Serving Well (Support Chairs)

Hey, yo, what's up? So this is Tim Pratt Jr. here, uh, and we're gonna get right into it. So again, I'm in a coffee shop, uh, so I think I have my microphone set up where I have the beats on. I'm trying to like filter out the sound, but you might hear some things in the background. Nevertheless, uh, that's why I'm plugging in because I really want you to, you know, primarily hear the content, uh, that I have for you today. So I'm late, but again, I had promised that I was gonna be doing like leadership training on demand through YouTube. And I do have something for you talking about serving well, serving well. So let me make sure I'm sharing my screen. Yeah, so I am sharing my screen. Let me put this in the main view. Okay, cool. All right. So that being said, it is a book, and let me pull it up on my iPad because I have like an electronic version of it. And then I actually have a physical book that I want to reference. So I'll kind of primarily— it's various books, but for this one, it's a book called Leading from the Second Chair by Mike Bowen and Roger Patterson. Leading from the Second Chair, Serving Your Church, Fulfilling Your Role, and Realizing Your Dreams. Uh, again, so that— I don't have that one here physically with me, uh, but this is another book called The Servant's Playbook, uh, by Nate Stewart. And I think he, um, served well in a lot of supportive roles right here in Arkansas, but as of right now he's in San Diego. He's the lead pastor. But like 120 pages, very straightforward book. Uh, I love it. Actually, I'm going to keep this with me because many of you all know, and we'll get into that, there's some— I'm Associate Pastor, I think going on 3 years in that role. Uh, of course I've been, you know, in the context of the local church my whole life, you know, with a little backslide here and there. Uh, but for the most part, faithfully, I've been serving for about 3 years. I've had the opportunity to step into, like, serve in a pastoral role uh, for various reasons, uh, you know, with a sabbatical, uh, whether it was things going on. So about 4 months there with kind of, like I said, just stepping in and kind of, you know, fulfilling, for lack of better terms, that, that senior pastor role. Of course, like I say, still under the direction of that local pastor, uh, so it's just fulfilling the role while my pastor was able to kind of take a step back and, you know, focus on some things that needed to be focused on. But most recently, like I said, it's been about a month. And I'll be the first to say, uh, it is a very, very, uh, difficult role. But at the same time, uh, if God called you, I believe that he equipped us, uh, for it. So that being said, uh, I want to get into this topic today, Serving Well from the Support Chairs. Uh, you see kind of the tagline here, submission doesn't feel like submission until you have to submit. I know you heard me say that many times on some of the previous um, on-demand things. I've said a lot on my podcast, and I actually got that from Tim Ross, uh, submission doesn't feel like submission until you have to submit. And, uh, I'm not sure what his intent was behind it, but my intent— I love this because, um, I have leaders in my secular job as well as, like I said, I submit to the pastoral leadership, I submit to when I'm helping down at Livelystone, uh, and other various ministries. I've you know, helped or, well, submitted to the leadership in context of, you know, One Generation, uh, Church, uh, Brian, Apostle Brian Harris, uh, Pastor Brian Harris, Pastor B is what they call him. Um, I've— I still have to have a submitted heart, you know, because at the end of the day, whether I'm just going out— and it's been various other ministries, I can name a few other opportunities I've had— but when I'm going out, I want to make sure that yes, I'm serving God, but God has placed that that pastor there to be the overseer. So I have to really make sure that my heart posture is submission, no matter what I desire to do. I don't believe— if that pastor is truly serving God and not on no stupid stuff— and I'm, I'm gonna give a disclaimer before we get in here— but, uh, if they are really serving God, I shouldn't for the most part do anything that's out of line or butting heads with that leader. Like, that just comes down from a posture of submission. Now, the disclaimer I want to give— I know it's a lot of manipulated pastors out there. I know a lot of people have been hurt. All I can say is that this content that I'm giving, that's up to you to discern if, you know, through the power of God, through prayer, uh, if you feel like that you are serving an abusive leader. Like, that's, that's, that's between you and God and that leader. I'm going to talk through the lens of the pastor that God is talking about in the scripture. So I'm not going to use this to kind of go back and forth and call out false prophets. This is strictly for if you know that you have a great leader. I'm not talking about inadequacies, but I'm talking about a great leader that is truly serving God. And I believe that at the local church that I'm, uh, a member of, as well as I like to say the local church that I'm affiliated with through my wife and through my father, uh, through my in-laws, is