Yesterday I met with a local pastor who leads a neighboring church. Good friend of mine. We spent time over lunch catching up, talking about our families, kids, emotional health, and stuff like that.
Joe (not his real name) and I have known each other for years. He has always been a source of encouragement to me. We have an accountability relationship with one another regarding personal matters, and also have a coaching/mentoring relationship in regards to church work.
Once we caught up on personal stuff, we got down to business and talked about the ministry.
Because he is from “outside” our church he has no personal preferences about anything we are doing “inside” our church. His opinions, therefore, are unbiased and serve the purpose of offering me insights that I often cannot see for myself. That’s why I invite him to speak candidly to me about anything we are discussing; even those things at PCC that I am personally invested in.
He did that yesterday, seriously challenging my thinking on a few things.
Funny thing, it wasn’t uncomfortable to hear what he had to say because I was able to receive his opinion as wisdom coming from an unbiased source, instead of it being an emotional argument motivated by someone’s self interest.
For over two hours we talked. We talked about a lot of things. We even talked about the big item on the drawing board at PCC right now: TWO SERVICES or going back to one service. He did not hold back and offered his opinion freely. More importantly, his wisdom provided a different perspective. Things I didn’t see. It gave me a lot to think about.
When I got back to the office I shared it with some of the staff. We agreed that his insights were something we should consider.
Joe (not his real name) and I have known each other for years. He has always been a source of encouragement to me. We have an accountability relationship with one another regarding personal matters, and also have a coaching/mentoring relationship in regards to church work.
Once we caught up on personal stuff, we got down to business and talked about the ministry.
Because he is from “outside” our church he has no personal preferences about anything we are doing “inside” our church. His opinions, therefore, are unbiased and serve the purpose of offering me insights that I often cannot see for myself. That’s why I invite him to speak candidly to me about anything we are discussing; even those things at PCC that I am personally invested in.
He did that yesterday, seriously challenging my thinking on a few things.
Funny thing, it wasn’t uncomfortable to hear what he had to say because I was able to receive his opinion as wisdom coming from an unbiased source, instead of it being an emotional argument motivated by someone’s self interest.
For over two hours we talked. We talked about a lot of things. We even talked about the big item on the drawing board at PCC right now: TWO SERVICES or going back to one service. He did not hold back and offered his opinion freely. More importantly, his wisdom provided a different perspective. Things I didn’t see. It gave me a lot to think about.
When I got back to the office I shared it with some of the staff. We agreed that his insights were something we should consider.
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