The Long Walk

It isn't every day that I make reference to Stephen King when I blog. But today I feel adventurous. So here it goes:

Before he became 'Stephen King', he wrote a short story called 'The Long Walk'. It is about a VERY long race (lasting days) for teens who must keep moving at least 4 mph or risk being eliminated. One participant in the race had an interesting strategy. He started the race at a very slow pace. So slow, in fact, that he recieved his first warning of a slow pace within the first 100 yards. His strategy? If he started out too fast, then he would tire out before the end and be eliminated. Knowing how slow he could go helped him to pace himself and reach his goal.

I'm not a huge Stephen King fan. Honestly, I've not read any of his other books. But this strategy stayed with me even as I thought about how to equip churches to progress forward in ministry. How would I know what a healthy pace is for a church if I never test the threshold.

So I made the decision years back that I wouldn't make the mistake of going too slow and risk stagnation in the church. Instead, I was going to risk going too fast which might result in negative feedback. Once I taught myself to take constructive criticism well, I was able to get a much better hold on what a healthy pace is for a given congregation. This would play a HUGE part in planning ministry for years to come.

Here at Emmaunel, I've recently discoverd an area where people are pushing back (gently, I might add...my fragile ego thanks you, by the way). To me, this is good news. I now have a better sense of what a healthy pace is for this particular area of the church. I don't have to be worried about moving too slow. Now I can help dream, plan, implement and evaluate ministry with a better sense of how it might be recieved.

Thresholds are important to know. But it can only be made possible when a congregation is willing to give feedback. I'm not referring to those one or two people who will tell you what they think ALL the time whether you want to hear it or not. I'm referring to the congregation as a whole. Getting feedback from several people from different perspectives helps tremendously. And I do encourage positive as well as negative feedback.

So know that I am open to hearing from you and I value your feedback. I also encourage other leaders at Emmanuel to also be open to hearing feedback. It is in this way that we truly function as a community of believers and can move forward in 'making disciples of Jesus Christ' better tomorrow than we did yesterday.