I had a great meeting with our team today. I love the team that God has put together at Fellowship. We have an amazing staff. I am in a weird season personally and professionally. My teaching break and my time away has been somewhat unsettling for me. That’s a good thing. In fact, it’s a God thing.

God has done some amazing things at Fellowship, but the best is still in front of us. So the reality is that we have to elevate our leadership. That is what God has been showing me. I told our team today that I have never been more dissatisfied with where we are than I am right now. It starts with me and I own it. I have to grow. I have to lead more. I have to lead better. I love our staff and I love the ministries they lead but I’m not satisfied with where they are either. I am in the process of evaluating everything and everyone, and again, it starts when I look in the mirror.  We can lead better…we can execute better…we can evaluate better.

I got to eat lunch with one of the greatest pastors and church leaders in America yesterday…my brother Buddy. I have been bouncing a lot of this stuff off him. Sometimes I can’t believe that we are related…He gave me some great advice that covered a host of different topics, but the best words he gave me were these. Stop the complaining and blaming and START LEADING! It resonated somewhere deep inside. I realized that I was still stuck in the analysis mode. Anyone ever here of paralysis by analysis?

As leaders (and we all lead someone) we are called at times to define reality.

• The reality is that people all around us are passing into eternity without Christ.
• Reality is that people like you and me have yet to discover that God wants to be in a relationship with them.
• Reality is that people have yet to realize God’s divine purpose for their lives.
• And the reality is that God has positioned Fellowship Church to redefine church in the Delaware Valley.

We need to kick it up a notch…we can’t be satisfied with yesterday’s victories. This WILL be the best fall in the history of our church. I’m convinced of that. But it won’t be easy and it won’t come without sacrifice.  I have worn a bracelet all year that says…”live different.”  Tonight I wrote on the inside of my bracelet my fall motto…”lead different.”