One Life

Yesterday I escaped the Onelife office to wander around the offices of Youthwork Magazine and Premier Christian Radio – with Sarah Wynter as my guide, and armed with my usual detective cunning, I ventured forth to suss out the workings of the machine that is Youthwork.

If you’re like me, most of the time when you’re got something like Youthwork Magazine in your hand, you have no idea how it got there. Sure you’ve picked it up, but that’s the easy part. I got the opportunity to see behind closed doors – to see all the work that had to be done: planning, writing, editing, and that’s just for the articles.

I met the some of the people who work away at the essential but unseen aspects of magazine production. My hero of the day was Mark – the guy who works in advertising. It turns out that a lot of the pressure is on the people who find the advertising, much more that you’d expect. I have huge respect for Mark, mostly because his is probably the last job in the world that I would want, but he’s faithfully plugging away at it, just living through the pressure, and doing a great job.

When you’re standing in the middle of offices like Youthwork and Premier, with the financial guys on your left, the web wizards and advertising people on your right and the editors around the corner, you suddenly realise that teams are not just a good idea. It doesn’t matter how great a leader you are – you could never do all this stuff. If you want to pull off something like Youthwork Magazine, with the high standard it sets, you will need a team. In fact, whatever you want to do – if you want it to be excellent and sustainable – you will need a team. It turns out that leadership isn’t a one man show.

I’ve just come back from another amazing weekend! I was away with the girls Onelife Learning Community: a group of incredible young women who take their character and leadership development seriously and know how to laugh. Between lots of chocolate and ice cream, we talked about everything from relationships to reading, what leadership is anyway, and how not to give presentations to old people.

Here’s one of the gems I found over the weekend, thanks to the book we were reading (Developing the Leaders around You): ‘There is no such thing as a full grown tree.’

Think about it. The day a tree stops growing is the day it starts dying. It lives as long as it grows. That’s pretty black and white. And when it’s applied to my leadership, it gets a little scary: I cannot keep leading if I don’t keep learning.

But here's the thing: with trees, growth is subtle – you don’t walk out the door to find the little sprig you planted last week has become the full blown giant. You can’t really see a tree grow, not unless you have years to spare and limitless patience. (Wait - isn’t that what God has?)

You see, the temptation is to go for the growth spurt: I’ll take a year out, grow massively and learn loads, and then I’ll be sorted for the next decade. We like change we can see and measure...we like to watch the percentages go up, we like getting A’s. But we have to be willing to grow like trees – it will take years. It will take steady investment. It will be hard to see sometimes.

Until one day, years from now, we’ll suddenly look around and realise we’re actually quite tall. We’ll have grown right up into the clouds, like Jack’s bean stalk, and we’ll see our King face to face. And all those years will be like no time at all, because of Him. And it will be worth it.

I’m sitting in the middle of a rather amusing conversation. Pete is trying to work out how to use Twitter, and Tim, Onelife’s technology hero, is patiently showing him the ropes and we’re all trying not to laugh.

Learning new things is sometimes fun and sometimes frustrating. There are times when you just don’t get it and probably never will (like me and biology), or other times when you have to go slow and be patient (like Pete and Twitter), and still other times when you get it right away and won’t stop because you love the fact that you can do it (like when you learn how to pronounce an impressive word and try to use in every sentence).

We just have to be prepared for when learning something new isn’t really fun.  There have been a few moments this year where I’ve had to do something I’ve never done before and it wasn’t necessarily the most exciting thrill of my life.  An example? Event management.

I never expected to get it right away – organisation isn’t really a weakness of mine, but I would never call it a strength either. And while the event went okay (people actually came!) the whole day I was slightly stressed. I was learning how to do it, and I felt like I was wearing a big sign that said ‘Yes, I am a novice, please be nice to me.’ But I figure, I’m going to have to be able to organise events. So I had better just go for it.

If we want to keep moving forward, we have to learn new things. We can’t avoid it. Especially if we want to lead – because isn’t that leadership? Leading people into unknown territory, places they haven’t been before? If we can’t do it, we can’t ask them to.

So make the effort. Even if it’s a little embarrassing, like Pete’s attempts at Twitter, make the effort.

