent his wife and kids away to his in-laws.
Moses got so busy because he believed the same leadership myths I had begun to believe:
--I have all the answers, or at least I know more than the others around me do.
--It’s just easier to do it all myself.
--People need me to connect to God.
Jethro encouraged Moses to raise up other leaders who could oversee 10, 50, 100, and even 1,000 people. He encouraged Moses to teach them the Scriptures, show them the way to live, and show them how to do it. Moses could then entrust to these new leaders the privilege of helping others.
Conversations with my nearly burnt-out family and this passage reminded me that I need to invest in leaders and then trust them to lead! I was stealing the opportunity of others to be involved in serving, loving, and reaching people by my unwillingness to recruit and then trust them.
Read more here at Steve Sjogren’s Serve EZine about Eric’s thoughts on “Criticizing the critics” and “A Missed Moment”
This post has been viewed 194 times and was added on December 20, 2007 by Todd Rhoades. Filed under: Leadership Issues Leadership Development Share this post with a friend right now! View reactions to this post at other blogs... You can really help us out by subscribing to our free RSS feed with your favorite feed reader, or here at Bloglines. Also, you can add us to your favorites at Technorati.
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I'm Todd Rhoades... the MMI guy. I'm also on the team at Leadership Network (although that doesn't mean that they endorse everything I write here). In my past life, I was the founder and developer of a website named ChurchStaffing.com.
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