ThanksWeek: Dream Team

It’s Thanksgiving Week here in the USA (G’day, British readers!), which means one thing around the Summit offices:

It’s quiet.

That’s true. Many of our staff is traveling, we’re in the very brief lull between sermon series, and I’m gettin’ junk done. I love Thanksgiving Week. Productivity is my friend on Thanksgiving Week, much like stretchy pants.

So I thought I’d take advantage of this week of thanks to roll a few favorite posts out of the archives…posts that remind me of some of God’s greatest blessings on my life. Today’s blast from the past originally appeared on December 14, 2010. If you’re so inclined to travel back there, you can always click here.

As I write, we’ve just finished up Summit Staff Christmas Party 2k10. The auditorium is a wreck, the lobby is covered in coffee spills, and I’m pretty sure I just drank a year’s supply of hot chocolate (hello, 10 PM buzz!). It was a night for the history books, and a night where I realized the dream state I’m living in.

We may have the most functional staff ever. Yes, I know church staffs are often known for dysfunction, but ours has to be a pretty glaring exception. Can I brag on my peeps for a moment? (Hint: yes I can. It’s my blog. Hands off my keyboard.)

I work with some of the biggest dreamers in the church world. These people tire me out by playing the “what if?” game all the flippin’ time. “What if we went to our city instead of expecting them to come to us?” “What if we raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and gave it all away to bless other churches in other nations?” “What if we forgot about being a comfortable church in a comfortable building and adopted ‘industrial ghetto’ as our official design scheme?” They dream big, and God rewards big dreams. These people inspire me.

I work with some of the hardest workers in any office anywhere. Big dreams lead to big plans, long task lists, and multiple projects running at once. I love watching our team visualize, strategize, and execute “only-God-could-make-that-happen” plans. Whoever said pastors only work on Sunday is just wrong. (Because we also have a Saturday campus. Boo yah.)

I work with the most fun people anywhere on the planet. We laugh. A lot. Tonight’s party was one continual stream of merriment and mirth (early reports tell us at least 8% more mirth than last year. Impressive.).

I work with the most brutally honest group of people ever. Bad ideas don’t survive long around here. Neither do bad attitudes. If you’re going to work with people who are like family, you’d better be ready to get “the talk” in the middle of a family meeting. Ideas are sharpened, visions are honed, and character is crystallized in this environment. And amazingly, we walk away friends.

We have the greatest support team. Period. The unsung heroes of our church staff are people that you’ll never see on stage, never hear preach a sermon, never witness leading a ministry. But I’ll guarantee you they’re there. Our administrative staff is a group of ladies who consistently make us look much better than we actually are. They pick up the ball whenever we drop it (average drop rate: 172 per day). They do the tasks that we stink at and help us make wise use of our time and talk us off the ledges when it’s been a rough week. Any church staff – even a great church staff – probably has some dispensable people along the way, but our administrative rock stars ain’t one of ‘em. Nine of ‘em. Whatever.

So that’s it. At least five reasons why I love my co-workers. And because I’m a cheapskate, this is a dang nice gift. Merry Christmas y’all.