Broken Mindset

Just came back from one of the biggest event we have this year for our church’s singles ministry (aka Hardwired). It’s a 3-day singles get away in Zambales, dubbed “More Than Conquerors: Overcome, Overjoyed, Overflow”. The event was a success! Yes it had its own share of challenges but overall we achieved what we needed to achieve. I remembered the committee started planning out and brainstorming this event late last year (December 2011). The meetings intensified early this year (January to May). I was so blessed to co-lead with different people. Excellent people. Whom God sent my way to help out in this big event. I wanted to share in this post 3 of the major things I learned all through out the planning and execution of the event.

1. You cannot lead alone. You need people around you. People who are different from you. They say the best leaders are not well-rounded but the best teams are. If you want to lead well, don’t try to do everything on your own. Look for people who can do things better than you and let them do it. Do things that you do best and focus on that. True enough, God sent people who are way different than me. I got dominant leaders , steady and hardworking people and some very detail-oriented persons. Very far from my influential-animated and fun loving personality! I couldn’t imagine team mates who majorly thinks and acts the same as me- it would have been harder for us to plan this event.

2. Total dependence on God. From the very start and specially towards the event dates, we constantly prayed for God to come through. We encountered a lot of bumps along the way, but God was always there with us. Dependence on God means, full trust and faith on Him- not on the things that you can do and the things that you can achieve alone. Because the truth is, God can always exceed what you expected- if only you put Him in the lead role of your play. Besides, this point will coincide with the last lesson I learned…

3. Leave room for His grace. Ever since the start of the planning stages of the event God has been cutting off things that would prevent us from depending on His grace. Our initial core team of 10, dropped to four- but He gave us more committee members; our budget was a bit complicated- but He sent donations from unexpected sources; we expected 100 people to come, He cut it in half but everyone got more time to get to know each participant better because of this smaller number; we prepared for good ambient music on day 1 but the electricity went down- but He gave us the grace to start the program right; we prayed for sunshine but He gave us rain- which turned out to be one of the best things that happened during the outdoor activity! We make plans, He intrudes it, and the end result is always better than what we expect. Stop shutting off His grace. Make room for His hands to work on your plans. Don’t fret when things don’t go your way- if you have a God and you believe in Him, then just do your best and He will take care of the details.

A few weeks before the event, we realized we could only do so much. A lot of people can do better planning and strategizing than us. A lot of companies can make better team building outings than us. A lot of camps has bigger budget than us. But we realized the ONLY thing that can make this event a complete, undeniable success…

God’s presence.

Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” (Exodus 33:15, 16 NIV)

 

 

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event, Exodus 33, hardwired, More Than Conquerors: Overcome, Overflow, Overjoyed, Planning, singles get away, Strategy, Victory Greenhills