Followby Dan Amos
A coincidence is when seemingly random events are perceived to be connected. Coincidences form the basic structure for many movie mysteries and thrillers but by the end, the coincidences seem less random or are even wholly exposed as by design. Leadership at Elim is experiencing the benefits of events too purposeful to be considered random. Therefore, design, and we know the Designer, must be the answer.
I could recount events from years and years leading to where we are at now, but I’ll start with last year. Our associate pastor, Brian Sharpe, asked the Elder Board for authorization to go through a profile assessment and coaching process. We dragged our feet and made him do some research but ultimately said “yes.” Early this year, his coach gave the board an outbrief on the results.
Leading up to the profile assessment report we were wrestling with the realization that Elim is growing numerically and it is fundamentally changing how we do things. This was addressed in our 2012 Annual Report and discussed at our annual congregational meeting in January.
Shortly after that, Pastor Brian’s coach, presented his report to the Elder Board. This happened on a Saturday. On the Tuesday before that, at our Elder meeting, Pastor Martin had talked about needing to change his role in the church within the context of how we are growing. He described the tasks he felt he needed to take on as being extremely demotivating for him.
So several short days later, we got a lesson in how people are wired differently and it just jumped out that the roles Martin was talking about taking on were contrary to how he is wired (and why they would be demotivating). The Elder Board quickly saw the value in having all of the staff go through the profile assessment and coaching process and two weeks ago we and the ministry leaders and staff heard the results.
It is so exciting to see how God has put all of the pieces together and how he is revealing them to us. We have a lot to work through and apply and make sure we don’t force people into roles for which they are not made. We’ll talk more and more about this, but right now we ask for you to be praying for the leadership as we seek his design. There’s no coincidence in this at all. Praise God!
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