Bloggers Book Study: ax.i.om by Bill Hybels...

Happy Monday morning! What a week and weekend! Shout out to my husband, Heredes, and everyone from Potential Studios and others that made F309 a major success.

This morning we will be in pages 40-48 in the book ax.i.om.

9. The Fair Exchange Value: It comes right out of 1 Timothy 5. In any type of "corporation"- "leaders try to extract the most output from staffers in exchange for the least amount of input". Hybels says that sadly it even happens in the church. He shares the occurring years [5 yrs] that this would happen at Willow. Every year staffers hoped for that raise, etc. But it didn't really happened but they served excited and still at a high level. But after a couple of years, and seeing more buildings and ministries being built, the level began to drop and some had to have that talk with Hybels. He shares about one of his leaders who had to find a marketplace job. At the end Hybels and him worked it out and he is still working and leading after 32 years.
"I had espoused the value of fairness for as long as I could remember, and here I was losing one of my best workers for one simple reason: I was violating the fair exchange value."
And to all of you on staff at Flamingo Road Church- man, you guys rock! Thank you for the sacrifices you take in day in and day out. God has your reward.

10. The Value of a Good Idea: Hybels was in Spain leading a conference and was heading back home but needed to bring in a good idea to see change in Willow's congregation. "I might be one good idea away from a message series that could fire up our church again." Before leaving, he walked on the beach, back and forth, until God gave him that best good idea. God did. ;)
He asks, "What is the value of a good idea? A thousand lives added and tens of thousands of lives touched- all of which could be traced back to a desperate plea to God on a rainy day in Spain."
"Leaders traffic in idea creation. The best leaders I know are ferociously disciplined about seeking them out and incredibly committed to stewarding them well."
I loved this small section: talking about- to get to that one best good idea, you need to allow for hundreds or even thousands of mediocre ideas. "After all, if your big 'aha' is number seventy-eight, you'll never discover it unless you discipline yourself and your team to think through numbers one through seventy-seven."
Steward good ideas well. And great leaders keep a pad of paper and a pen by their bed. ;)

11. Build a Boiler Fund: Mismanagement is one of the many causes organizations fail/close down. And most of the time it has to do with a financial area. "The painful truth is that unless we become consistently profitable, we will not exist to minister another day." Proverbs 6:6- we should be like the ant storing up a reasonable about of reserve. As a church, there should be a boiler fund, so when something huge breaks down, etc. it can be replaced by the reserve we have set aside. "If you and I really believe that the local church is the hope of the world, then I believe we should do everything in our power to make sure that, at least from a financial perspective, the ministry can thrive well into the future."

That concludes my section. Thanks for stopping by. Join us tomorrow as Stacie Gonzalez leads the review. Now off to work! ;)