that I have come to know that these leaders are truly serving God. Um, so I'm gonna tell it through that lens. And like I say, if it's been any hurt, because I know you want to pause and we like to critique can say, well, I don't— no, no, no. If you've been hurt, get it right, figure it out, and get it out. So I'm going to move forward with that, and we're just going to start there. And I'm not going to give that disclaimer anymore. Might be some notes here and there, but I'm not going to keep going back and giving that disclaimer because it's hurt. Church hurt is real, and pastors have manipulated and abused people. But deal with that accordingly, uh, and we can take that offline if we need to have a conversation about it as well. Okay, so Serving Will supports here. Submission doesn't feel like submission till you have to submit. Uh, so apologize, like I said, I'm in a coffee shop and, uh, things kind of fly around here. So, um, let's get into it. All right, so before I jump into the content, uh, I think I need to— I've been challenged to do a little bit better job in talking about me, like who, who am I, uh, my credentials and things like that. Uh, so I'm kind of just going to go through these pretty quick. Uh, so from a credibility standpoint, so I was challenged to say, hey, you know, I think you need to kind of like start doing a better job in sharing your experience and the things that you have to show people that you're not just talking. So I understand walking in humility, but I had to take that and wrestle with it. And I do. Um, so you can see, uh, just some credentials that I hold, uh, Drafting Design Technology. Business Administration. You know, I have my bachelor's in theological counseling. Uh, I also obtained my bachelor's, uh, with a minor in IT project management— IT project management essentials, to be, um, uh, I guess correct. Uh, and I'm currently pursuing my master's in ministry and leadership, uh, ministry and leadership, and I'm on pace to, you know, finish that in December '23, uh, 2023. Uh, and then some certifications that I hold, uh, I hold the Agile Team Facilitation certification, uh, Agile coaching, Certified Scrum Master, Certified Leader, uh, Certified LESS Basic. So that's basically like looking at everything I do but learning how to do it on, uh, at scale. So it's like working with hundreds of teams, hundreds of thousands of people, and helping organize work around that through processes and procedures and coaching and facilitating. And then I have a Tim Pratt Jr., uh, Kanban practitioner, uh, certification where it's literally just a visual way to show work and how to focus on flow dynamics and metrics to keep things moving. Just like I say, it's not necessarily a process, but it's a visualization of work. Uh, so that's that in a nutshell. And then, uh, outside of that, you know, I've spent 6 years in agile leadership technology. Uh, and then like I said, I'm on pace right at 3 years of ministry leadership, more so on a pastoral team. Uh, so like I say, various certifications, uh, that I have, but I've spent a lot of time going through cohorts, going through, sitting through various workshops, uh, actually practicing it. And I've been in technology engineering pretty much my entire adult life. I'm 33 now, going on 34, and I was graced to receive a role starting out of the internship at 21, and God has been faithful. But for the last 6 years, going on 7, I've actually been in technology, engineering leadership. All right, so that's that. So I can't move this right now. I see for whatever reason it's blocking it. I should have— let me do this. So let me just move this down here and we'll go back to it. All right, so why are we here today? Uh, so we're talking about leading and serving well, uh, and again, you know, this is kind of heavily inspired from this book, The Servant's Playbook, uh, by Nate Stewart. So I highly recommend this, uh, as it is focused on supportive roles in the context of ministry. Uh, so one of the one of the first things I would say, you know, when it comes to supporting any type of leader, uh, leader's vision, is that you will never be able to execute what you don't comprehend. Um, so what I mean by that, this is actually quoted directly from him in the book, uh, we never want to leave a conversation unsure or confused. Uh, I know a lot of times, you know, many of us as leaders, we might deal with imposter syndrome or feeling like we inadequate, uh, and that's just the enemy. I dealt with that. I used to didn't raise my hand or anything to get clarity until I started noticing other people, man, they were questioning, questioning. Sometimes take conversation offline because they wanted to make sure that they were moving in a direction. I let insecurities mess me up a lot of times early in my career. So often I left confused. I left unsure of what I was doing. And I would end up getting called out on it, rightfully so. And so what I had to learn is that, you know, once I was taught and got into mentoring and then I became a leader, I've seen it on the other side of it is why I have to make sure that they are sure and they are not confused, that they understand the direction that we are moving towards. Yes, I might be the leader, servant leader, transformation leader, whatever