Dear Friends in Christ,
Dr. Davis Chappell
I've just finished reading a book called The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni. Lencioni is founder and president of the Table Group, a management consulting firm specializing in organizational health and executive team development. I was privileged to hear him speak at a conference in Atlanta last year. The premise of the book is simply this:
"The single greatest advantage any company can achieve is organizational health. Yet it is ignored by most leaders even though it is simple, free, and available to anyone who wants it." Lencioni says you build health through cohesive trust among the leaders, clarity of vision and purpose, and by overcommunicating. I believe this is true for the success and faithfulness of any/every organization, including the church. Of course, this takes time. But once it begins happening it creates momentum. One of the anecdotes he uses in reference to team-building is worth mentioning. After a recent loss, a thirteen-year-old boy on my son's soccer team said to me, "Well, I don't feel like I lost." "Really?" I asked him. "How do you figure?" He proudly announced, "Well, I'm a forward, and we forwards did our part by scoring three goals. It's really the defense that lost the game because they gave up too many goals. They're the losers."