Marty Duran came up with a great question on his blog: "You are the new President of NAMB. What are your goals?" Chime in at http://sbcoutpost.blogspot.com
I guess my first thought would be to ask "what sin did I commit to call down God's wrath on my head? Now I'll actually have to work." After that, here's a list, a flawed one I'm sure:
1. Put a 90-day moratorium on new programs.
2. Get on my face before God and stay there until He tells me what to do.
3. Tell some godly people with a proven track record for wisdom what I think God said. Listen to their advice.
4. Take revisions to the Lord.
5. Tell the Trustees what I think God is saying. Listen to their advice. Read this list to them. Listen to them some more.
6. Ask NAMB staff for names of people they most trust within the organization. Meet with those people and listen to them talk about whatever they want to talk about. Once they wind down, tell them what I think God is saying. Listen some more. Pray with them enough for all of us to feel like we actually prayed (this will take a lot of time).
7. Meet with small groups of NAMB staff (8-12 people), and listen. Then repeat what I did with the influencers in #6.
8. Create a field-based strategy (and reduce the administrative-based strategy) to accomplish what the Lord is telling us to do. This will be fun because NAMB staffers will soon want to call it the "FBS" but they'll be afraid to say that out loud, so maybe we can get away from using intials for everything and learn to talk plainly again. Admin-based strategy is easier on the people in the home office, but it's really hard on the people in the field. The field-based version is easier on the people on the front lines (like church planters and missionaries). A field-based strategy is usually harder to measure or to report, but it is more consistent with "caring for the needs of others" (Phil 2:4), so it get better long-term results.
9. Do everything in my power to make NAMB a fun place to work. Watching God do stuff leads to joy, and joy is fun. In fact, it really seems that working for NAMB should be relatively easy. Ask God. Listen. Do it. (Maybe that would be my slogan.)
10. Remind people that the work of NAMB is missionary work, (Ed Stetzer would say, "missional" which is a good new word Ed invented). It means we have a mission that involves fighting a spiritual battle. We might want to learn more about how to fight a spiritual battle and rely on our biblical training and the Holy Spirit more than on marketing or psychology. The latter two arenas are very helpful, but only if we combine it with spiritual fighting. Is it not interesting that Jesus gave us direction on one, but not much on the other two?
I like it that I put a lot of listening in there. My wife & children will tell you that I am a better teacher than listener, but I am working on reversing the two. As I get older, one seems infinitely more important than the other.
I guess my first thought would be to ask "what sin did I commit to call down God's wrath on my head? Now I'll actually have to work." After that, here's a list, a flawed one I'm sure:
1. Put a 90-day moratorium on new programs.
2. Get on my face before God and stay there until He tells me what to do.
3. Tell some godly people with a proven track record for wisdom what I think God said. Listen to their advice.
4. Take revisions to the Lord.
5. Tell the Trustees what I think God is saying. Listen to their advice. Read this list to them. Listen to them some more.
6. Ask NAMB staff for names of people they most trust within the organization. Meet with those people and listen to them talk about whatever they want to talk about. Once they wind down, tell them what I think God is saying. Listen some more. Pray with them enough for all of us to feel like we actually prayed (this will take a lot of time).
7. Meet with small groups of NAMB staff (8-12 people), and listen. Then repeat what I did with the influencers in #6.
8. Create a field-based strategy (and reduce the administrative-based strategy) to accomplish what the Lord is telling us to do. This will be fun because NAMB staffers will soon want to call it the "FBS" but they'll be afraid to say that out loud, so maybe we can get away from using intials for everything and learn to talk plainly again. Admin-based strategy is easier on the people in the home office, but it's really hard on the people in the field. The field-based version is easier on the people on the front lines (like church planters and missionaries). A field-based strategy is usually harder to measure or to report, but it is more consistent with "caring for the needs of others" (Phil 2:4), so it get better long-term results.
9. Do everything in my power to make NAMB a fun place to work. Watching God do stuff leads to joy, and joy is fun. In fact, it really seems that working for NAMB should be relatively easy. Ask God. Listen. Do it. (Maybe that would be my slogan.)
10. Remind people that the work of NAMB is missionary work, (Ed Stetzer would say, "missional" which is a good new word Ed invented). It means we have a mission that involves fighting a spiritual battle. We might want to learn more about how to fight a spiritual battle and rely on our biblical training and the Holy Spirit more than on marketing or psychology. The latter two arenas are very helpful, but only if we combine it with spiritual fighting. Is it not interesting that Jesus gave us direction on one, but not much on the other two?
I like it that I put a lot of listening in there. My wife & children will tell you that I am a better teacher than listener, but I am working on reversing the two. As I get older, one seems infinitely more important than the other.
posted by Dr. Jack Allen at 1:54 PM
1 Comments:
Jack,
I really appreciate your thoughts here. I have been in the field for NAMB (seven years in Maine as a church planter) and agree with your assessment of the admin-based strategy. I am hoping, praying, writing, and dialoguing that there might be a change.
I was at NAMB on Wednesday introducing our new ministry which is setting up networks of youth ministries and teenagers who are willing to be trained and mobilized for church planting. After four years designing and implementing Powerplant for NAMB, we are stepping it up a notch. But my friend Geoff Baggett and I had to go outside the NAMB structure to do something this innovative and invest in church planters, and not just planters but laypeople, and not just laypeople, but teenagers. We are not focusing on events but on the network and not on numbers but on individuals. Anyway there is much more on this at www.missionmpossible.net and I appreciate any feedback you can give us on this ministry. But thanks for your inspired thoughts on the role of the NAMB president. Here's praying the man who gets the job sees it the same way.
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