you want to call it. I might even be the manager in certain contexts. But I have to make sure that they are sure and not confused. So you want to move past that, especially in leadership, because most times if you are part of a leadership circle, uh, you are going to have responsibility to kind of contextualize that according to the area that you are leading or stewarding over. And if you are unsure and confused, then you just made a lot of other people unsure and confused. Then when you look at that from a multiplication standpoint, even if the pastor or the leader in this context, uh, because I'm gonna bounce between secular and ministry, but when they have declared their vision, a lot of times what happens is that's just been magnified. Say things, it's like if this pastor is working with 7 leaders in, in the local church, and each leader has a team of 10, let's just say, okay, that's 70 people now that's unsure and confused, all because you didn't get clarity as a leader. So that's one thing that we can't execute. So you're not going to be able to execute the vision, uh, and you know, a vision without execution is just a it's just a hope. So execution is very important, and we want to make sure that we are sure that we are locked in, uh, because when we are in support chairs, it helps us fully execute the vision of the pastor. And you see, that's the second bulletin point, uh, and, and I can go as far as say not just pastors but leaders in general, uh, they have so much comfort when they understand the motives of the team in the support ministry. So, um, you know, if they feel like people are sure they're competent, their heart posture— because, you know, let me back up. So that's kind of the first— a lot of things that you focus on in a part of this book. You have to have the right heart posture. Um, you, you have to have the right heart posture. We're going to get into some things with that later. But this brings a pastor so much comfort because they don't have to worry about, you know, they're already contending. And, and, you know, and I, like I say again, I don't want to keep getting into this— true pastors, true pastors of God they're already contending with so much. I mean, even in the secular area, when my leader had, you know, resigned from her position and we didn't have a covering, as much as a self— excuse me— as much as a self-starter that I believe that I am, you know, and I try to go out and just, just really lead with excellence, serve with excellence, um, I didn't realize how much I needed that leader, you know. And so when she left, and now that we do have one I instantly see the value of that covering. And so, but it's like this person, I was like, wow, she had to contend with so much. And with me being one of the senior leaders that was up under the director, you know, a lot was looked to me as well as others that was more senior than me. But at that time it was like, wow, she had to contend with all of this and then deal with us. So, you know, a lot of times we don't have that context because we're in our bubble of things, but it's like they are trying to keep up with the holistic view all the time. And that's why I say in a previous one, you know, this is where systems thinking comes in, where it's like, okay, I have my role that I'm fulfilling, but how does that roll up in the grand scheme of things in the direction that I believe the pastor is trying to take this ministry, you know, of course by being sensitive to God. So all that to say is that a pastor has to have— that they have so much comfort when they understand the motives of the team or the leaders that's supporting the ministry that God has placed them over as an overseer. So it's very important. You want to make sure that you, you understand, you comprehend, uh, what they are trying to do. And if you don't, just spend time with your pastor, uh, request things, say, hey, I'm not getting it, we're not getting it, and get clarity. Because I promise you, you'll move in a way more cohesive unit when it is clarity amongst the team. Uh, next one. So learn to serve your leader's vision. Uh, so right here you see that the word pastor comes from the Latin word which means shepherd. And I know some people say under-shepherd and things like that, but I just, you know, stay with the text. So according to scripture, they primarily serve as overseers caring for the flock as they wait for the chief shepherd, which is Jesus, to return. So you can see Ephesians 4:11. Uh, in 1 Peter 5:4. So like I say, shepherd, under shepherd, chief shepherd. I do believe Jesus is the chief shepherd according to scripture, uh, you know. So, so maybe under shepherds are people that's helping serve under the shepherd, uh, but nevertheless, Jesus is the chief shepherd, um, of just all. So that's why I say a true pastor— I know a lot of people like to quote David, after God's own heart, uh, but a true pastor that's seeking God Uh, man, they understand that Jesus is the Chief Shepherd. He is the head of the church, and that's a cool description. That's just the way he said, I build my church. Uh, and so through local churches, you know, we have been given pastors to be watchmen and overseers of our soul. They are equipping us. They are the ones that— like, all of us need to be in our