Feedback is scary – but you need it

May 14, 2012 Bible Reflection Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment

I found this article to be well written and important and decided to repost it.

Leaders, you need feedback. But most of us aren’t getting it. Why? Because feedback is scary.

Let me tell you the story on where this post is coming from.

LEARNING TO PRUNE

Last year I moved to Silicon Valley to start Garden City Church. This was the scariest move of faith I’ve ever made. With just three people committed to my dream, $3,000 in the church bank account, and a heart full of big vision, I moved my wife and three young sons to start this new adventure. Plenty of people told me I was crazy.

Garden City Church is now six months old. These past six months have been the most exciting, difficult, rewarding, busy, and thrilling six months of my life. I’ve poured my heart and soul into this church. I’ve given it everything I’ve got. We’re off to a great start as a church and we are already far beyond my hopes and expectations of where we would be half a year into our life as a church.

But, as in any church or organization, things aren’t perfect. There are changes that need to be made, branches that need to be pruned, sins that need to be confessed, data that needs to be processed, and courses that need to be corrected. And, as the lead guy, I’m the one most responsible for looking at reality, calling a spade a spade, and leading change and forward movement . . . .

Read the rest of the post: FEEDBACK IS SCARY—BUT YOU NEED IT

About Mark McIntyre

A follower of Jesus Christ who shares observations about how Scripture should impact the church and the world. Mark is the original author and editor of Attempts at Honesty.

Thoughts on the Incarnation of Christ

That Jesus loved us enough to “tabernacle among us” (John 1:14) should blow our minds. That his did so for the purpose of dying to redeem us adds to the “amazingness” of the whole plan.

Please God alone

My greatest struggle in being part of the church has been when leaders possessed a certitude about how things should be done that borders on presumption. If I have learned one thing about humanity, it is that we are all inherently flawed. I have ample evidence in myself and others of the depravity of man. We are broken and that brokenness affects everything that we touch. As a result, we should have a healthy distrust of ourselves and a confidence in God alone.

Internally focused and off track

When the world looks at the church and sees something different than the Christ we claim to worship they have a legitimate reason to criticize us. Neither our theology nor our practice should prevent us from emulating the Christ we see in the Gospels.

Come Home – A Poem

I strain to hear that voice
“come back”
longing for the day I hear
“come home”

It is worth doing badly

The fact that I sometimes do the Christian life badly does not diminish the truth of who Jesus is and what he came to accomplish. The Christian life is worth living, even if I fall short of where I think I ought to be in my level of spiritual maturity.

Oswald Chambers on the Gospel

What is needed to-day is not a new gospel, but live men and women who can re-state the Gospel of the Son of God in terms that will reach the very heart of our problems.