Managers & Makers

In this world, some of us are managers and some of us are makers (I’ll explain this in a minute). And because of this, there is tension when our worlds collide, or more specifically when our schedules collide. We work for the same company, and we share the same office building, but our schedules are different. What it takes to get things done looks different if you are someone who manages or someone who makes. Let me unpack this a bit because chances are you’ve experienced this tension.

The Manager

The manager’s typical day looks like a series of one-hour segments (half-hour segments if you’re super-organized). It might look something like this: an hour in the morning tending to emails, the next hour dedicated to preparing for the 11:00am meeting, the next hour actually having the meeting, an hour for a business lunch, an hour on the phone, an hour hearing from your direct reports, and so on. Before you know it, the day is done, and you go home…for another series of one-hour events: dinner with the family, putting the kids to bed, an hour watching or two watching TV. Then, you go to bed because you’ll be doing the same thing tomorrow. If ever an unplanned interruption happens upon his day or if there’s an impromptu meeting that’s called, he loses an hour, but then jumps right back on schedule with no problems. The hour-managed day is how he gets stuff done.

The Maker

The maker’s schedule is much harder to describe. It does break down into nice one-hour segments. Instead, the maker works with chunks of time. In the office, he might think, “I’ve got the morning, and I’ve got the afternoon.” Throw a meeting or unplanned interruption in the mix, and he loses the entire chunk of time. That’s because the work that he does requires hours of focused time to complete. He’s a maker: an author, a creator of art, a web designer, a computer programmer, a speech writer, an architect, and so on. You get the idea. And by the way, these guys are also prone to do some pretty crazy things work-wise. They wake up in the middle of the night and write a hundred pages for an upcoming book. They stay up late into the night (or early morning, depending on how you look at it), and write a couple hundred lines of code. They can’t stop when something good is happening. This is how they make stuff.

The Tension

The tension should be quite obvious. The managers and the makers have to interact. There are meetings, phone calls, impromptu conversations about necessary project changes. Life happens, and the worlds collide.

The Conclusion

The tension will always be there. It just has to be managed (Andy Stanley talks about managing tension). You have to know that it’s there and act accordingly. Be respectful and considerate of the managers and the makers in your life. If your a manager, plan as many of the interactions as you can with the makers in one block of time, freeing up their alternate block of the day, and try not to interrupt them unnecessarily. If your a maker, understand that meetings have to take place, and let everyone know when you “available” time slots are, politely asking people not to disturb the creative process.

So, what do you think? Have you experienced this tension? I have. And in case you were wondering, I’m a hybrid of both. I live in a managers environment with responsibilities in that area, but I also make a lot of things because of my role at my church. I guess, I have it even worse because I have an inward tension :). But, that’s life, and I enjoy making and managing.

(I started thinking about this concept two years ago, when I read this article by Paul Graham)

Like many of you, I have simply been swamped with activity over the past few weeks (Thus, less blogging).  I went from a busy Christmas season straight into an intensive at Liberty University (My last one for my Master of Sacred Theology degree!)  and then got right to work planning for the launch of our new service at my church.  We’re calling it Church At The GYM. Check it out!

With all that’s going on, I am really looking forward to the Catalyst One Day conference that’s coming to my own backyard.  I think it’s going to be an incredibly challenging and inspirational opportunity.  The topic is building a healthy church culture… an important topic for us as we launch a new service.

If you’ll be in the Orlando area on February 17, you should come!

BTW, early bird registration ends January 27, 2011.  See you there!

This past Sunday night, I had the opportunity and privilege to share God’s truth with the people of our church.  It was a challenging message to share because so much of it hinges on our realizing that we as believers have not been left here on earth for our own benefit.  Instead, we have been left here to introduce others to Jesus!  Said another way, you are not here for you; you are here for who you used to be.  Let that thought sink in.  You are not here for you; you are here for who you used to be.

The outline for the message looked like this for those who are interested:

1. Reject the Typical Focus (Acts 1:6-7)
– The typical focus is selfish (v6)
– The typical focus is wrong (v7)
2. Remember that we are a Task Force (Acts 1:8-9)
– The task force has been empowered (v8)
– The task force has been sent (v9)
3. Remember the Time Frame (Acts 1:10-11)
– There are limits (v11)
– There are eternal implications (v12)

Because we, as a task force, are here to introduce others to Jesus, we must live like it.  We must be certain that our attitudes and actions do not cause extra difficulty for those who are coming to faith in Jesus (Acts 15:19).  This may mean changes for the way we do church, and it certainly means changes for the way we live.  We are a task force that needs to get to work.

