Welcome to The Pastors’ Pen – an update for life at Southern Cross…
Last weekend was ‘LT on the Road’, a rare moment for our Leadership Team (LT) to head away for planning, input, and encouragement.
It was tremendous (but incredibly tiring) and yet so, so rewarding. My deep thanks and gratitude firstly goes to LT for being willing to jump on a bus and be taken to a new location to plan, pray and share life together! Our elders paid all the costs associated with the weekend and some took annual leave, in order to be able to attend. I have not overlooked that dedication; it was simply fantastic.
My thanks also to Dave McDonald from the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Church (FIEC) for his stunningly wise reflection on resilience that he presented for two hours on Sunday. It was therapy for the mind, body, and soul. Even more stunningly, he skillfully landed the reflection in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthian church.
Some of you may know building healthy team culture is actually not easy. Leadership is about bringing together different ideas, values, and personalities. Interestingly over the weekend, James encouraged us to compile a Spotify list of a song from our first music album, as a teenager. We then had to guess who was whose! They were very different, from many different decades! Over the weekend all our differences were on display; what food we eat, what music we listen to, and differences of opinion on how we move forward growing followers of Jesus.
Yet what I have observed, over my eleven and a half years in Leadership Team, is the deep trust we have for each other. Secular leadership writer Patrick Lencioni notes trust as the bedrock of any healthy, vital, and flourishing team. But core to our strong unity is an unwavering commitment to building on the foundation of Jesus. Therefore, we exhort our church family to join us on that solid ground!
10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work.
1 Corinthians 3:10-13
Stew on behalf of LT
