I read a story about a church that put in a new baptistry. The first time the church used the baptistry, the water ran over and flooded the church. The church board formed a group to study the problem. (Insert your own church board joke here.)
The board bought better mops and held training classes on better mopping techniques … After a few weeks of wet church floors, the board voted 5-4 to order rubber boots.
Days later, a member of the youth group showed them how to turn off the water.
Leaders must be careful to solve problems rather than symptoms. In many cases, the reason it takes so long for organizations to work through obstacles to progress is that teams often focus on the wrong things.
Group think can work well on game shows. “Ask the Audience” worked well for contestants on Who wants to be a Millionaire? The TV studio audience gave correct advice 91 percent of the time. (I’ve seen varying reports on audience accuracy but never lower than 77 percent reported in the UK’s version of the game show.)
The key point to the “Ask the Audience” question is that the contestant usually polled the audience on a fairly low-level question that tended to focus on pop culture. The wisdom of the audience was never tested.
Many of the problems facing an organization require the application of wisdom rather the latest pop-theory or catchphrase.
I prefer to seek “the way forward” from the Holy Spirit. I will pray for the wisdom to make a tough decision or seek counsel on a problem. I will also seek the counsel of godly men and women who are known to have a prayer life.
I don’t want the counsel of someone who doesn’t pray. How shall they know? I don’t need life wisdom. I need to hear from the Holy Spirit.
When I pray to be led by the Holy Spirit today, I trust in the answers I will receive about any problem that may hinder my work.
Lead me to the faucet, not the mop.
Today’s Scripture
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally and without criticism, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5).
NOODLING
Here’s something I’m trying or thinking about today …
It takes less time for your audience to forget you and your message than it does to create awareness of what you have to say.
General theory is it may take 23-30 full exposures to you to plant your message. It only takes about three days to forget you and anything you had to say.
Keep showing up every day.
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