A production team that can adjust together is stronger than one person insisting on being right. Flexibility is what keeps pressure from becoming damage.
“Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken.”
It wasn’t an actual Beatitude from the Sermon on the Mount, but we’ve doubtlessly heard something along those lines many times in our past that extolled the virtue of not being rigid and inflexible.
But when you think about the typical church tech, do you tend to think of that person as flexible or rigid?
God’s ability to work all things for good does not depend on our plan being perfect.
When I’m rigid, I refuse to see anything other than one way. I become so dead-set on a certain path or outcome that anything beyond that can threaten my intellect and ability, and I often immediately snap back at outside chatter. I can be so consumed by “my way” being the highway and the only way that I fail to consider failure or even alternative options. And when things don’t work out how I expected, my inability to be flexible might leave me (or my relationships or my influence) broken in pieces.
I recently heard a quote from a professional sports executive that said, “Agility is the quality of an optimist.”
A pessimist doesn’t need to be agile because they’re convinced that all other roads are going to lead to the worst-case scenario.
But an optimist sees potential in multiple paths and knows that he or she has the ability to adjust mid-stream to still achieve an optimal outcome. An optimist knows that there are multiple ways to succeed and the destination is more important than the journey.
Are you an optimist or a pessimist? Do you see setbacks and obstacles as merely speed bumps on a journey to success that contains multiple variables to overcome? Or are you so set on a certain path leading to a specific result that anything else is a failure, even if the end result was achieved anyway?
A flexible spirit can protect both the mission and the people serving it.
I do think that the ability to consider the worst-case scenario is part of what can help a church tech be a good one. There’s value in thinking through options and what-ifs so options can be fleshed out ahead of time, eventualities can be considered, and backup plans can be researched. But there’s no such thing as a perfect plan.
Boxer Mike Tyson once famously said, “Everyone has a plan until he gets punched in the mouth.”
And the writer of Proverbs stated it more effectively in Proverbs 16:9 (NIV): “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.”
Sometimes I may think I have everything thought through, but ultimately I don’t know what the Lord does. Am I OK embracing the fact that sometimes His ways are higher than my ways, and His thoughts are not my thoughts? Am I comfortable accepting the fact that He planned out my course before I was created, He has plans to prosper me and not to harm me, and will give me a hope and a future?
When I have an eternal perspective on the timeline of my life, it’s easier to become an optimist because I know that everything doesn’t ride on me anyway. God is the one steering the ship, not me! And His ability to work all things for good isn’t dependent upon me being perfect!
When we trust God with the outcome, we can loosen our grip on the process.
When I know that He’s in control, it’s easier to be agile and flexible, because I know He holds the future and He directs my steps. I trust that He can provide the wisdom and discernment necessary to navigate any circumstance thru the power of the Holy Spirit.
It’s not “my way or the highway,” but it’s His way!
Things aren’t always going to work out how I plan or wish they would. And when life zigs instead of zags, I don’t have to put on my pessimist hat and assume that anything other than the expected will automatically be a failure.
Instead, I can see a glass half full. It’s not going how I expected, but as long as I am willing to stay agile and flexible enough to adapt to the curveballs that are thrown my way, I can have confidence that God will safely deliver me to the other side!
