Okay Bill, So What's The Plan?

I took three weeks off between jobs for two important reasons.  The first was to handle the mountain of details related to selling and buying two houses and relocating to Atlanta.  The second reason was to give me time to prepare for my new job.  That preparation was physical (I was ready for a vacation!), emotional (leaving friendships I had developed over the previous 15 years), spiritual (a great chance to reboot the spiritual disciplines) and mental.  The mental preparation for joining COTA focused on research I did by reading two very helpful books.  The first was called (ominously), "You're In Charge; Now What!?" (Mr. Wages laughed out loud when he saw that title) and the second was called "The New Leader's 100-Day Action Plan."

Everyone has been very gracious to allow me time to get to know the staff.  I've been able to spend time with many people on staff and quite a few church members.  I presented a 100-Day Plan to Dr. Youssef on my first day at work.  The plan is built around four central tasks:

1. listen
2. analyze
3. plan
4. execute

The "listening phase" is certainly not over; in many ways it's only just begun.  There's a lot of overlap to the four phases and I have to be very careful to balance everyone's desire to get things moving against the value of moving deliberately.  The entire process must be bathed in prayer and this forces us to move forward at a wise pace.  I have been praying for you (and for me!) each day and I have a team of people in several states who are praying for all of us.

Okay...nice background.  So what's the plan?

Does anyone remember the very first thing I said the very first time I had a chance to speak to the staff.  Of course I wouldn't expect you to, but my first words to you were chosen very intentionally. The first thing I said was,

"We are a spiritual organization with a spiritual purpose and a spiritual product.  To a great extent our success is linked to our own personal spiritual vitality."

This led to my devotional on the area of personal growth I've been working on during my time between jobs, the value of daily repentance.  So now that we're ready to start talking about how we're organized for ministry, I want to go back to that first statement.

I'm grateful that God has brought me to Apostles.  I'm here because everyone wants our staff to be healthy and effective for God's kingdom.  I have experience leading a church very much like Apostles and serving a senior pastor who is very similar to Dr. Youssef (with the exception that he was British instead of Egyptian).  My time with you this past month leads me to understand where we need to start our journey together.

We don't need to start with job descriptions or restructuring the staff or reviewing policies or setting goals or even discussing our purpose and vision for ministry.  We'll get to all that eventually. We need to start on our knees.

I'll send invitations through Outlook so these events will appear on your calendar, but I want to describe a week of spiritual preparation that we will be sharing together.  Everyone on the "COTA" distribution list in Outlook will be invited and strongly encouraged to attend these meetings.

Thursday, September 18, 4:00-5:00 pm.  We're going to meet to discuss what a spiritually healthy organization looks like.  We're not going to make any organizational progress until we get spiritually healthy, so I'm going to encourage all of us to spend this week considering the status of our personal relationships with the Lord and with one another.  Some may discover that they need to seek or offer forgiveness and experience reconciliation before we can move forward.

Monday & Tuesday morning, Sept 22-23, 8:30-8:45 a.m.  In advance of a meeting on Wednesday, everyone is invited to meet in the sanctuary for prayer. This is an open invitation to anyone who wants to attend with no expectations placed on anyone to be there. There will be no program or presentation; we're simply going to pray for our staff and ask the Lord to restore our spiritual health. I'll make a PA announcement a few minutes beforehand to remind you.

Wednesday, September 24, 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. (includes lunch).  This meeting is a follow up to the September 18 meeting, a chance to gather and discuss the spiritual characteristics of the place where we want to work.  In the spirit of James 5:17, "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed," this family gathering will give us the opportunity to be honest with one another and start with a clean slate.  We will conclude this week of spiritual preparation with worship and prayer and then we’ll share lunch together.

I'm praying for revival.

I believe we'll look back on this week of spiritual preparation as a turning point on our journey together, but only if we're willing to be honest with ourselves and with the Lord about the things that are preventing us from enjoying ministry together and reaching our full potential for Christ's kingdom.  Please pray.