Jumping Ship
It has been an insane few months in my world… There’s been a lot of growth and good change at West Ridge since last summer. But with growth and change comes the inevitable invitation to more constant activity. For me as a leader, it has been mostly wins, but some critical losses.
So as I pack up a bunch of camping gear into the bed of my crew cab (McKenna’s putting her shoes on right now to help), I am thinking about one of the wins. What is it? Simple… My team.
God has surrounded me with some of the most non-self-promoting, capable, servant-hearted team-members in the world. They range in age from seniors in high school to senior-citizens. They’re creative. They’re consistent. They’re loyal. And they absolutely love serving God behind the scenes.
I’m trying to turn off the machine for a few days. So far…so so. I just finished my last ‘official’ to-do item in prep for tomorrow’s services, but then I’m setting up the auto-responder and disappearing to a non-disclosed location with my wife and my two daughters. And in my place, I leave a team that can do my job better than I can. It’s a MAJOR leap from 6 years ago when I was having to take phone calls at 6:45am on any given Sunday that I took off. Man, those were the days. The major malfunction in that span of history was big ol’ me, myself, and I. Your team is only as good as you allow them to be. And if you try to do everything your way on your schedule, you’ll forever be ‘unreplaceable.’ (And not for the reasons you’d hope to be unreplaceable.)
Kenni couldn’t be more excited about camping. She won’t let me pack her new Disney princess sleeping bag until tomorrow. And she’s talking about s’mores, fishing, campfires, tents… I’m lovin’ it. Tomorrow begins with me slipping down to Vinings Lake Community Church to lead worship with my friend Paul Richardson who will be teaching. VL’s sent several from their team on an exciting short-term mission trip, so Paul and I will be filling in. Then Annette and the girls are going to swoop in with my loaded pickup, and then we hit the road.
First family vacation since June, 2006. Hallelujah. Only 4 days, but I’ll take it. Especially when the weather forecast for our destination looks like it does!
