Yesterday, I received a copy of a blog post by Steven Furtick from another staff member. I try to keep my stuff somewhat original on this blog, but this one really struck me yesterday. This staff member and I have been talking through the Grace Staff Culture and the importance of the "C's" to our staff and overall ministry. This blog post was also very timely in that I had just returned from a meeting and was feeling rather frustrated with the lack of direction and cultural insight amongst our district of Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches. There was a lot of discussion and theory thrown around, but no hunger (as described below) which left me feeling high and dry in respects to our Fellowship as the majority present seemed to believe that the status quo is an acceptable norm.
I believe this blog post speaks well to what I desire for myself, the Grace Church staff and the Grace Church leadership. Enjoy!
February 10th, 2009
When selecting people to join your team, one of the primary characteristics you should look for is hunger. More specifically: a hunger to see God do the extraordinary as demonstrated by humility, sacrifice, and perseverance.
None of our original core team members had the experience to do what I was asking them to do. But man, they were hungry. And sometimes an ounce of hunger is better than a pound of experience because a truly hungry leader will hunt for wisdom and experience until they find it. And they’ll learn it by living it out rather than philosophizing and theorizing about it.
On the flip side, I’ve found that experience minus hunger equals arrogance and cynicism. Statements like: “But we’ve always…”, “But we’ve never…” and “Why should we bother to…”are a sure sign that the hunger isn’t there anymore.You can’t stay hungry when you’re full of yourself.
Jesus seemed to exemplify this in his senior management team selection process. Peter wasn’t diplomatic…but he was hungry. (A little too hungry?) Matthew’s profession wasn’t popular with the people, but he was hungry to make a difference. Thomas wasn’t always sure…but he was hungry to search for truth.
Check the references. Value the experience. Probe for aptitude. And certainly validate the character. But don’t forget about the secret ingredient called hunger. It covers a multitude of incompetency.
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