The One with the Meeting

The other day I had a meeting with the executive pastor at our church. I enjoy getting to sit down with him for a few minutes and just talk to him. Although I've only been there for a 8 or so months I've gotten to know him decently well. I play basketball with him a few other guys most Tuesdays and I've had a few moments of interaction with him outside of church.

He suggested that I read through a book called The 360 Leader and it was one of the best books I've read in a very long time. It helps mold the reader to understand that we're to lead up, down and across in our organizations. I say all of that to say that with Pastor Dave's minister, business and leadership background...I trust what he has to say and when he talks to me I make sure I listen twice as much as I talk.

In my meeting with him the other day I was able to pick his brain about our upcoming event "Lights of Lakeland." I'm the type of person that worries a lot when an event is coming up. I've lost more sleep than you can imagine over notarized forms and stressed myself out more than I should over sermon illustrations. So my question to him was something like, "So with Lights of Lakeland coming up, do you lose any sleep over something like this?"

Without even thinking about it he started to explain to me that he doesn't because he plans it out. Everyone in our church has an assigned job and a deadline. He continued to explain that by setting deadlines it helps release the stress of not knowing until the last minute if an event is going to be pulled off. Having deadlines helps keep everyone on task and keeps them accountable.

What is nice is that my office is on the other side of the street from our main campus and so I have a few minutes walk before I make it back to my office. This walk helps me to not only get some fresh air several times throughout the day, but also allows me to process meetings and organize my thoughts before getting back to the office.

On this day I was thinking about how I need to respond to the information that Pastor Dave shared with me. I started thinking about how even people in the bible, like Noah, started with a plan. He knew the materials he needed and what it was going to take to build the arc. He then worked and worked and worked until the arc was finished. Shouldn't we expect that our events, programs and lives are important enough for us to dedicate a few minutes of planning?