Celebrating Lifted Seasons

Leadership Straight from Bill Hybels Celebrating Lifted Seasons As we came to the end of 2013, we had many celebrations. Elder celebrations. Executive team celebrations. Staff celebrations. I thanked the congregation many times for an exceptional year. As I did all the commendations and grateful to God and encouraged, I was very clear and said, "That does not mean every year is going to be like this year. Ecclesiastes 3 states there are seasons. This was a season of unprecedented blessing. It does not mean next season will be like that. It could be a totally different season. We will receive that from the hand of God with equal joy." So I kept "peppering" that in. Now, I will say this. We did a staff bonus. That was the most generous thing we have done in the history of the church. When we did this, we sat down with every staff member. We said, "This is not an every year situation. This may be the only time you will get a..." We always adjust pay in ways good HR work would demand. But in addition to adjusting pay, giving raises and all of that, we said, "Here is another check because God opened the windows of Heaven. You worked your tail off this year, and we want you to enjoy some of what God did. So some of them were "eye popping." We really blessed them. We said, "Just repeat after me, this probably never happen again." Again, this would be part B answer to the question. I have learned this over the years. When you have one of these lifted seasons or years, many pastors have had so many bad years they do not know how to lean in and enjoy a good one. I have had both kinds. All year long, almost every staff meeting, executive team meeting, I would say, "You do realize that what we are experiencing right now... We are going to look back at this when we are in our old days. We are going to say, 'Do you remember 2013'?" We are experiencing it right now. When you beat an offering by $100K. When you expect 200 people to be baptized, and 150 extra people come from the congregation and want to be baptized too. When you have a membership projection and it goes 50% beyond that. Every time another manifestation of fruit bearing would come in, I would say, "Celebrate! Sushi for everyone!" Then I would say, "You do not know how rare this is. I have been at it for almost 40 years. I know what the median feels like. I know what the awful feels like. This is really different. Enjoy every minute of it. Because it will not last. We will get back to reality." If you are ever in one of those seasons, it is your job as the leader to bring everyone's awareness to how special this season is and to continue to have the mini celebrations around them. This too. Party! Lift it and enjoy it and keep saying, "We will certainly come into a different reality soon. But during this season, we are going to enjoy this special favor every single day"