Yesterday I was a “fly on the wall” during the Planning/Vision days for our Campus Life, City Life and Juvenile Justice Core Ministry Teams. First of all, what an amazing group of staff!  Perhaps you (like me) have been a part of “planning days” that were barely registering on the “boring” scale but yesterday was anything but boring.  Lots of great give and take, laughter, encouragement and plenty of prayer.  What I really appreciated was watching the team members encourage each other AND hold each other accountable. For example, “Hey, Mike, I love hearing how you’re spending tons of time on campus at Frontier…now, how can we help you recruit some new volunteers for next year? Or “Doug, you guys are rockin’ the city…SOZO is changing lives!”

One phrase that kept rising to the top was “every”–how do each of these teams, responsible for reaching over 3,000 kids this school year, keep their eyes open to reach every type of kid–the athlete, gang banger, goth, prep, extreme introvert, tech nerd, etc.?  And how do we, as a movement of Tacoma YFC, find new ethnically diverse staff and volunteers that will open the doors to reach the “every”?  I LOVE these kind of questions…and where they push our staff to move and grow.

At the end of the day yesterday both Ken (Campus Life Core Team Leader) and Darrin (City Life and JJM Core Team Leader) were in the office and I expected them to be fully exhausted and simply hanging on after a full day of leading discussion and guiding their teams.  It was the opposite!  Both Ken and Darrin were energized, excited and full of stories, goals, and aggressive long term visions for how each team is going to make a difference for God’s Kingdom in Pierce County.

As I drove away from the office yesterday,  I found myself just as excited as a result of being with these teams. A couple of thoughts/reflections rise to the top:

1) As Jim Collins in his book, Good to Great, wrote…we have “the right people in the right seats on the bus”.  Passionate, motivated and well trained staff are reaching the toughest of kids on the front lines of ministry.  I’m really, really proud of the leadership that Ken, Darrin, Jeff (Foster Care and Chief Operating Officer), and Leslie (Office Manager) provide.

2) In the midst of a very challenging economy, God continues to provide the “manna” (daily provision) we need to reach kids.  Yes, we’ve made and continue to make difficult budget decisions but I’m fully convinced that all we’re doing is to honor God with how we (TYFC) are stewards of our ministry partners (donors) resources.

3) I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.  For the past 18 years I’ve felt called to the mission and vision of YFC.  That began with a burden to lead Campus Life and reach high school and middle schoolers, first in Montana and then in Lakewood.  Now I feel just as called to lead TYFC, to lead the charge for the resources so Doug, Dwayne, Chrisy and others can reach kids for Jesus.

God is stretching all of us at TYFC…especially me. Good leadership arises from difficult times when we realize that we can do nothing on our own, it is only through the power of God that visions become reality.  I hope I never, ever forget that…and am glad for staff who remind me through their sacrifice and pursuit of kids, day in and day out.