Monday with Bob

Monday wasn't too eventful but was very exciting. After the plane landed, I got to go eat a late lunch with a couple from the church names Burch & O'Neal Moberly. They treated me to lunch at a restaurant on the Ohio River and I ate some "Kentucky" food. I had a hot brown and tried a fried green tomato. Really! And I thoroughly enjoyed both. Both are kind of custom to that part of the country and Burch and O'Neal thought I should experience them.

Kentucky is pretty country. As we were driving out to the retreat center I got to see alot of that area. Very hilly and green. Really nice. When I got to the retreat center lodge, it was amazing. The decor was woodsy and the rooms were as nice as a hotel, if not nicer.

They gave a me a notebook with information and outlines for the whole week. I got to sneak a peek at my DISC assessment, but I'll get to that later. Then it was time to go to dinner.

When I walked down to the lobby, I met several of the other ministers at the retreat and then Bob Russell walked in and met each of us. Then, it was like a switch...let the learning begin.

That first night we ate a great dinner at the lodge and got to know each other better. We all shared what was the best and worst thing going on in our churches right now. We also got to talk about our contexts to better understand each other and so Bob could personally help us more.

Our first session that night was entitled "Leadership Lessons I've Learned from Major Mistakes I've Made". One of the things Bob said is that good leaders learn from their mistakes. Great leaders learn from the mistakes of others. He began to share with us some of the mistakes he had made and lessons he had learned over his 40+ years in ministry.

I learned a ton in that first session, but here are just a few things:
1. Confront problems. (No, they won't go away and fix themselves with time.)
2. Acknowledge my weaknesses and delegate accordingly.
3. Be transparent when mistaken.
4. Give priority to my family even when the church needs attention.
5. Be content regardless of the statistics. (No, the grass is not greener at another church. You are just trading these problems for those problems.)
6. Constantly take breaks to strengthen your soul.

I could go WAY in depth to all of these, but you get the point. I'd love to type and tell more, but I've got a job to do and I feel like I'm a week behind on some things. More tomorrow about this wonderful journey for me.