STRATEGY CENTRAL

When something needs to be repaired…are you ever tempted to just break out the duct tape?  How many of you still have a vacuum cleaner with electrical tape holding together your power cord?  Have you ever used "fix-a-flat" and not gotten around to actually having the tire fixed?

In life we’re often tempted to just tinker with something when what is needed is real change.  Here’s a great post on tinkering from John Alan Turner.  You’ll love it!  I especially loved this comment: "At some point in time, if a church is going to survive for the next generation, you are going to have to introduce radical changes."  Makes a lot of sense!  What do you think?

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Isn’t it always tempting to put off those conversations, those actions that will be painful but will lead to change?  To say to yourself, "right now is not the best time."  "After this storm passes, then we’ll implement this move."  "This will make a huge difference…but it will be received better tomorrow."

Let me just say, "Dohhhhhhhhh!"  I’ve been there, too.  But I’ve learned that it just doesn’t help.  Erwin McManus says it well, "The only problems you will solve are the ones that you engage."  To be a good steward of the opportunity we need to act…not just think about it.

I love Scott Hodge’s post on the topic of fast change.  I really loved this section:

"Stop and think about all of the people in our community who might not have discovered a relationship with Christ had we tried a 5 or 6 year transition plan.  Not only would all of those people who left probably had left the church anyway at some point, but it would have taken that much longer to begin reaching new people."

I can only say, "that is the truth!"

Out.

What helps you sort through ideas, arrive at an assumption, and then explain it?  For me it is almost always an illustration, graph, or metaphor.  For example, on my desk I have two 2 liter bottles of Coca Cola.  One of them has never been opened.  It’s tight, about to burst open, full of carbon dioxide gas.  When you shake it you can see the foam and you know that if you take off the lid it’s going to blow!!!  It’s got the real syrup, too.  Because it is the real thing.

I have a second 2 liter on my desk.  I opened it about four months ago and left it open until it began to grow something.  I closed it back up.  When you shake it nothing happens.  It’s still got the real syrup.  But without the CO2 it’s not the real thing.  It’s flat.  It’s got something growing in it, too.  But that’s another story.

Why do I have them on my desk?  I have them on my desk to compare the feeling at  Fellowship of The Woodlands with Lake Avenue Church.  There is an appreciable difference.  I connect it with life-change.  At Fellowship, you could not be in the lobby, in the parking lot, talking with someone at te grocery store without hearing about life-change.  "Our lives are different now."  "Our family is back together now."  "A year ago…"  I called that having a carbonated feel.

At Lake…well, we’re not there yet.  Hopeful, yes.  Moving in the right direction?  Sometimes.

I’m desperate for it!  How can I get it here?  I’m working on that part.  I’m pretty sure it’s a God thing.  And I’m longing for that tingling sensation.

Out.