Reflections on: Starting, Maintaining, Finishing

So I just read this post by Ron Edmonson & loved it!!!  Before you keep reading this blog, you need to click that link & go read, or this won’t make much sense!  I’ll give you a minute…

Are you done?  Okay, good.

I have recently been thinking about exactly what he wrote; I was just lacking the free time to articulate it well in writing.  I remember back in the summer of 2009 when I went to Florida with the Larkin family to watch their kids while Mike & Rachel went to conferences during the day.  One day, Rachel got out early so we went to the beach and I was asking her what she was learning from the coaching.  Of all the things she relayed to me, the one thing that stuck with me was that 80% of your launch team would likely leave within the first five years.  She was shocked by these numbers, as well was I.  (I think it’s a little ironic that she then told me she couldn’t imagine me leaving, but then I wound up coming to Virginia for school less than a year later!)  But she said they told her that God wires some people specifically just to get things started.  And I think it resonated with me the most because it finally made sense of the way God made me.

Since coming to Liberty, God has made it clearer than ever that it’s no coincidence that I got the opportunity to help plant a church at such a young age, because I am meant to do this repeatedly throughout my life.  And now that I can reflect, I realize that all my life I’ve been starting things!  In middle school, before I even met Jesus, my mom ran a food bank.  Starting out, the system that was in place was particularly inefficient for distributing food to over 300 families from a tiny basement.  But I was able to help her change it completely, so that more food could be given out quickly and families had more options.  Then in high school, despite a ton of opposition from the administration, I was able to start a Christian club for Bible study during lunch once a week and see it grow a ton by the time I graduated!  I don’t know why I didn’t realize earlier that this is what God made me for.

Like good old Ron Edmonson said, the thought of maintaining anything quickly burns me out!  If change isn’t happening constantly, I am not cool with it.  Try and run any new idea by me that I won’t get super enthusiastic and supportive about!  I need to surround myself with starters or I’m just not satisfied with my friendships.  And I don’t know much about finishing, but I imagine I’d be alright with that, too.

I think some qualities of a starter are their loyalty to a vision, their willingness to affect change, and their ability to build productive systems.

This is seriously a super-organized method for figuring out the way God has wired you and what line of work you’re probably made for.  I would highly suggest figuring this out if you haven’t already!

So which are you? A starter, maintainer, or finisher?

(And I’m not saying this is exclusive, but starters – let’s be best friends!)

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