Bible and studying it and, you know, help rightly divide the word of God. That's just not for pastors, but also too, man, they should have the opportunity to be so much in their word, to feed the flock, helping us mature. And we have a responsibility as leaders to make sure that we aren't doing anything that's taking them from that time, because this is, is very, very sensitive. And we see it's very, very critical, very critical, uh, that the pastor is able to share what they believe God has given them. Now again, Like he quoted in the book, uh, Pastor Nate Stewart, uh, this is not to insinuate that we serve in silence or that we ignore red flags amongst our leaders. So if something is there, speak up, but go about it rightly, you know. Like, I'm, I'm big on, like, now if it's just— I don't even want to get into that, but I always say champion in public, challenge in private. Uh, so if I see something that a pastor does out of line Uh, I look for a repentant heart, you know. Are they going to come back and make it right? Are they going to see themselves in this situation if, if it's proven that they are wrong? Uh, or are they going to double down on being wrong? That's a red flag to me. I'm like, if you feel like you can't error, or if you— and it's proven and you can't come back amongst the people and, you know, just say, hey, you know, listen, whatever, how God Got it. Then that's a red flag to me, and I'm gonna, you know, pray and I'm gonna be talking with God. I don't want to get into this too much, but it might be a situation, you know, because we can get into, uh, Saul and David and things like that. But still, even in that, you know, I shouldn't go out and just start tearing down that leader. Uh, like I said, I'm going to praise a lot of intimate times in my word and my Bible and ask God, how should I move in that situation? But I'm going to speak up. I'm not going to be silent. I'm going to speak up, but I might not blast it out in front of everybody. I'm not going to start some discord. I'm going to talk with that leader and ask God to help guide me through this sensitive and difficult conversation because sometimes it's hard to make people aware. So like I say, this is not to just insinuate, especially as a leader, because what we do is we get offended or something happens. And then we're gonna get with a few other people in a local church, then we talk to a few other people outside of it. And it's not— now it's all this discord where it's like, but you never talk to the person that, you know, offended you, or you never talk to the person, the pastor himself, uh, or the leader themselves that, you know, that you could have had the conversation with. That's discord. No matter how much you look, look at it, that is discord. I've had so many conversations with people, truthfully, like not just in ministry, but I'm like— and I participated in it myself, uh, and so now I'm even more on guard where I like literally say like, oh man, this leader, this, this and that. I haven't done it in the context of ministry so much that I can remember, but especially like early on in my job, and like, wow, and I really look back, Tim, that was discord. So I'm, I'm a stickler, and I'm very, very big on it. Uh, so when we have that mindset, this is what helps us align our ideas in our actions and our strategies in our lives. It's all there with the congregation that we are called to serve. So like I said, quote directly from the book, uh, so yes, God has given us purpose, but how do we submit ourselves in a way that's basically like, okay God, I know that you've given me ideas, I know that I have actions, you know, and strategies that you have downloaded in me, but now how do I submit this to the, the pastor as well as the people that I, that I've called to serve, uh, that's, that's going to be tension. It's going to be a lot of tension there. And a lot of times we don't want to deal with that. And this is what leads to people going to stand up their own ministries and, you know, just like, oh well, the Lord put something on my heart and I want to teach and share it to the people. But what about teaching and sharing just one-on-one? What about Hearing what the pastor shared, and you go preach and teach to your own family, your own inner circle. Everything doesn't have to resort in teaching and preaching from the pulpit. Truthfully, like, I, I get a lot of opportunities to teach and preach from, from the stage, from the pulpit, but I can rest assured you, where I'm sitting in this coffee shop, when I'm out deployed— yeah, I'm using these military terms, so my wife is really, really indoctrinating me with military terms— but When I'm out here deployed through Watch Dads program, you know, dads of grade students, uh, when I'm coaching my kids, like my brother-in-law Ty, like that is ministry. And then he's having an opportunity, you know, whether he's praying with those kids or not, it's so much in the field. And this is what draws people, because they're seeing our lives as we support the ministers, we sit in support chairs, they're seeing our lives. It's like they want to be connected with a community like that, but, but we're so full of ourselves that we think all impact has to be from teaching and preaching from the stage, when really the impact is in the field. It's, it's out there. That's why coaches work so hard to get players to produce, because it's out there in the trenches, it's out there on the court. And so we have to understand that in the local church, like, how do we serve the leader's vision, and how do we align and go out and deploy? You know, it doesn't always have to result from wanting the microphone. Uh, so, uh, so kind of moving along, uh, can't, can't two walk together except they be agreed. And so, uh, one thing we have to understand when we are walking together, uh, I learned this with my wife. You know, my wife is called to things, you know, and I'm called to things. Our kids are called to things. Service is sacrifice. We have to have a heart of sacrifice. