Greg Darley:

Mark Batterson talks about the importance of unlearning in his book, In a pit with a lion on a snowy day. Thinking Steps Not Programs is the practice that we have to unlearn some stuff, before we can effectively apply this practice.

Having a program is natural for those who grew up in church. You have a need, you build a program…its simple. But that is not necessarily the most effective way to achieve results. Here’s the difference.

A program is a system/project to meet a need.

A step is a series of actions taken to achieve a goal.

A program asks “what is the need?”

A step asks “where do we want people to be?’

The goal is to figure out where you want people, then create steps to get them there. You want to have teenagers have an intimate walk with Jesus, don’t just create a “youth program” create steps that will help get them there. There are numerous applications.

For World Causes, we want people to ultimately commit to being a part of the solution of the issues of poverty, injustice and epidemic disease. Commitment is the goal, and the steps to get them there are:

1. Raising awareness to the issue (this is one of our “wins”. To raise true awareness. To shorten the gap between our reality and their reality. Repeating a statistic is NOT awareness)

2. Getting people to respond to those needs.

3. Creating ways and possibilities to commit.

Commitment means altering lifestyles, changing behavior, changing character. Its big stuff. But that is where we want to take people and that is the only way that 2.5 million girls will be freed from sex trafficking, and 1.2 billion people can live on more than $1 a day. There are also distinct forms of commitment that we’ll be shooting for with different groups. Individuals, churches, business owners, students…commitment may look different for all the groups, so we’ll need steps for all different groups to get them there. Andy calls this “doing ministry with the end in mind.”

What are your steps?

I’m re-reading through a fantastic book by Andy and North Point Ministries. World Causes is not a church, but there are so many great and practical applications in the book for where we are as a ministry and where I am as a leader.  (both are young, small and need lots of prayer and support!)

I’m going through each chapter and trying to take out the material that I can implement for World Causes. There are also tons of great applications for individuals, families, etc.  I’ll point out those as well.

If you are in ministry/leadership, I would highly recommend this book.

I was listening to an interview yesterday with Andy Stanley and he mentioned something about how he uses his time. If you’ve been any where near North Point, you know there is some serious amount of effective time usage there. Here’s the takeaway I got: Find the times during the day and week when you are most productive and maximize those times. Guard those time slots with intensity. When are the times when I can get the most done? When are my most creative times? When are the hours when I’m just not there?

I think my most productive hours are in the mornings before 11 and then from 3-6 in the afternoon and usually not at home. Having the option of working from home is great, however, it can be a large distraction. I know for me, it helps tremendously if I get out of the house.

The new goal for the week is to restructure my schedule around those key times.  I’ll try and plan all meetings, sales opportunities, phone calls, etc not in my zone times.  We’ll see what happens.

When is your zone and what can you do to protect it?