Chaos' Map

Not able to see the forest through the trees? Maybe you can't even identify that those things you're bumping into are trees? Well, an airlift out of this life you're living/this ministry you're doing isn't really an option... But how about a map?

Now a map doesn't tell you where you're going. YOU pick the destination. A map doesn't even tell you where you are or where you've been. It only gives a wide-angle view of all the landscape, which enables the reader to identify localities, destinations, and the paths between them.

This is what Scott Wilson's Steering Through Chaos is. His map of ministry & vision helps the reader recognize landmarks of church (or other ministry) growth and transition.

I have to confess that I'm not moving through this book with my typical speed and voracity, not because it's a slow read, but because I keep recognizing landmarks. I find myself stopping and unpacking some point (current and past) in a ministry I've been a part of with the perspective of Scott's "map."

You can change without growth,
but you can't grow without change. -Scott Wilson

(from chapter 2: Vision)

F.O.C.U.S.

F--First things first.
O--Other things second.
C--Cut out the unimportant.
U--Unify behind vision.
S--Stick with it.

Simple. Yet life changing, if we can do it.

I'll be honest, I'd practically be rewriting the book here to pull out all the gems. As I read, at each new idea or example I think of pastors and leaders in my life that I think could benefit from hearing the message I'm hearing in that passage. By chapter 2 alone, I had a list of a dozen people I want to give copies of the book. I don't mean that in a "...you've been doing things wrong, so read this and get it right" kind of way, rather a "Be encouraged. Here's an outside look at what you're neck deep in. Know that others have been where you are--mired in the chaos of ministry, growth, and transition. You're not alone."

Wilson reminds us that it's God's calling on the lives of pastors and leaders. And, truthfully, He does allow us to experience failure in our lives and ministries but to His glory and our growth.

I really could camp out on every third page or so and affect great change in my life and ministry, but even in that, I must FOCUS on the changes He is making. Knowledge and insight are WONDERFUL things, but without the application of God's Wisdom they are in vain.

I am encouraged. I can't wait to see what God is doing in my life and ministry the fifth time I read this book!

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