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ didn't leave nothing left his body. You often hear me say it was fully committed to the tree, to the cross, showing us that, listen, I'm sacrificing everything of me. It's in me that you may have eternal life, that you have been redeemed. Uh, and so that's a model for us, man. Service is sacrifice. Uh, all through when I was going through like the spouse seminar, uh, in South Carolina where my wife was finishing her Chaplain Leadership Course at Chebolic, the Chebolic Course in Columbia, South Carolina, Fort Jackson. Sacrifice. Sacrifice. It's a lot. When you are called to ministry, when you say that you have been called, you are also saying that I am going to have to sacrifice a lot. So it might be calls, it might be driving, it could be a number of things, especially as leaders, as support leaders. We should be helping carry that load. God works through us to help, uh, that pastor bear so many things. They shouldn't be always the one running to the hospitals. Uh, I'm gonna tell you something about what I learned about chaplain— chaplain, being a chaplain, and just probably in general. But I was like, man, this is work. This is the nitty-gritty stuff. Nothing was talked about preaching the sermon for 30, 45 minutes and preaching a message. Everything was out in the field. Everything was dealing with people up close and personal, dealing with soldiers. And I'm like, man, we should kind of adapt some of that mindset as support leaders to, to help our pastors, uh, our leaders move things forward. Same thing in the secular. I should be willing to submit to my leadership in a way that's like, okay, I understand the big picture what they are doing. I don't have to know all the details, but I understand the big picture. And then I should take that and be like, okay, how do I make sure that everything is good here, there also don't have to focus, like they have enough trust in me to say, OK, I know Tim got it. I got to make sure that I'm doing my part. Like I say, now hopefully I'm not working for a micromanager or a person that doesn't have trust because, again, because you have all these dynamics. But have I done things consistently over and over and over to erode that trust? So it's some traps that we have to avoid as leaders. I mean, if I've gossiped, if I've took shots, Uh, these are things that's going to be about undermining that leader. Like, just look, have a meeting, call it out, and then put together— and don't do it anymore— put it together, a plan to say, listen, I'm, for lack of better terms, going to win your trust back. Uh, so like I say, it's because the support leaders, we have to make sure that, like, we have to understand that we don't have the luxury of marching to the beat of our own drum. God didn't place us there. He placed that leader there. So now if I've been called into leadership under the direction of that leader, I can't beat to my own drum. There's so many things that I want to do with Word of Job Ministries. There's so many things I want to help with Loud and Solid Ministries, as well as even some other ministries. So many things I want to do on my job, uh, but at the end of the day, I have to be in tandem with who God has placed as the overseer Uh, or like I say, it's the senior leader, for lack of better terms. Uh, and like I said, submission doesn't feel like submission until we have to submit. So even as much as I feel like I know and understand, there's times I'm told, not, not right now, but let's do this. And so then I have to make a decision, okay, if this is the direction that we're going and I've hashed it out, how do I still carry this out? So for example, If I drop a play coaching little league basketball, peewee basketball, and let's just say for instance, you know, Cameron, uh, or a DJ— I'm coaching DJ now, uh, so, uh, and DJ, well, I don't think that's the right play, but DJ might not see everything that I see. And so DJ shares his thing and I listen to him and say things that we can even make a tweak or two. And so it's just back where I said, well, DJ, this is what we're doing, okay? No matter how he feels If he goes out there and do something else, even if it works out, he just undermined my entire authority that God has delegated to me. That's going to cause friction in that relationship. Yeah, we might celebrate the win, but you didn't do what I said. Because let's just say hypothetically, even if the, if the result would have led to a win that I drew up I listened to him going back and forth, but