Shane Ash

• Sold our home in Cincinnati last week. Yep…it’s a big deal. I am thinking of creative ways to celebrate. The normal mortgage burning just doesn’t cut it…it’s gonna have to involve a big explosion of some kind.
• God absolutely delivered in our world this past week…in a amazing way. I am learning to lean into him and trust him more every day.
• That trust flows into every area of my life…including how I lead.
• I will learning to trust in a God sized vision that requires us to lean into him. I can honestly say this…I am excited  about the vision of our church.
• Slowly the vision has grown into a picture of our future. God has led and created opportunities unique to our mission field right here…right now.
• Did I mention that we sold our house on Friday? Well, we did.
• AND…I am excited about the movement Jesus is leading me to make within my ‘living out Christ likeness.’
• I will be sharing some of this journey over the next several weeks…still trying to unwrap all that is happening within me right now.
• Right now I am sitting beside my dad’s bed in the hospital as he is recovering from a back surgery today. I am praying for these new rods and spacers to redeem the years that the pain has stolen.
• Yesterday at nbc marked a new day for us as we look forward to having Margaret Tyler join us. She brings a whole new level to this role of pastor…I am going to have to step up to keep up. Can’t wait until December when she joins us full-time.
• Margaret is so much more than a children’s pastor…that is why we are calling her Pastor of Families. She is vital to what God has in store for us…and I am pumped about standing beside her in ministry.
• As Larry was famous for saying, “This is good but the best is yet to come!”
• Did I mention that we sold our house back in Cincinnati? After an unbelievable 18 month, up and down journey (more down than up) we have learned some valuable lessons about life, friends, and ourselves. I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything…we’re broke…but rich.

Ever read something right when you needed too. I was just reading through my google blog-reader and ran across this post from Mark Driscoll. It speaks clearly into where I am right now in leadership…trying to balance being positive in the face of negatives…without becoming neutral.

Every ministry leader needs to be a positive. They also need to know who the positives, negatives, and neutrals are both in official leadership and unofficial leadership in their ministry.

Positives

Positives are people who do gospel things in gospel ways for gospel reasons. They are trusting, supportive, and encouraging. They build bridges and mediate conflict. Positives bring organizational health, work for the good of the gospel over any single issue or cause, and are a blessing because they humbly want the gospel to win. Positives are prone to turn neutrals into positives, while they also work to neutralize negatives. In the Bible, positives are often referred to as shepherds.

Negatives

Negatives are people who do ungospel things in ungospel ways for ungospel reasons. They are distrusting, unsupportive, discouraging, and contentious. They burn bridges, are wounded by bitterness from past hurts, and are often the center of criticism and conflict. Negatives bring organizational sickness, division, and trouble because they are proudly more interested in their cause winning than the gospel and the good of the whole. Negatives tend to draw other negatives toward themselves as factions, and they also prey on neutrals in order to increase their own power and control. In the Bible, negatives are often referred to as wolves.

Neutrals

Neutrals are followers who are easily influenced. They are prone to being unsure, confused, and fearful. Neutrals are often caught in the middle when there is conflict between positives and negatives. A neutral becomes a positive or negative depending upon who their friends are, whom they listen to, what information they have access to, which books they read, and which teachers they look up to. In the Bible, neutrals are often referred to as sheep.

Sadly, in most ministries, the negatives are the most vocal, most exhausting, and most distracting, as well as the least likely to contribute to growth and health. Though they are few, they are often loud and difficult, spreading—as Paul says—like gangrene through the church body (2 Tim. 2:17). Practically, this means that even a few negatives working together can become quite difficult. The Bible reveals that negatives often pair up like two barrels on a gun, as was the case with Jannes and Jambres opposing Moses, Sanballat and Tobiah opposing Nehemiah, and Hymenaeus and Alexander opposing Paul.

How to Stay Positive

For a ministry to remain positive, three things need to occur.

First, the senior leader and the other official and unofficial leaders who wield the most influence must be positives. Further, they must be continually exhorted to remain positives. This means that even when they deal with negative things, they do so in a positive way for the glory of God and the good of his people.

Second, the negatives must not be allowed into leadership. If they are in leadership, official or unofficial, they must be rebuked. Titus 3:10–11 describes this rebuke: “As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.” Too often negatives are tolerated for too long; the longer their sin is tolerated, the more toxic the ministry culture becomes. Therefore, unrepentant negatives need to be brought through formal church discipline after their negativity has been documented and addressed; this process may end with their removal from the ministry, if needed. Ministry leaders are often reticent to deal so forthrightly with negatives; however, the longer they are tolerated, the more neutrals they infect with their gangrene.

Third, the neutrals need to be lovingly and patiently informed that they are in fact neutrals and that they need to take responsibility to not give in to negatives. Additionally, neutrals cannot be allowed into ministry leadership because they are prone to be influenced rather than be influencers. Sadly, neutrals are often nominated for and voted in to ministry leadership because they tend to be nice people who are likeable because they are amiable and easily influenced. But they are prone to work toward consensus rather than lead and are therefore not helpful for moving a ministry forward into innovation and growth. Change is controversial and requires someone who is a strong positive to build consensus for change and who is also able to neutralize the negatives rather than being influenced by them.

The last couple of days the squirrels around our house have been going crazy…gathering their food and burying it in our back yard. I love the fall. I love to watch how creation plans for the pause of winter.

This fall weather reminds me of my childhood when Dad and I would cut, chop, and stack firewood. We would pull a dead tree out of the creek that ran through Grandpa’s farm, Dad would fire up the chainsaw, and my job was to pick up the pieces and stack them in the truck to haul home. It was hard work…it was preparation for what was to come. Without the work…there would not be warmth. The preparation work led to the result of a warm home in the winter cold.

I am learning a similar leadership lesson. There are seasons of preparation that lead to seasons of result.

Sometimes the preparation work is a leading conversation where vision is being planted…other times the preparation is empowering and equipping people for the future.

In leadership, we must recognize that winter is on its way (not dreading the cold…but realizing it as a great opportunity).

I often preach with this lesson in mind. I preach to prepare the heart and mind for what is to come. Sometimes the message today is more about the message next week. Preparing for when the need is greatest. I am trying to team-build with this in mind…preparing now for the need of tomorrow.

The preparation today gives us the ability to meet the needs of tomorrow. What are you preparing for?