trey taylordiscover | imagine | create

In the last couple of days I’ve had several conversations about strengths and weaknesses, and how important it is to recognize them in yourself.  One of the most memorable moments at this years C3 Conference was when Ed Young said at one point in the history of Fellowship Church he had to move his staff around to different positions.  He said he didn’t kick anyone off the bus he just changed their seats.  And in doing this he found that several people were working outside their gifts and they were much stronger in a different area. 

Over the last year or so I’ve done a lot of evaluating myself trying to learn what my giftings are and I’ve come to some conclusions and I’ve even changed my job here at Bay.  Why would I continue doing something that is not my strength, first off it’s hurting me, and then theres the people or group under me that are also affected, but its keeping someone else out of their right spot. 

Just because you can sing doesn’t mean your a worship leader or just because you are a good communicator doesn’t mean your a pastor.  Sometimes we need to change seats and find our fit.

Share your thoughts…

About 3 weeks ago our staff started going through Dave Ramsay’s Financial Peace University together and while its been good its also been so tough. Last night Beck and I sat down and spent about 10 minutes budgeting and 30 minutes fighting about the budget… what is that all about. Why is it that money is the main thing couples fight over and ultimately get divorced over. However during this fight we realized that we were arguing for the same thing we just were communicating it terribly. It’s true that men and women think differently but its even more true that we find security in different ways, especially when it comes down to money. Ultimately we found out that we were both wanting the same things, to have healthy finances, to give Bella what she needs, and to have a very healthy relationship which means not being stressed about money. I love how Dave puts it, he said

“As you learn to discuss major purchases and budgets and come to agreement, you are agreeing on your value system. When this happens, you will reach a unity in your marriage that you can experience no other way.”

Even though its only been a few weeks, I feel like this class is helping us more than just in our finances but in our relationship.

“God can do anything, you know — far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.”Ephesians 3.20 

You know when you’re reading and a passage jumps off the page at you… well this one did to me and it couldn’t be at a better time. At first, while I was gathering my thoughts about it, my mind was blank and I just couldn’t wrap my brain around it, but then it started clicking. I don’t mean the meaning started clicking but the application started clicking. As if gently the Spirit of God start working in me and started laying this passage out for me in context to my life and dreams.At times when I look where I am now and look at where my dreams are going to take me it just doesn’t make sense. This passage gives me hope that it will happen and it will happen in such a way that is far more than I could’ve ever imagined. It tells me not to give up on the dream that God put in my heart years ago, but to live with his spirit working in me, preparing me, and guiding me.

What does this passage say to you?

In the ministry world, and I’m sure its this way across the board, I find that every day I get distracted from important task by urgent “emergency” type problems that need to be solved.  I have found that I prefer to come in on the days that everyone else in the office is off simply because its less distractions.  Just a couple of weeks ago I had an unusually heavy week full of deadlines and by the end of that week when I looked back I realized I put out more fires than completing all the important stuff I had going on.  Its easy to let urgent matters consume my time to the point that nothing important gets accomplished.  So how do I balance the prioritizing of important task with the spontaneousness of urgent task? While combing through one of my favorite sites (behance.com) I came across an article that offered a few solutions or best practices to consider in managing the important and urgent.

• Prioritize and recognize what doesn’t make the cut. Recognize that compromise is a necessity. Some people narrow their list of important items to just five specific things. Family is often one of the five, along with a few other specific projects or passions that require everyday attention. The most important use of this list is to recognize what’s NOT on it. When urgent matters come up, the “important” stuff you are working on that didn’t make the list should be dropped. You will be surprised to see how much energy is spent on off-list items…
• Compartmentalize urgent matters as soon as they arise. As fearsome humans, we tend to dwell on problems and conflicts. Dwelling takes time and distracts us from resolving the urgent items and returning to the important stuff. When it come to urgency, strive for a bias-to-action.
• Don’t hoard urgent items. Despite how medial an urgent item might be, we have a desire to handle it ourselves. You might think, “Oh this thing is a quick fix, I’ll just do it myself.” Challenge yourself to delegate urgent items to others. Urgent does not mean complex.
• Take advantage of “windows of non-stimulation.” Late nights and early mornings are precious opportunities to make progress on important items with little risk of urgent matters popping up.

This years catalyst labs started off with a good one from Reggie Joiner who is the founder of the reThink Group and the Orange Conference, this is what I pulled from his session.

-Reggie asked, “If you could walk into your church with a blank slate and could change anything without any consequences, what would you change?”            

Wow, what an amazing question… its something we’ve all thought about in one context or another, often guilty of the thought, “if I were the pastor (or leader) I would do it this way.” However put in the context of healthy change and positive movement toward a more relevant and innovative church really doing something to challenge and change our culture. First off, I believe that is something we could ask ourselves once a month if not once a week to continue improving what we do. To continue to change not our content but our presentation and integration.He used an illustration from the movie The Guardian in which Kevin Costner’s character was “teaching” the new recruits in a new way and the older professors were reacting very negatively towards him. He responds to the them like this, “There is a gap between what you are teaching them and and what is really happening out there [in the world].”How do we seal that gap? He also said that in the movie there is a scene in which Costner is teaching his trainee’s about hypothermia by putting them in ice cold water and telling them about the condition as they are experiencing it. Again he catches the rebukes from the more seasoned professors saying that they have classes to teach hypothermia. To which Costner responds, “Yea, but in about two and a half minutes your class will be irrelevant.”

The answer to closing the gap is people experiencing the Bible not just sitting in a service or class. 

Just now, as I was rocking Bella before her afternoon nap, I noticed the bookshelf we had put in her room. We had gotten it from a friend and I had worked very hard to paint it to match Bella’s other furniture. I was disappointed to see that the paint that I had worked so hard to put on it was starting to peel, all 17 coats. Then it hit me that when I painted it, I never sanded off the old clear coat that was on it before I painted it. Yea I know, the son of a ex-house painter should now better right?

A few thoughts on this… first off, before the pretty, shiny, new paint can be applied, there has to be a cleaning off of the old. And it’s really hard work. If you choose my method of skipping that step your next problem is that anything can scratch off that shiny new coat of pretty paint, revealing the true condition of that piece of crap furniture. Secondly, I realized that I’d never noticed this peeling before today because the shelf stays full of stuff… so I never see those exposed places. These rough patches have been hidden by the clutter and chaos. But its ironic that all stuff that is actually pulling off the paint. Its the excess of the books, baskets, toys, and all the other “stuff” that is revealing the true nature of this old, piece of junk shelf that we just tried to pretty-up the easy way.

Apply it however you want… I got a lot out of it, hopefully you will too.