Counting the "Yes" votes (or count your chicken eaters)

On Wednesday, during our all-staff S.W.A.T (Staff Working Together As a Team - I know that's SWAAT, but work with us!), our senior pastor, Mark Beeson shared with us the concept of "Counting the YES votes".

Too often we can hear the squeaky wheels in our ministries that somehow always seem to know when we've made a mistake. They like to point these things out, ya know - just to help! :) We certainly need to listen to them for that 10% of truth that anyone can give us in terms of feedback. However, if we let them sap our energy and take our focus away from the people who are saying "YES! We love what's happening here. What more can I do?", this is not a win for the Kingdom. Especially with new people coming into our ministry via our Volunteer Expo (check out Mark Waltz's awesome post on this) we need to focus on keeping the ship sailing for those who are truly "on board".

Mark, used the idea that Chick-Fil-A can either focus on the tons of people that are coming into it's restaurant and drive through each day (the chicken eaters), or they can stand on side of the road and lament that so many people are passing by. He also pointed out that if no one's buying chicken, then you probably need to look at yourself and see what's happening.

I had a good reminder of this in an assembly that I led for 4-6th grades at North Liberty Elementary. We sang songs, danced, and learned about music. Much fun. However, there were a few kids who looked at me and with their looks they basically said "DARE US TO HAVE FUN!!!" I could have paid attention to them, and tried to get them going, but then that would have cheated the other 99% of kids in the assembly out of my full attention.

Good reminder! Thanks, Mark. No kissing up here, but I LOVE OUR SENIOR PASTOR! He rocks - for an older guy :)!