Leadership Meetings
I have just returned from our annual leadership meetings for International Teams –the ILF. This year the meetings were in Holland. There were around 200 leaders from all over the world.
It’s an important time to connect with co-leaders about current business. The meetings this year covered a lot practical subjects –like transitions, cross-cultural work, team meetings, emotional pain and crisis. In the past I usually find a common thread that runs throughout. This year was no different. The common theme for me was the work of starting new ministries. Along with this has come stress and strain, misunderstanding and spiritual attack, to name just a few. It often feels like there is no solution or way to figure it out.
It reminds me of the biography we are reading as a family about George Washington Carver. His plan to help poor farmers in the South backfired when he told them to plant peanuts instead of cotton. Suddenly the farmers had lots of peanuts but no market for them. He threw his hands up and asked “God, why did you make the universe?” To his surprise, God answered and said, “That’s too big for you to understand. Ask a simpler question?” Carver understood and realized the question should be “Why did you make the peanut?” With this, Carver remembered that he was just a man who needs God's help. He went on to create an entire market for peanuts –including peanut oil and peanut butter.
I came away from this ILF feeling like the task, the issues and the questions are too big to tackle. I have been reminded of our humanness and that we need to take a humble approach towards the plans and problems ahead.
It’s an important time to connect with co-leaders about current business. The meetings this year covered a lot practical subjects –like transitions, cross-cultural work, team meetings, emotional pain and crisis. In the past I usually find a common thread that runs throughout. This year was no different. The common theme for me was the work of starting new ministries. Along with this has come stress and strain, misunderstanding and spiritual attack, to name just a few. It often feels like there is no solution or way to figure it out.
It reminds me of the biography we are reading as a family about George Washington Carver. His plan to help poor farmers in the South backfired when he told them to plant peanuts instead of cotton. Suddenly the farmers had lots of peanuts but no market for them. He threw his hands up and asked “God, why did you make the universe?” To his surprise, God answered and said, “That’s too big for you to understand. Ask a simpler question?” Carver understood and realized the question should be “Why did you make the peanut?” With this, Carver remembered that he was just a man who needs God's help. He went on to create an entire market for peanuts –including peanut oil and peanut butter.
I came away from this ILF feeling like the task, the issues and the questions are too big to tackle. I have been reminded of our humanness and that we need to take a humble approach towards the plans and problems ahead.
posted by Paul at
4:39 PM
1 Comments:
Thanks for the tip. We have read Harriet Tubman. Some other recent ones we have really liked have been on the Wright brothers as well as Helen Keller. We have come onto these biographies, mostly through the home-schooling.
what I have really appreciated about biographies like these is that they make issues of character come alive.
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Paul, at 10:36 PM
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