Well this weeks and next weeks post are based on the theme of learning from mistakes that I have observed at several sales meetings over the last few years. Who said we can not learn how to perform better in the Kingdom by looking at worldly mistakes. Basically, I think we can learn from mistakes I have seen at sales meetings, and how learning how to become better Christians. Today's topic - lack of unity and organization.
One particular meeting I attend every year has about 70 different corporate dealers and reps nationwide attend it. The meeting is always in mid October, it might vary which weekend, but you can narrow it down to two weekends over a year out. The attendees of this meeting are the top customers for the company and the people that try to get new dealers for the company, so it is a important meeting and one that directly impacts the future of the company.
As important as this meeting is, the same thing happens in and around it every year. The company that hosts the event does not begin preparation for this event until two weeks before. Last year I personally know that the companies owner did not finalize his new products until the day of the show, thus causing his production staff to work 30 hours straight. This lack of planning, and last minute decision making, annually lead to screaming and accusations of others lacking both the intellect and physical ability to do their job. Of course, these arguments also lead to further divisions and finger pointing, which only makes the disorganization and lack of unity more obvious to those that are attending the meeting.
The statement that a organization reflects it's leadership is never more true then around this company. The owner is disorganized, and that makes everyone around him have to operate in a similar fashion to cover him. Even organized people fail around this guy as they can not do things ahead of time because the owner has not decided what he wants done. Thus his lack of focus and organization makes everyone else in company become reactionary instead of proactive in their jobs.
Now this is not meant as business analysis post, but I just wanted establish a ground work before looking at how the same problem can exist at churches. Take any ministry, if the leader or director of it is not organized, neither is the ministry. Lack of organization quickly leads to flaws and mistakes being made, which fragments the body and allow seeds of disunity to be planted. These seeds then grow into large and obvious fractures. After these "divisions" occur it takes then more words to fix this disunity - i.e. the companies owner saying that his company is a big happy family does not make it so - it takes fundamental change and work to resolve the issues. Those that are observing us see "loving brothers and sisters" accusing and destroying each other. We accuse others of being less obedient, less prayerful, and may even go as far as inferring that they are not saved or they are in rebellion. A lot of this could be resolved by solving the problems when they are small and simple.
Basically, organization is a top down thing. Sure there are examples of followers or helpers being more organized then the leader, and the support organization may even be enough where the ministry is successful, but the lack of organization at the top will and does effect performance of the ones below. The only question is how badly will the organization be impacted by lack of planning, communication, and order.
This is not to say that a church or ministry needs to run on a strict military type schedule, obviously God moves and changes His people, His groups, His body and His church as needed, but we need not be consistent last minute reactionaries to allow for this. If we know that something has to be done in two months, or two weeks, then we can start on it now, instead of the night before. It is the old prepared student thing - sure you review the night before and you may even make last minute adjustments, but if you prepared over the weeks and days before the test or presentation the last minute review and adjustments are much easier and less stressful. They also make the people around us more comfortable because we are at ease and in control, not stressed and reactionary.
Nothing ever occurs to God. Let me say that again - Nothing ever occurs to God. When testing comes in our life we need to be prepared to handle it. The best way to do that is to be about constantly maintaining a relationship with God, If we are constantly talking and learning from God’s will, then He will show us where He wants us to work. Once we learn where He wants us to work, we should start planning ahead and focused on the goals that God has for us. God has a plan, it does not change, it is clear, orderly, well organized, and planned. This model should be the same one we use for all the ministries we are in, be they as workers or leaders. Simple acts of organization and planning at the top make the work of the followers, and the leader as well, easier. Sure we will make adjustments and changes along the way, but that is no excuse to delay handling things that are not going to change or adjust. It seems to me that 90% of the real last minute adjustments are minor not major and that means that we should have the major stuff ready to go ahead of time.
If we as believers follow God's pattern of planning, organization, and implementation we will make it easier on ourselves and those around us. Being a Christian in a lost world is stressful enough, we need not add the extra pressure of being reactionary and unorganized to it. This will only lead to problems, disunity and the appearance to the world as being little different then themselves.
The excuse of - well I just don't work like that - is false. When something is important to us we plan for it and we accomplish it. Basically, I have yet to see a successful ministry, activity, event, or hobby that did not begin with some basic planning and organization. The people that claim they are unorganized because that is the only way they work are simply making excuses for their lack of attention. In every case I have seen, those people are organized in the areas that are important to them - be it a sport, hobby, activity or event. It is amazing how a unorganized person can know every detail and every date of their favorite sport, team, personality, event, or activity, but they claim they are not planner or detail people. If participating or involvement in the things they like requires planning ahead they are always able to do it. If they have to purchase tickets months ahead for good seats or to get a good place they can do it. If the activity requires travel they are able plan it out, arrive early and they are successful at it every time. Yet, when it comes to things they do not care about they "just work better this way."
To me this is fundamentally the same problem that exist when a child that is able to play PS2 games for hours upon hours and tell you every detail of every character in the game or on their favorite show, but they are labeled at ADD. We make excuses for someone being to old, to young, to educated, to uneducated, to whatever, but when we will look at peoples lives they are accomplishing the things they really want to do, and to do that they are planning ahead and be orderly in their labor toward that goal. We have "unorganized" people that are - master gamers, master fishermen, master coaches, master programmers, master teachers, or master whatevers. Mastery of anything only comes with practice and work, which requires organization, commitment and planning. The exact skills it takes to be a successful leader. We humans always accomplish and achieve what we want, no matter what it takes. There are too many people with thirty thousand dollar boats living in single wide trailers out there that make this human condition obvious.
You may not be unorganized and if you are not, then glad to hear that. I thank you for all the people that your habit helps. You may have learned those skills from the military, from your parents, from teachers, or any other number of sources, where you learned them from is really not important. What is important is that you are applying them to your life, your ministries, and your walk with God. Skills taught, learned and mastered at a early age rarely leave us later, so if you can pass those skills on to a young person do it and begin that process today.
The fact that you are organized makes your job and the jobs of others at and around churches easier. Again, I want to thank you for that and I want to encourage you to not change your pattern and to challenge those around you to develop similar habits. That is NOT to say one must be a dictator or have military precision and order in all elements of a ministry, but you should be a person that is a leader, a follower, a builder, a supporter, or a something in between that keep things organized and orderly. The key is to do this in a manner where you are not inferring with what others do, or even how they accomplish things, but where you are help both leaders, and their followers / supporters / family / friends and the world, function in a more organized manner.
People should realize that God is not unorganized nor is His work. He will not lead people to work for Him in a un-orderly fashion. When we serve God, and do His work, in a un-orderly fashion we are basically saying that we do not consider His work to be as important as our labor in other areas. If we can plan / organize our hobbies, our interests, and our vacations, we plan / organize our labors for and with God. We are all leaders somewhere and it is vital that we take those duties seriously and that we convey the importance of them to others by being organized and orderly in our actions.
