The glory days.
I remember back in 6th grade I had hit my prime on the football team. I racked up 26 touchdowns that year, I thought I was headed to the NFL. Then I stopped growing and oddly enough stopped being good at football. Sometimes I wish I could go back and relive that season, but that’s not going to happen and I have to live with the fact that it’s a different season of life and no matter how badly I wish to be in the NFL it’s simply not going to happen, I need to focus on what I can do with the gifts and strengths I have now.
We hear senior pastors and youth pastors reminisce about the good old days when they had 500 students show up for a camp way back when or people bring up what happened when “that” person was on staff. Or perhaps they hang on to “one of the best moments ever in our church was when…”
The past. It’s a slippery slope. The longer we live in the past the harder it is to strive for the unseen success of the future.
A mission/vision statement should be able to tell us if we have done our job in the past and keep us focused on what we are chasing after next. Strategy will shift and morph along the way with culture to help accomplish the said vision, this part can be frustrating for those that like consistency and to some point you do indeed need consistency to have the necessary traction to move forward.
So, how do we stay focused on what’s next rather than dwell on what was? Here’s 3 thoughts. [Read more…]