I didn't get to attend the C3 conference in Dallas, but was intrigued by some comments by Erwin McManus about taking initiative. Erwin is one of my favorite writers, but something he said made me go "hmmm." Again, I wasn't there, but got the construct of his message from several bloggers.
From the Creative Pastors blog: Erwin McManus challenged us to go fail boldly. To take initiative, to be proactive, to do something! Clarity comes in the battle, not before. Leaders don't have less uncertainty than everyone else - they are just comfortable with more uncertainty. His talk was based on I Samuel 14 and the story of Jonathan going up to fight the Philistine garrison.
I'm really sensitive to the notion of waiting on God because it's been a theme in my life for several years now. In this story, didn't Jonathan conduct a certain litmus test to determine whether God would be behind his efforts? This story could have easily gone the other way. The Philistines could have said, "Stay where you are. We'll come down to you," and Jonathan would have taken off like Forest Gump...
I don't think most leaders struggle with loitering. I think the natural tendency is to get ahead of God. When we take initiative and fail our way to success, we leave a wake of consequences, broken hearts, and eroded trust. Harry Truman used to respond to his staff with "How long do I have before I have to make a decision about that?" Someone once said that wisdom is learning from other people's mistakes, not our own. Henry Blackaby, Andrew Murray, Jim Peterson... have all written books that advise leaders to stay put until God says go!
if you want to know what Erwin said, pick up 'Seizing your divine moment' (or the new title: Chasing Daylight) and read the chapters on risk and uncertainty. i thought he was dead on.
Posted by: patrick Gillen | January 28, 2006 at 07:01 PM
I'll do better than that... maybe I'll get the C3 audio.
Posted by: Ben | January 28, 2006 at 07:21 PM