he didn't submit to the call that I made. We never know. So sometimes maybe a pastor might say, okay, DJ, but let's— but DJ has to go out there and give it his all, just as much as he gave it all in what he believed in. So that, that, that can really get into a whole nother segue. But I believe in my heart, like, this is where that tension— most of us struggle with support leadership, and that's why we feel like, well, let me go do my own thing because I can surely do it better. And then we get out there, most of the time we see how much we struggle because it's like, oh, we come back like, man, this is difficult. Oh, I didn't understand. I didn't been there, trust me. Now, necessarily in the context of ministry, but I've been there in the context of, uh, like I said, the secular. Uh, so anywho, like, we must first understand our purpose and then we align with the pastor vision. So God, what have you purposed me for? What have you called me to? And then now, you know, I want to move in tandem with I believe God has placed on my leader's heart. And you can see this note here. We, we have to set aside jealousy and ego to serve God. It's one voice, one mission, one direction, one God. That's it. It's really that simple. So we gotta be willing to set aside a lot of things in order to, to get this right and make sure that when we come out, it's one voice, one mission, one direction, one God. Hash all of that out in closed doors. But once a decision is made, one voice, one mission, one direction, one God. Because if you are moving in two or three different directions, you're not going to see the results. God is a God of order. So like, I'm telling you, man, I believe through the power of God, if we could get this figured out as leaders and support leaders, man, I just— I believe we'll be amazed of how much God would just bless— and I'm not just talking about financial, whatever— but just bless the ministry if we can just get that figured out. But unfortunately, man, a lot of pastors and a lot of leaders in general struggle because they know most of the time people are talking out of both sides of their mouth and not willing to support the way that they just desire in their heart. Uh, I'll leave it there. So yeah, so all of that being said, let me see. Make sure. Yeah, so actually, so make a plan. So I would just say, like, if anything else, as a leader, uh, sit down right now, you know, screenshot this, uh, and just make a plan, you know, and ask yourself. And then I will even review this with my leaders or their pastor if time permits. Like I said, however you all work it out in your local church, uh, or you're on your secular job. But what are you doing yourself? Uh, what are you doing to lead yourself well, uh, in the context of what you've been called to do? You know, do you really know where you currently are? Like, so, like I say, so many of us, man, uh, I was telling my wife that this morning, we are in the knowledge age. It's no shortage of knowledge. People can learn anything they want to learn for the most part. But what we struggle with is implementation and results, actually carrying things out because it's so easy just to keep learning, keep learning. And then we learn from all these different networks and pull from all these different sources, but we don't know how to contextualize it. And this is where support leaders have to really be big on execution, driving things. So we have to know where we currently are. And this is what they teach us at Combine. Like start where you currently are and then take small steps and innovate on it. Uh, then you have to have a vision of where you want to go. So, but I, I don't know where to go if I don't know where I'm currently at, you know, like why would I put something in, in my GPS? Because what does it ask you when you put somewhere that you wanna go? It, for the most part, it asks you your current location. Like, but if you pick a location 100 miles from where you at, you're gonna have the wrong, you're gonna be like, okay, what, what? Why is this so hard, so difficult? Because God can't bless who you pretend to be. You know, he can't bless the representative of you, but he wants to bless who you truly are. He wants to guide where you truly are, who you truly are. So stop basically, you know, hiding by masquerading behind a facade and say, okay, this is really where I'm currently at. Like, I haven't been leading well. Or, man, like, my leadership, like, I, I, I'm, I'm— what's the word? Lord help me. Like I'm kind of tired, um, because I haven't been getting results. Be truthful with that and lean into it, and then work with the appropriate people to develop a vision. But like I said, a lot of times we can't see ourselves, and so we, we give the projection of what we think we currently are versus being true to where we currently are. So we want to be able to do the right vision, have the right vision on where we want to go, and this will help us develop the discipline and accountability. I have these words bold for a reason, but the discipline and the accountability to do what it takes to stay on track. I'm a firm believer that I believe it's just as much as the Bible study, the preaching and teaching. I'm not trying to burn people out, but once a month, if it's a combination of