The Art of Execution

August kicks off a new ministry year at Sun Valley, the church I have the privilege of serving at, and that means it’s time to get the team in the room and talk about the new year. Through out the ministry year we get the entire staff team from all campuses together once a month to worship together, celebrate wins, communicate stuff that everyone needs to know and provide leadership training. This month Chad Moore, who serves as the Lead Pastor at Sun Valley, shared about bridging the gap between vision and reality. The art of execution. Here are some of the best highlights.

• Leadership is one of the most talked about and least understood spiritual gifts in the Bible.
• David submitted to the vision God had for his life not the vision he had for his life (the calling on David’s life wasn’t to build the temple, but to defeat the enemies of God).
• Solomon didn’t dream up the idea he executed the idea and the idea wasn’t general or generic it was VERY VERY VERY specific.
• Vision isn’t mystical it’s specific, it’s a dream with a deadline “build the temple.”
• Define reality, Dream a preferred future, and Design a pathway to get there.
• Any time you are serving God it is going to involve serving people.
• Inspiration and motivation don’t actually make anything happen, discipline does.
• People who actually do the least get celebrated the most (public figures).
• You make touchdowns yard by yard, down by down as you move down the field.
• Discipline is the missing art of leadership.
• The only way to hike the Grand Canyon is to go do the bleachers again, and again, and again.
• You don’t follow Jesus in the spotlight but in the everyday mundane stuff that nobody sees.
• The more specific the plan the better the plan.
• The “science side” of the plan = what is written down, budget, etc.
• You have to “embrace the stupid” if you’re going to learn and grow…i.e. “I don’t want to look stupid to do something new I’ve never done or learned before.”
• Effort = “Work as hard as we can”
• Excellence = “Work as well as we can”