Courageous Leadership, Chapters 4-6

I am really enjoying this book. Hybels offers such practical information that I think most people can understand and would be able to implement. The chapter "Building a Kingdom Dream Team" is so good because he lays out a good foundation for building a strong team. Everything he says totally makes sense but on my own I probably would never think of doing this process the same way. I really liked how he said we first need to define the nature and purpose of the team. I know I've been on teams before where no one was really sure what the real goal was. Which totally correlates with our Acts 2 process - we have to all focus on the "main thing" and from there we will have unity in our body. I really liked Hybel's 3 C's of selection. I think it is right on. I think sometimes in churches someone with an incredible talent may be elevated to a position but the character is lacking. They will inevitably fail. Sometimes it takes a while to really see someone's character, which is why I appreciate our church's policy of having new people wait for a period of time before getting involved. The next chapter "The Resource Challenge" was a good one. I'm glad that someone is actually addressing finances and giving to this extent. Bill Hybels wrote in his book about how he was unapologetic about asking for resources in the early years of his ministry. People get so touchy about their money but Bill was willing to ask people who were just barely Christians about donating large amounts of money. It was really good to hear someone be so upfront about how its nearly impossible to make a church grow without financial resources. It really makes me think about what we could be doing to be generating more resources in our body. I whole-heartedly believe that our pastors and staff should be paid more. Their occupation is not easy and is not just a Monday through Friday 8 - 4 job. I believe they should be paid well. I definitely agree with Hybels that if people get excited about a vision, they are glad to give. I feel that we have a generous congregation and if we can get people excited about what our purpose is and dreams that we have for our body, I think we can draw new people in and also increase our resources.