In the last few weeks, I've been reminded of a fact that I've known for a while, but never completely put into practice. Andy Stanley in his book, Next Generation Leader, talks about how as a leader I need to only do what only I can do. The reality is, I do a lot of stuff that other people could be doing. And then, I get frustrated when I'm not able to spend the time on areas where I feel my giftedness is strongest in. For example, speaking/teaching is one of my favorite parts of ministry. And I feel that God has gifted me in that area. But, since being back at Magnolia, I don't feel like I've been able to give as much to developing this part of ministry as I'd like to.

Why not, you might ask. Well, I spend a lot of time doing other things. Good things, mind you. I've spent a lot of time putting together our upcoming Mexico mission trip, trying to set up our process for new volunteers, and just keeping up with the week-to-week stuff that goes on in our church. All of that stuff is good stuff. But as the leader, I am coming to a growing realization that there's a ton of stuff I need to be handing off.

As the leader, there's certain things that I must do. For instance, I need to interview our new leaders. But, I don't need to oversee every step of their paperwork and references. I need to lead and cast vision for our Mexico trip. But I don't need to dig through the storage container to inventory all the tools. Whenever I say yes to one of these good things, I am saying no to something that is potentially more in line with my gifts and vision.

As a church staff, I feel like this topic has been an emerging theme. All of us are busy. All of us do a lot of stuff. But are we doing the right stuff? There's literally hundreds of people in our church with gifts that would excel at doing some of the things we're holding onto. My plan for myself is to develop an Excel sheet that will help me evaluate what I'm great at doing and what I'm bad at doing. Also, it will help me see what I love doing and what I hate doing. And then the first step will be to hand off the things I'm bad at and hate. And then the things I'm bad at and love. And then the things I'm good at and hate. And so on and so on...

This entry was posted by Mike Lovato, on Monday, March 06, 2006. You can leave your response.