Moving Forward, pt4
Leadership in Context with Keith Tucci
Episode 080
Five Forward Gears
1. You must determine that the place you are in is not the place where you will stay.
2. You must clearly identify where you are.
3. You must be committed to a sequence, not just an action.
It’s not just one step, but it’s one step and then another and then another. That doesn’t necessarily mean you will know the next action, but you do understand that there will be a next action.
Example: I need a job. I fill out an application. If I don’t get a call, I’m going to make a phone call about the application I filled out.
There is sequence to move forward, to break out of the rut, to get out of the hole you are in. There is a divine sequence that must take place.
Ready. Aim. Fire.
Ready, aim, fire is a sequence. Sometimes in church leadership, we find ourselves doing ready, FIRE, aim! We are just doing things without being focused or targeted. We know the old sayings: “A stopped watch is right twice a day.” “Even a blind squirrel eventually finds a nut.” We can randomly do things, and we might happen to hit a target every once in a while, but that doesn’t mean that is a justifiable sequence.
There is another sequence that affects us even more—ready, aim, aim, aim, aim…
We get ready, we aim, and we keep aiming. But at some point, you have to pull the trigger. If you’ve done everything in the ready category, then you have to take action. You have to be committed to a specific sequence.
Look at the list of things in your life—education, vocation, ministry, finances, health—everything that is important to you. If you want to go forward in any or all of those things, you have to ask yourself what the most logical next step is. What is the next thing you can do? You don’t have to know the whole plan. Just know what the next step is.
If you know what the next step is, you are not lacking direction. The Bible says, “The Word is a lamp unto my feet.” In other words, it gives you the next step to take. It doesn’t illuminate the road ahead for your whole life, but it does illuminate the next step.
Personal Story: One time I was invited to where Janet Reno, the current attorney general of the United States at that time, was speaking. Some local pastors wanted to confront her about some outrageous things she had said about the Christian community. They had asked me to come to help them do that. While we were waiting to speak at the public meeting held in a large church, the Secret Service came over and arrested me. I hadn’t done anything! We hadn’t even spoken yet. After a few hours of holding me in jail, they took me before the judge. I was demanding to know what I was arrested for. The judge couldn’t even look at me and told me that the charges against me were conspiracy to commit loitering. I responded, “Judge, isn’t that planning to do nothing?!?” They kept me in jail overnight until Janet Reno had left town, and then they dropped the charges in the morning because I didn’t do anything.
Are you conspiring to do nothing? Are you waiting for something happen? Are you planning on doing nothing? Are you guilty of conspiracy to commit loitering?
Be committed to a sequence of action. One action alone is not going to get the job done.
Which category do you fit in?
· Ready, aim, fire.
· Ready, fire, aim.
· Ready, aim, aim, aim, aim…
Commit to a sequence. You don’t have to have an elaborate plan. You know you have to take action, and you know there is going to be follow-up action. Very few things in life happen because of one act, even if it’s an act of obedience. But that opens the door to even further acts of obedience.
Become a ready, aim, fire person. What happens if you miss? You get ready, you aim, and you fire again. What happens if you hit the target? You do the same thing over again because that is a sequence that works. If we are going to go forward, we have to be committed to a sequence of action.
Next week, we will talk about the next forward gears.
[This series is based on a message that Keith Tucci shared at NRP’s 2020 National Conference. You can hear that message on NRP’s website here: https://www.nrpastors.com/nationalconference2020 ]
Join us next week as Keith Tucci continues to put leadership truth in the context of the local church. And as always, please like, share, rate/review, and invite others to listen. See you next week!