I’m just on my way back from Manchester after attending a conference run by the EA (not as in “EA Sports, it’s in the game”, but the Evangelical alliance). It was a great 24 hours talking with other organisations and Leaders from churches about how we can reach the 20-30’s age group more effectively. It was probably the best accommodation that I’ve stayed in for such a conference. I was quite excited about this when I saw the pictures on the Internet – and so I let the rest of the guys in the office know how nice it looked to. Yanah sent me a txt before I left and challenged me to write a blog entitled “ the delights of hotels” on my way back home. I love a challenge, so needless to say I have opened my laptop on this busy Virgin train amongst a colourful audience and have began writing something that I’m hoping might be of some use to someone out there.

I have many happy hotel memories growing up – mum and dad would every so often take us away to a nice hotel for a family weekend break. Me and my sister would excitedly get to our destination and begin all these novel activities of being all “grown up” and very sophisticated. I mean, you could make your own cups of tea in your room, fill in your breakfast requirements for the following morning and hang them on the outside of your door along with the “do not disturb” sign. You could explore the depths of the mini-bar, although it was foolish to consume any of its contents as that might cost Dad several weeks pocket money to pay for a small can of coke and a mars bar  (we always brought our own treats to stash away). Being one door down the corridor from mum and dad was, in-fact just like owning your own home. We would get dressed up for dinner and then go and knock on their door and ask if they would care to join us, merely a tactic to hurry them along from all this relaxing business. Not to mention the excitement of having “free” use the of the leisure facilities. We still always slept with a “nightlight” on though, just in case we woke up through the night in these very unfamiliar surroundings. Most grown ups use nightlights though, don’t they?!

As I have been recalling these fond memories, I am again reminded how important rest is. We all love to buy into the culture of “busyness” that surrounds us. When you ask people how they are or what they are up to you’ll often hear a phrase like “I’m pretty busy at the moment” resound in your ears. Why is it that we all love being busy? What’s so attractive about that? Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great to be a hard worker and diligent with the responsibilities that we have. But on the other hand if we are constantly busy we become ineffective and eventually burn out. And that is no good to anyone. The antidote to the busy bug is remedy of rest; it’s not rocket science. Let’s take the time as leaders to book in our holidays, work hard and rest hard. God did it, we want to be like him, so let’s all find time to rest and let’s stop being so busy and be secure in who we are and enjoy a greater sense of balance when it comes to work and rest. A little less “doing” wouldn’t go a miss or decrease our productivity.

My little rant is over and I have accomplished my task. I’m feeling a little sick because I’m facing backwards on this fast moving, horizon changing train that glides along at the most peculiar angles. So I think I better leave it there, shut my laptop and try and focus on the horizon!!  Until next time… Macca

Have you ever seen one of those recipe books where all the pictures look incredible? You flip through and gasp at warm chocolate brownies with chunks of chocolate cookie and vanilla and caramel ice cream gently melting...you sit there, in awe and wonder, thinking ‘I want one of those RIGHT NOW.’

But that’s not the aim of the recipe book. It’s not just there to convince you that brownies are a good thing (that hardly needs doing), it’s there so you can have brownies.

I’m reading a book at the moment that is, quite simply, remarkable. It’s called ‘The Pursuit of God,’ by a guy called A. W. Tozer, who writes beautiful, almost unbelievable things about God and the life He intended for us. I'm inspired every morning when I pick the book up. And I can get my highlighter out and underline stuff as much as I like, but I’ve realised that’s just like looking at the picture of the brownie and being satisfied. Tozer doesn’t just want me to want God, that’s only the beginning: he wants me to have God.

Now, I understand that some people aren’t as into books as me. I am a bookworm of the first order, and not ashamed of it. Books are amazing. Okay, not all of them – but some of them are incredible, considering they are only paper and funny black shapes. They can move you, teach you, inspire you, change you – if you let them.

I don’t know what you’re reading right now. If it’s not good, throw it away. If it is good, don’t be easily satisfied. Eat the brownies.

P.S. If you want some ideas for good books, find us on Facebook and ask! ‘Leaders are readers,’ as they say...