(written by Rev. Byeong, 101 pages)
Introduction
KNOW THE REASONS WHY NOT GETTING DONE
I am writing this book which is focused on the Leadership. I want to write to challenge for leaders, especially for today’s leaders. I have used to get questions in my mind, “Why People is not getting ministry done completely?” I read one book, The Path of least Resistance (written by Robert Frize, 1984) many years ago, even translated it partly and taught at PACE International Seminary (PIS) in Nagaland, 2015. he started the book with the questions, “why people are not successful of their plans.” He wrote many things why, the reason. It also became my own questions since then. So I have learned from my ministry experiences, then to suggest in this book of twelve elements which is not to failure but for success, e.g., Getting It DONE completely. Of course these are my findings from resources and also with my field experiences: 20-years of Lay Pastors Ministry in Korea and helped to started, settled two seminaries (Nagaland and Kenya), and now to help shifting seminary to university in Kenya .
The twelve elements which I found are this: 1) The matter of Choice. 2) Beginning from the End. 3) Gain Momentum. 4) Stick at Final Destination. 5) Communication. 6) In-flight Motivation. 7) Brutal Fact/Stimulate Progress. 8) Level5 Leader. 9) Time to Jump Up. 10) Leading in Changing times 11) Sense of Urgency. 12) Built to Last. As you see this is not perfect order to success, but I just put my thought to progress.
I will summarize here briefly what they are.
1) The Matter of Choice This is to decide what to do. My case was easy to decide because the ministry came to me in the one morning, but other cases will be different. We have to decide ourselves what to do with prayer, and God will be give us what to do, then we have to getting that ministry done for God, for people.
2) Beginning from the End Maybe this is not understandable to you. Why begin from the end not from the beginning? The reason is this and that was true from my experiences. People put a lot of energy to start up. For instance, if our ministry journey is from no. #1(starting) through #10(ending), most of people tend to stop or give up at number #3rd or #4th stage, because they used up all of energy up to here, e.g., beginning stage, so no energy to keep on going to the number 10, e.g., to the finish line. That is definitely true. Look at people around you, so final goal is far from their sight and says, “that’s not mine but someone else.“ So starting from the end is more wise to complete.
3) Gain Momentum This means we need to keep on going “continually.“ No need to go very speedy but should not stopped it, even moving forward slowly. Sometimes they are becoming sprinter, another time becoming a marathoner; sometimes like turtle, but never stop it.
4) Stick at Final Destination People are easily to forget where they are headed, where is the final spot to landing, so leader need to remind them always where is the Cannon land. Even God promised the spot to reach, people are wandering.
5) Communication This is one of Dr. Melvin’s specialties. He advised me to make monthly newsletter regularly once I formally started this ministry in 1999. That advice is still working all of my ministry, and three seminaries what I told them to follow it whenever I have chance to telling them.
6) In-flight Motivation As you already know there are two kinds of motivations: To start up and to keep in going continually. Mostly people are saying only motivation to start up, that’s why many books on leadership is written for the beginner not already matured ministry.
7) See Facts, but Progress continually These two look paradoxical. Reality and facts are terrible, and then how we keep on going? Actually these two are not matched at all, by the way we can’t discard any one of these. Sometimes facts are more important than dreaming. Know the facts, see the fact but also keep on going.
8) Level 5 Leader There are five levels of leader what Jim Collins pointed in his book Good to Great. (in page 20). He said the highest one is level 5, which implies both sides in a coin, “humility/professional“. I will write more in details later.
9) Leading in Changing Times Once we are doing ministry, or project we need to go through in difficult times, leading people and on top of that if we are staying at there, difficulty in the length of time, people and also ourselves are sick and tired to endure, persevere at that desert, we need to take them to the promised land safely. We call it Neutral Zone which it was really helpful for me with how to go through from this resource and more in details later.
10) Time to Jump Up Dr. Melvin also dealt with this issue. We need to accumulate all of our energy and people‘s energy to jump up one more stair. I used this one once I was trying to start schools. I will write what it is and how to do that.
11) Sense of Urgency John Kotter, the professor of Harvard, wrote the book Leading Change, and I got this insight, URGENCY from that book. I never heard this terminology before, and found it is really useful, so I used it many occasions.
12) Built to Last This is the title of second book which is written by Jim Collins. He had helped the readers from this book that how they it keep lasting. Actually I got this question long time ago before reading his two books. On my way to LPM/PACE ministry, around 5 years I got the questions, “what is the final ending of para-church ministry, so studied those ministries in the States. I found something from those studies. I will write more in details later.
As you see that these are not principles of successful ministry, rather these are elements what I found and used for my ministry journey. Hope you get help from reading this book.
Byeongchea Seo
August 2021
