“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)
By Nancy Huddleston
During my first day on the job, I sat down with the church director for what I thought was a standard onboarding meeting. As we finished, he asked me if I had plans for an upcoming weekend. I assumed it was a friendly question when I replied, “nothing in particular.”
“Good, we’ve got an all-staff retreat planned,” he replied, “I’ll get you the information.” Then he handed me a copy of StrengthsFinder, and said we’d be talking about it at the staff meeting … in one hour.
At the meeting, I discovered that although everyone else was aware of the retreat and had copies of StrengthsFinder, they also didn’t know how both things fit together. The director met our “deer in the headlights” looks with a presentation that introduced us to the book and to his vision for the staff to implement what we were learning.
When his presentation ended, he smiled and left the room without saying another word. I was dumbfounded by the way he finished, but chalked it up to the fact that it was my first day. Then, one by one, my coworkers threw up their hands, expressing their universal confusion about the meeting and what we were supposed to do with the information. As we all contemplated what to do next, one person said: “yes, and …” which helped us pivot away from criticism to acceptance.
After we completed our StrengthsFinder tests and read the book, we had a great retreat as we focused on how to bring what we learned to fruition. As a result, we came together as a team to become a collective blessing to the parish when the pastor faced a health crisis that required all of us to step up in ways we never imagined.
Pray
Lord, help us to calm our hearts in order to understand your plans for us so that we can fulfill your wishes.
Reflect
Has there ever been a time when you thought your boss missed the mark? How did you react to that situation?
Discuss
Share about a time when your expectations at work were wrong and in the end, you actually turned out to be a blessing for someone else.
Nancy Huddleston is the editor of The Flame and lives in Burnsville, Minnesota, with her husband, Mike. She can be reached at nancy.huddleston58@gmail.com.