In whatever organization or group you’re leading its not only important to keep focus on what you’re doing but also how you’re doing it. I know I am interested in how well everyone on our team is progressing and what kind of success they are experiencing. But I also want to know how they are doing it. Here are five points (there are more but this is a start) for evaluating that:
Are we authentic?
Are we who we say we are? Are we doing what we’ve promised to do? We cannot begin to maximize God’s potential if we are pretending to be Church, or playing Church or lying to one another. Transparency and authenticity must be core values.
Are we communicating?
Do we communicate well between departments or agendas or personalities? Healthy communication is consistent, its multi-formed, its clear and honest and timely and it is a an absolute must for team work. I admit, I am not good at this one, it is too easy for me to deal with an issue with the person or people involved and then move on, leaving everyone else in the dark. Its not respectful and its not helpful. It could easily lead to problems like silo ministries.
Are we being attentive to the details?
When things that were once important slip into the unimportant category, as they sometimes do, are we noticing? It could be a sign of apathy. Details matter, because our organization is just the sum total of our details. So we want to keep track of what, specifically, we are doing.
Are we generous as a team, do we have a culture of generosity?
Is our instinct toward generosity? If we are serving Christ and the Church of Christ we need to always be looking for ways to include others, remain open and accessible, and generous in in our approach to people.
Are we focused on God’s direction for our next steps?
We love to start meetings here with the prayer, “Lord, we don’t know what we’re doing. Amen.” Its a great prayer, but do we believe it? Do we remain focused on the Lord and what he is doing in this place, and what he wants to do through us? Are we attentive in prayer to his voice, are we desperately looking for his direction in our next steps?