online and in person going back and forth, once a month you have to have development days. People have to be accountability. I feel like every leader should be speaking at least once a month, not just in preaching and teaching, but I'm saying speaking to giving an account of their area that they have been called to steward over. Every leader. So whether it's 5 minutes or 10, you should be having like a one-page update tracking and saying, this is where I'm at, this is where we're going, this is the things that we're doing that I believe is in line with your vision. Because if you don't have accountability, let alone self-discipline, I'm telling you, you don't know how, how can you measure something? How can you track something that you're not measuring? It's impossible. If you're not measuring, you can't track. And so, uh, like, that's what I preach. I'm, I'm real big on it. You have to have accountability. You know, we can get this like RACI matrix, like we get into responsibility and accountability and all that, but as a leader, remember that it might not always be your fault, but it's your responsibility. It might not always be your fault, but it's your responsibility. And until we have that mindset as leaders, it kind of opens up everything. Rise and fall on leadership, and that's John C. Maxwell quoted that. So just some extra things to consider. So, you know, most people don't share what they are really thinking, uh, with the pastor. You know, most share what they think the pastor should hear. And as support leaders, you know, we're usually in a better position to know what's really going on. And there's a whole lot of reasons for that. But that's typically what it is. I see a lot of people tickling people ears and I just really have got to— and I used to do it too, but I was just having a conversation in my quarterly review. I'm like, listen, please don't take this as me being negative or anything like that, but I'm going to give you the real even about myself because I want to go forward. I'm not here for my leader to fix a lot. I'm not here to— I'm not sure what's going on. That's wisdom. I'm gonna tackle this in that, uh, but for the most part, I'm gonna be very transparent because I don't want to have unnecessary tension. Uh, so the support leaders, like, we have to have the courage to have the difficult conversations. Say, hey, this is how people are perceiving things. And, and that helps the pastor, believe it or not. Like, if we can get past the immaturity, man, of thinking, like, and people taking so much offense It helps the pastor, but not when you hear these things and then blot them out in front of everybody. And that's the next bullet. And this is why we should save negative comments for offline. We should always be asking ourselves, does this need to be voiced in front of everyone or in general? What I mean by general, does this need to be voiced with everybody except the pastor? No. If you are hearing things prayerfully, stick with it and say, hey, Pastor Hey, this might not be your intent, this might not, but this is what people, uh, seem to be experiencing. Do you know how much that would help a pastor clear things up or go to God and say, Lord? But he can't do that because a lot of times we are just as guilty of just spilling all of that to everybody else. And then he's like, most of the time, like I say, even leaders today, leaders know the further they go with their training and it's the further we go up, the less people are going to be truthful with us. Now, I hate that in the local church, but it's been proven in, um, the secular environment. So as support leaders, for sure— I mean, really everybody, but especially support leaders— we should know how to have tactical conversations and share what's really going on with the pastor. And if it's positive, share the positive things. Uh, because that kind of reason too is, you know, we want to learn how to think critical as leaders and support leaders without becoming a critical person. So what I mean by that, we should always be assessing, man, how do I improve things to the power of God? How do I make things better? How do I mature things? How do I make my team better? How do I first start with myself and becoming a better, a better leader? That, that's just thinking critical. Uh, But also too, I don't want to become a critical person. So I'm like, I always see what's wrong. I'm always being critical. You can't never do nothing right. So it's a fine line with that. And I can get into a whole segment about that. But nevertheless, just learn how to think critical, but at the same time without becoming a critical person. So still, if you're going to tear things down, pray and hear God, but also learn how to build things up. That's why a lot of times as leaders, it just behooves me when people bring something to leaders and leaders just keep shooting it down, keep shooting it down for whatever reason, whether it's ego or whatever. But then they, they never build the person up and say, hey, you know what, let's try that. It just, it behooves me. And some leaders just, it's an ego trip because they want to be known and praised for everything. But truthfully, when you are in leadership to really serve others, especially in ministry— but I digress. Um, So some resources. So