The simple is often the profound

I recently took out a book from my public library called Take Your Soul to Work. When I gave it some thought, I realized that not only am I leader at my church, but also within my church district, and at work. (No wonder I get burned out rather easily at times!) I like devotions and I figure I could definitely use some soul-searching when it comes to my day job.

One of the first activities was to write a prayer about your leadership no longer than 3 sentences long. I have to say, after writing my brief prayer, I was amazed at how profound it was.

Lord,
Let me lead with others in mind - with clarity and inspiration. Give me insight on how to face and overcome challenges; do not let me be overwhelmed or exceedingly stressed. Teach me how to become a better leader.

Honestly folks, I don't think I've ever prayed anything this good ever. Not even in lengthier prayers. This is how I want to lead, not only at work, but in every area of my life. Taking a few minutes to think about it and pray about it can only help.

Blessings

Running on E

Did you miss me while I was gone? I usually post every week, but I didn't have much to say for the month of February so I took a break.

I also am usually very upbeat, but for whatever reason, I'm not feeling very chipper these days.

In short, I think I need a Sabbatical. I won't spend a lot of time explaining everything in great detail, but I bet if you're following this blog you probably feel the same way at times. If you are like me, you wear multiple roles at your church. (#smallchurchproblems) I called myself stepping back from the youth leader role, but because our national youth convention isn't in the U.S., I've been thrust back into organizing. Then, besides leading the worship team, I also sing a solo most Sundays. Finally, I agreed to help with our district praise team this year and things are really about to pick up.

Sometimes when you have a lot of responsibilities you start to resent being involved so much. Not to mention I work full time, am a mom, and wife. I have friends, but honestly I can go well over a month without seeing them. I feel like I'm running on empty here. And not in the physically exerted way; in the personal/spiritual way. And I don't mean in the religious sense. It's more like I'm doing so much for everything and everyone and I'm not replenishing myself.  I'd like to chalk it all up to the winter blues, but it's almost spring. (I say that while it's snowing at this very moment and it's March.)

So that's where I am. Stick with me as I try to bounce back.

The dynamics delimma

If you want to have a successful team, there is one thing that cannot be ignored: team dynamics. Bad team dynamics are one of the life-suckers of church auxiliaries.  I think this is one of the main reasons people choose not to participate or join a team. They feel like they can't or won't fit in.

Team dynamics are a critical element in building/running a praise team. It's not enough that people have some musical acuity. You need people who work well together. One of the key pieces that is often overlooked is the willingness of team members to follow the direction of the leader. This is not to say that you can't have an opposing opinion. In the end, however, the leader was appointed for a reason and all others need to fall in line with the leader, as they follow Christ and the pastor.

People who are demanding, abrasive, lack humbleness, are chronically tardy, aren't 100% committed, don't follow instructions, and/or are always telling others what to do, make it difficult for a group to function well. These behaviors are detrimental and often cause dysfunction and grumbling within the team. I think as a culture, we glorify drama like this, but it has no place in the house of God and certainly not on my praise team.

I can hear you now "That's just how Sis. So and So is." My response to that is she can be like that, just not on my praise team. If that means we have a praise team with one less person, so be it. I prefer peace and order to having more members.

As leaders, when roles are not clearly defined and expectations are not communicated, the overall work suffers. The team leader sets the expectations of what behaviors are tolerable or not. If we choose to ignore certain behaviors, we have by default allowed that behavior to become acceptable. Being a leader sometimes means having to have difficult conversations to make the team better.

Let's not ruin our teams, by having members that don't work well with others. I think it's better to have a team where everyone is respectful toward one another and work together in love, than it is to have a team full of people who can saaaang, but are high maintenance. Please believe, ain't nobody got time for that!

Blessings