The message ended with a reading of an encouraging and challenging prose by Dr. Bob Moorhead.  It’s called the Fellowship of the Unashamed.  A video clip of the piece is below.  I hope you find it to be challenging to you.  When you’ve finished watching it, you should be ready to “get to work!”

If you liked this video, another version can also be found on my brother’s blog.

It doesn’t take much to impact a life.  And the cool thing is, often times when you make an impact, an impact is also made on you.  Since that’s true, who wouldn’t want to be a part of something that positively impacts people?

So at my church, we have a youth-led service once per month, and after the service, the teenagers usually enjoy what we like to call a Y-NOT.  It stands for Youth Night Out Tonight (Our former youth pastor, Michael Haley, came up with the concept).  So anyway, this past Sunday night, my brother issued a challenge to the teenagers.  He asked them to go out into the community and be a blessing to people in need.  The idea was to find people at Wal-Mart, the grocery store, the bus stop, the convenience store, or wherever, who look like they might be in need, keeping in mind that there greatest need may be a personal relationship with Jesus.  To facilitate their experiences, the teens were partnered into teams with each chaperon taking about four students.  They were also given business-size invite cards, and $40 to give away.  And so, off they went to make a difference, and that’s exactly what they did.

Upon their return later in the evening, each team gave a testimony of their experiences.  The event was a hit.  The teens talked excitedly about what they had an opportunity to do…helping the needy, giving to the disadvantaged, buying food, giving of their own personal money, and the list goes on.  They met people with real life stories to tell, but even better they got to share the greatest story ever told!  The teens benefited so much from the event that they didn’t just talk fondly about it while at the church, they also went home and talked about it on Facebook.  Some even said that it was our best Y-NOT ever.  Pretty cool.  I’d say that there are at least four reasons that this event was successful:

It was successful because…

1. The teens experienced that it really is a bigger blessing to give than to receive – As it turns out, the Bible is right!  Acts 20:35 tells us that we are blessed to bless.  The more you bless the more you are blessed.

Go bless someone this week!

2. The teens felt like they made a difference – Everyone wants to be a difference-maker.  That’s true in sports, and it’s true in life.  We want our lives to count for something.  The teens performed random acts of kindness that demonstrated in real life the teachings of Jesus, who had compassion on people and obviously made a difference.

Go make a difference in someone’s life this week!

3. The teens got excited when they got to share their faith – Sure, it can be intimidating to share your faith, but it’s much easier when you have a group cheering you on (That’s what our teams did).  And once you’ve shared your faith, it feels great!

Go tell someone about Jesus this week!

4. The teens liked the feeling of win-win – It can be fun to play a game, especially if you win, but if someone wins that also means someone loses.  And for the losers, it usually isn’t as much fun.  But with this event, everyone wins…it’s a win-win!  That means the night is positive for everyone.

Look for the win-win this week!

So was the event perfect?  Probably not.  Did everyone we sought to help really need/deserve help?  Who knows.  Will any of the people we impacted ever come to our church?  We sure hope so.  Will the people ever become Christ followers?  Only God knows.  Did we give away a lot of money? Perhaps.

Was it worth it? Definitely!  The four reasons listed above explain clearly why it was all worth it.  Plus, we planted seeds…in the community and in our own lives.

So, what are your thoughts?

As the old saying goes, “Time is money.”  But, it’s more than that.  Time poorly invested represents lost opportunity.  Here’s what I’ve learned this week about time and about money…

So, we’re in the market at my church for a new computer that will power the visual elements of our worship experience.  For a while now, we’ve used a PC that one of the guys on staff at our church custom-built.  The problem is that the unit has been acting up for about a year… maybe more.  From time to time it freezes up, and now it glitches consistently when playing videos.  We are well overdue for a replacement.

Well, after a decent amount of research, we settled on buying a Mac.  There’s a reason many large churches use them to power their worship experience … they’re reliable.  But, they’re also expensive.

So, here I am working for a church with limited resources, and I’m trying to be a good steward.  I’m shopping for the best deal.  I’m waiting for the exact Mac we want to become available in the Apple Refurb Store … And that’s my problem.  I waited.  For the savings of $230, I waited.  And because of that, we had a major meltdown in the early service this past Sunday.  The computer hung up several times and even had to be restarted.  Oops.

The sad thing … we had visitors in the service.  We just lost the chance to make a good first impression.  We looked unprofessional … like it doesn’t matter if God’s program is run smoothly or correctly.  But the thing is, God deserves the best.  And, we didn’t get it done this week.  And unless God is gracious, we may have lost our only opportunity to reach these visitors.  So, was it worth it?  Was it worth waiting another weekend in order to save the $230 bucks?  Probably not.

May God be gracious to us!