Hard Lessons Learned the Hard Way
He’s been the pastor of Brentwood Baptist Church for over 20 years. He’s been a part of a lot of awesome things God has done here and he’s also taken the opportunity to learn along the way. Below is his description of a hard lesson learned that has freed him up to be the pastor God called him to be. I’m thankful for @MikeGlenn‘s guest post on my blog. You can read Mike’s blog here.
Hard Lessons Learned the Hard Way
“Mike, it’s not that you don’t help us when you’re in these meetings. You hurt us.”
Yes, that was said to me. And believe it or not, it was a friend who said that to me. Even more, he’s still my friend. He’s my friend because he loved me enough to tell me the truth. And even though I didn’t like hearing it, I knew my friend was right.
I don’t have the gifts of administration—none of them. I’m creative, visionary, and future-oriented. I can see where the culture and church are going to intersect in the future and how the church needs to prepare for the coming realities.
Now, what else have I told you about myself? I don’t have a clue how to actually get any of this done. If I don’t have someone around me to work through the details, then nothing gets done.
What’s more, when I try to attend to details, I grow bored and frustrated very quickly. In fact, if I’m trapped in the minutiae of working out the implementation of an idea, I quit. My house, my office, my whole life are full of great, but unfinished ideas.
Here’s what this means. I have a person, or rather people, around me who have the gifts I don’t. I need these people around me—those who know me, those I can trust—to break down my ideas into doable next steps.
Not only do I have to have them around me, I have to let them do their work. Once the idea has been handed off, I have to have the self-discipline, indeed the humility, to realize that if my idea is going to happen, someone else will make it successful.
This isn’t all bad. People who have the gifts of administration love meetings, setting budgets, and aligning strategies. I’m glad they’re happy. It gives me more time to think about the future.
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