once again, you know, one of the things I'm really trying to promote more and what I believe I've been called and gifted to do, it's just a lot more coaching and consulting. Like, I'm in the agile leadership space, so I'm always challenging the status quo. We're rethinking what's possible. I believe through the power of God, you know, that if he calls you to something, there's a way to do it. But we have to be coachable. We have to be teachable. And we have to be willing to be held accountable. I can give you plenty of stories. I didn't just get here with always being told, great job. I didn't just get here with just reading books. It's application and trying and bumping my head, learning how to fail forward, taking calculated risks. I mean, Paul tells us that in scripture with the Corinthians, man. We have to be calculated. We have to prayerfully build relationships and know our context. I have to know my teams. I have to know— I can't treat everybody the same. When I'm approaching people, I have to facilitate in a way that's very calculated in order to move the direction of things. And we can get into that. But I have noticed that we are leading from an old paradigm. Leadership is way different than I'm telling you it was 5 years ago, let alone 10, 15 years ago. And yes, books are good. You should always be learning, but you have to be applying just as much as you're learning. And you know, and I tell people, man, it, it, it's hard to lead when you have not accomplished certain things because you're most of the time leading from a theoretical standpoint. I wanna lead from experience and results because I'm not just talking theoretical. I'm not just talking or always citing what someone else has said. I'm leading from a place because I have tried this. Through the power of God, and it's proven. And even if it's not proven, I have learned so much in tweaking things because I'm out there applying. Doing an application is always going to be at the heart of truly seeing if you, if you got it or you know what you're talking about, because if you haven't done it, you're just regurgitating, you're just regurgitating someone else's information. So apply, apply, apply. And that's what I'm here for, to basically just coach and consult, like facilitate, uh, just helping move things forward. So that's something that I want to bring to both of the ministries that I'm really connected to, uh, primarily 3 now. But, uh, but for the most part, I have my local church that I'm a part of. But, uh, but these are things like God is, you know, he's opening up those doors. So like I said, again, uh, if you, if you haven't, you know, really check out this book, or Leading from the Second Chair by Mike and Roger. And if there's any questions or concerns, like I say, feel free to just reach out to me through social media, or you can access all my contact information on www.timothyprattjr.org. So, man, I hope this has helped in some kind of way when it comes to just supporting. But nevertheless, I'm looking forward to just any type of way I can help and just help us grow in our leadership. Uh, so once again, you know, you all be blessed. Uh, take some time. Like I said, I think you can slow it down if I talk too fast. That's some of the feedback that I consistently get. Uh, but I really hope, uh, that this is— that this is a bless you in the context of your leadership. And if we need to go through this book, stand up some Zooms or whatever, or if you need me to come in and kind of teach from the book, uh, I can teach from the book from a theoretical standpoint, and I can also teach from it from my personal application, uh, because of the things that I've been— I've had the chance to be involved with. Um, I work with a lot of different teams. I mean, my day-to-day job is to primarily lead, manage, and develop teams and projects that range from millions of dollars. Uh, and then outside of that, you know, I do various other things, but I'm an associate pastor where I teach and preach the gospel, but I help organize and deal with operations and ministry. So, uh, man, that's just something that I'm passionate about. Uh, I love being in the field. I love doing— I love hands-on leadership. At the same time, I love building up people and leading myself out of a job. Uh, so in other words, I love seeing people build up where it's like they just really turns to a coach in a supportive role because they got it, because they're going out and doing exactly what, as a leader, that I want to see. They are like just moving things forward. I don't like— I want to leave myself out of a job and move on to the next thing that God has graced me to. But unfortunately, we can't get there because we're building all roads to us versus, you know, supporting our pastor and primarily pointing people to Jesus. So anywho, um, I hope this bless you, man. Just spend some time with it, uh, and then I'll get with the pastors. Uh, one thing I'm trying to work on is a, it's a joint real chapel and love is all. And truthfully, if it spans to other ministries, but a joint just leadership thing, man, where it's less about talking but more about demonstrating, uh, accountability. Uh, so just remember, submission doesn't feel like submission until you're actually called to submit. Be blessed.