Are you dreaming or making a plan?

Martha and I have been going through this excellent team-building training/leadership training over the last year from GiANTWorldwide. It has truly been revolutionary in how we interact with one another and how we interact with our team – all of whom are outsourced. There are so many qualities a good leader should have, but upon self-evaluation, the one I need to work on the most is the “Provisional/Plan/Promise” conversation. It turns out that the words I use could be undermining my leadership at iWork4Him.

If you are a dreamer like me, who is also an entrepreneur, you probably come up with original ideas all the time to keep yourself busy. I read a ton of books for the podcast and run across fresh ideas all the time, so I feel like I am continually filtering out my many ideas to only share the cream of the crop. However, when I dream out loud, sometimes I am inadvertently communicating that I plan to carry these dreams into realities. All I was doing was dreaming, but because I didn’t tell everyone that I was dreaming, they thought I was espousing a new direction or directive. So, Martha has learned to ask me. Is that provisional (dream), a plan (something we potentially will consider), or a promise (truly a direction we will take.)

Over the last three decades, I’ve been guilty of confusing the employees on my teams. I often would test-drive an idea in front of them, seeing how it landed but never clarifying if it was provisional, a plan, or a promise. For instance, there was the time I talked about moving our insurance agency to a new building around the corner. There was another time I talked about planting a church in our old town of Indian Rocks Beach. Then recently, I discussed my desire to buy a whole Christian media conglomerate so we could change the entire direction of Christian talk radio. These were provisional/dreams, but many of our employees thought I was planning or promising that it was our next step.

So, what about you. Do you offer clarifying statements when you share a new idea? Do you let people know whether you are dreaming, planning, or promising an outcome?

As followers of Jesus in the workplace, people rely on us to be Truth. To represent Truth. To communicate always in Truth. When we don’t deliver on what people think is a plan or a promise, some will think you and I are just full of hot air, that our words mean nothing. That could be devastating to their eternal life!

Matthew 5:37 says, “Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’”

Provisional. Plan. Promise. Be careful with your words… and if you frustrate people, ask forgiveness and do a better job next time. This is not only one of the qualities of a good leader but also God’s will for his people.

Just being real. Jim

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About the Author, Jim Brangenberg

Jim's Mission: We are called to be examples of Christ to those around us. With that in mind, Jim is passionate about helping Christ followers connect their faith to their work!

Please Stop Using This Word

"Jim, you're not cut out to be a pastor. You could never handle having 400 bosses. It's ok, you can be a lay minister. The church needs lots of volunteers."

Oh, my church pastor missed a huge opportunity to send me in the right direction there on that day.

Read on.

On July 13, 1979 I committed my life to full-time Christian Ministry, so did Martha on that very same day (3 years before we met). Now, naturally, I thought that meant that I would be working within a 4-walls church because that is what I grew up hearing.

When I finished college, Martha and I settled in a little town called Lakeville, MN. We joined a local church and we immediately got involved in the youth ministry as volunteers. After Martha finished college, I enrolled in Seminary to get my master's degree so Martha and I could fulfill my commitment to the Lord. My church pastor found out and he spoke those words above to me. I unenrolled in seminary and resolved to be just a lay minister.

UGH! The lies spoken into me that day crippled my attitude towards my work for 16 more years. If only there had been a different approach. Maybe I wasn't cut out to be a church pastor, but I could have been encouraged to be a pastor in my workplace.

What if I had been commissioned to see my work as my mission field and my place of ministry?

I could have grasped my daily work as a high calling on MY life and that I should take it very seriously.

The very term "LAY" minister implies that there are two tiers in ministry. Those who get paid to do minister, and then everyone else: the Lay ministers. This word derives negative feelings in me about a two tiered system of importance in the kingdom. IT IS A WORD I WILL NOT USE ANY MORE. What about you? Would you stop using it too? We need to let everyone know that your work in your office/field/parking lot/warehouse/ hospital - all of that is ministry.

You are not a second tier citizen in the Kingdom because you don't get paid by a 4-walls church organization.

Please encourage your pastors to recognize the hurt and harm that this word causes. It also causes a bunch of confusion, which is why I wrote last week's blog that you can read HERE.

So please STOP using the term "Lay Minister" and START recognizing that you are a minister in your work, which is your mission field. You have been assigned there by God and its not by chance.

I'm grateful to now understand that I am a minister in my work and you are too!

Col 3:23 23 -

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters

Jim

About the Author, Jim Brangenberg

Jim's Mission: We are called to be examples of Christ to those around us. With that in mind, Jim is passionate about helping Christ followers connect their faith to their work!

Jesus is Freedom

Greetings from the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas.

Remember the Alamo! Texans fought hard for their independence from Mexico and fought to the last one. They believed in the dream of freedom and independence so much that they gave their lives for that dream.

What are you willing to give your life for?

Your family, a friend, and enemy? It would seem crazy to give your live for someone who mocks or tortures you for your threat to their political (religious) system. No, I am not talking about US politics, I am talking about Jesus. He gave up His life for you and me, and even His enemies.

We can gain freedom from sin and have a relationship with our Heavenly Father because Jesus was willing to give his life for us.

I'm thankful for those that have given up so much for me. Today I will choose to stand a little taller and share a little louder about the saving work of Jesus in my life. May the very presence of Jesus in me influence those I come in contact with.

I want my life to leak Jesus onto those around me!

Colossians 1:27 New International Version (NIV)

27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

About the Author, Jim Brangenberg

Jim's Mission: We are called to be examples of Christ to those around us. With that in mind, Jim is passionate about helping Christ followers connect their faith to their work!