The First 48

They say the odds of solving a murder go down drastically outside of the first 48 hours. Now, as worship leaders, you probably are not having to solve many murders, but one of the things I have found happens best within a 48-hour window is feedback. It is so important to create, establish, and maintain a culture of feedback when serving together.

I have both given and received feedback that was too early as well as too late.

When we give feedback that is too early, often we are reacting rather than responding. It is easy to speak from being held hostage by our emotions, rather than taking a moment to collect ourselves to respond with love, grace, and humility. Waiting a day or two gives us the ability to calm down, and ask ourselves if addressing this is really necessary. It gives us time to consider the individual and their story - is the most loving thing to address this, or simply let it go?

When we give feedback that is too late, we are often remembering our emotions more than the ins and outs of the experience. Bringing something up so far past the time it occurred can begin to seem petty or silly. As though you’ve been holding onto something for the purpose of hurting someone rather than healing what may have been broken.

How can you better love, serve, encourage, and equip your team by finding the sweet spot of feedback?

July 7: Tuesday Refocus

'Man's heart is never large enough to hold either its joys or its sorrows.' - Charles Spurgeon

I do not know that those words have ever felt as true as they do at this moment.  Our stories and suffering have been given for sharing.

Our illusions of self-sufficiency have ruptured under the weight of each individual having to think outside themselves when it comes to quarantine response.  And even the most introverted among us feel the ache of grief accompanying the loss of regular gatherings of family, friends, co-workers, and fellow worshipers.  With the ever-flowing stream of statistics and fear, we can feel it.  It is too much to bear.

We cannot carry the weight of this life on our own.  But because Christ has taken our sin, suffering, and death upon Himself, the weight is no longer ours to carry (1 Pet 2:24).  In fact, we are invited to come to Him - the One Whose yoke is easy and burden is light (Matt 11:30).  And because Christ has carried us and our burden, we too can ‘Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ (Gal 6:2).’

I have no idea what life after COVID-19 will look like, but I hope that we will emerge as people who have learned to deeply bear the burdens of one another as Christ bears us up.

‘Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation.’ Ps 68:19

Lord, in the confusion of our world, would You continue to bear us up.  May we emerge from this time with hearts that have been carried and learned to carry.  In Christ’s name, amen.

Carried,

AB