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Ministry Highlight

Last week, LifeBox held its first ever Campus Directors’ Training. A campus director is a staff member who oversees our staff and work in a particular area. These men and women have taken on the weight of leading our campus ministry. Everything we do is possible because of their service.

It was a confluence of both the past and future.

Of the past because it felt like the culmination of years of trial and error, initial successes, and plenty of skinned knees. But it was also a picture of the future because it made me excited to think about what the future would look like as we trained this men and women in their leadership skills – how many more would they raise up and how much more effective would they be?

Even as the event was going on, three powerful lessons were underscored to me. These lessons are obvious, but I believe they are great reminders for anyone in leadership or anyone who intends to accomplish something significant.

1. The Power of Team

As we assembled everyone in the room, we couldn’t help but think about how far we all had come because we work together. Whether it’s the few campus groups that number in the thousands or hundreds or dozens, we are glad to be walking together. I’m so thankful for the people who have modeled this for us even as we now model it to others – we can accomplish so much more if we stay together. Or as this picture says,

Sometimes these internet humor sites contain wisdom. SOMETIMES

 

2. Invest In New Leaders

To be honest, we almost cancelled this training late last year. With so much going on at work and everyone’s schedules getting full, it seemed better to just focus on the immediate, urgent needs. But now that we’re done, this is easily one of the most significant things we will accomplish this year. It said a lot that Pastors Gilbert and Paolo, both busy men with huge responsibilities over a lot of people, made the time to invest in the future by sharing of their wisdom and spending time with the attendees.

Leadership development isn’t easy and is usually pretty inconvenient. It’s easy to let the immediate demands push leadership development aside. But taking the time to Identify, Instruct, and Impart to young leaders will pay off dividends for years to come. As I listened to these men and women process cases and tackle problems, they constantly quoted and referred to instances in the past when someone took the time to train them. One of them even cited a conversation we had together, which I cannot recall today. But it has become a guiding principle for him. Always be investing in new leaders.

 

3. Listen to the Holy Spirit

We came into the three day training with notes, case studies, giveaways – everything we’d need. I really appreciate the work that our office did in putting everything together. It was like watching a well-run basketball play, everyone knew their parts and executed to perfection.

But there was also enough room to adjust a the prompting of the Holy Spirit. We made two huge changes to the last day of the program that we only came up with the day before. But those changes were some of the more significant things we did. Even as people thanked us for it, CJ, Dan, Ryan, Patrick, and I just knew we didn’t come up with this on our own. It was a great reminder that for all of our planning we don’t know everything. And we were grateful for the Holy Spirit in all of us, speaking and guiding us into the right direction.

It’s good to plan and prepare as much as we can. But we must also always remember that all leaders are still under an authority – God Himself. What is His agenda for our organization, team, workforce, family, personal lives? When we plan and act, it would be wise to leave room for the more effective work of the Holy Spirit to manifest.

We go farther together.
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