I serve a God that is creative! He has an unending imagination and everyday He delights me in the sunrise and the sunset. I was trained as a child to look for God in creation. To the degree that every family vacation day started by getting up at 5 am to watch the sun rise. Now, when you are a teenager, getting up at 5 am is not so appealing. But today, that is one of my favorite things to do, be still and be delighted by the sun rise. I would like to test your creative side this week! How fun, are you to be around at the office? Do you go out of your way to serve others, to answer their questions, to offer feedback one, two or maybe three times until they “get” it? Do your teams enter your meetings with dread and fear or excitement and anticipation? Let’s examine how creative and risky God really is…
Accept Questions about your area – God welcomes questions and so should I! Luke 7:20 says John’s two disciples found Jesus and said to him “John the Baptist sent us to ask, ‘Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting , or should we keep looking for someone else?’” God can handle my doubts and welcomes my questions so I should do the same for others. But sometimes other people’s questions, about HR, either annoys me or makes me defensive. Why? Because I take it personally and think they are questioning my integrity. I have learned after submitting to just working for God that my co-workers may not understand my area of expertise so if they are merely seeking to understand. Like Jesus’ example in Luke 7:20, I should be willing to answer questions joyfully and without thinking it is a personal attack on my character.
Take risks in offering feedback- Let your conversations be gracious and effective so that you will have the right answer for everyone Colossians 4:6. Not all feedback is accepted with grace and understanding but God calls us to be effective in how we address others, if your feedback is not understood the first time, get creative and figure out how you can be effective toward the recipient. I live with an engineer, a want-a-be scientist and a drama queen. I have to communicate the same message 3 different ways if I want it to be understood. Some days I just wish they could all receive my message direct and to the point, it would streamline the whole process, but that is a foolish expectation of mine. Jesus changed the dynamic of each message he presented to meet the needs of the people he was addressing. He gave me great examples now it is my job to follow his example.
Look forward to working as a group – show enthusiasm when you are together as a team. Teamwork in the body of Christ requires everyone’s contribution. Ephesians 4:11-12 says He is the one who gave these gifts to his church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists and the pastors and teacher. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. It would be impossible for my HR department to be successful by having just me. When I hire my teammates I always hire for the qualities I lack because together we can serve God more fully than I could alone. It is critical that I know my own weaknesses so I can make sure I hire people that have those strengths. The key then is to listen to my team’s ideas, perspectives and advice so I do not become a one-sided leader. Working together my team can express the fullness of Christ.
Over the last 4 weeks we have gone over the 11 attributes of TRUST, the first of the 5 functions of a successful team. Join me next week as we discover how to engage in a good, clean fight. Down goes Jacob!
Creating for Him, Tammy