by Eddie Pipkin

Image by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay
Last week, I wrote about hiking in the stunning Yosemite Valley. I did this trip with a high school buddy, one of my oldest and dearest friends. We’ve been doing trips together on a semi-annual basis for 40 years. Scheduling adventure trips or biking trips or “running” races is what I’ve always done to keep myself motivated to stay fit and try new things. I am of the philosophy that such regular challenges are essential for personal growth, whether physical or mental in nature. We need to always be testing our limits and pushing ourselves towards new goals. Ministries are no different. To counter calcification, we need to dare our teams to tackle new endeavors. We don’t have to achieve someone else’s ambitious dream; we just need to regularly be pursuing some stretch-yourself dreams of our own.
My friends and I – there were six of us – were not undertaking a strenuously difficult task as hikes go, maybe five to seven miles a day with full packs, with some moderate elevation swings and several additional shorter hikes without weight on our back. It was reasonable for our skill set and experience . . . and age. Nobody was going to meet us at the end our trek with a medal, but for our life stage, compared to our peer group, it was an achievement. Setting challenging goals is all about context. For me, I’ve passed the stage that I’m going to be in the top percentile overall on any sort of challenge. That’s for the young guys and gals. But for my age and abilities, there are still plenty of fulfilling goals to pursue and lots of personal milestones yet unvisited.
This is true for collaborative teams. It’s true for institutions. A young, fresh team – and here I mean newly minted more than composed of young people – is still in the high-energy phase of wild, unfettered exploration. No goal seems too audacious. For a more seasoned team or institution, the scope of the goals will change. If these goals are less showy, they can be deeper in resonance. The dazzle of raw talent may be supplanted by the patient wisdom of unexplored byways. The point is that there is no phase or age for people or the organizations that they serve that comes without resh terrain to reveal and experience.
Such revelation and exploration requires focus and discipline, like all useful effort. It has to be proactive, not reactive. It has to be intentional. As entrepreneur and writer Russell Brunson has said, “You have to motivate yourself with challenges. That’s how you know you’re still alive.”
We see people over time sometimes feel like their time for embracing challenges is done. They settle into their recliners and assume a steady routine of passive lethargy.
We see teams drift into paths of least resistance and institutions slide into a pattern of “good enough.” It can feel really good not to have to put in so much work as new adventures require. It can take the pressure off to be at peace with the status quo, especially if it’s a quality status quo. It’s also a soul killer over time. We’re left at some point with a nagging sense of “what if”? What were we made for, after all, if not growth and challenge and, to quote Hamlet, “the undiscovered country”?
Again, the appropriate challenges are always contextual and unique to every individual and every institution. Don’t get hung up on gawdy goals or someone else’s bucket list. Sometimes, very small things can be very big challenges, and making small changes can ultimately lead to some very big results. Maybe you’re not cut out to run a marathon, but walking two miles after dinner every night could be a major lifestyle change.
Similarly, your local church may not be ripe for hosting a giant community wide festival, but maybe you are ready to host a group of local kids for a one-on-one afternoon mentoring program.
Choose the challenge that is right for you:
- What is something you are already doing (and engaged by) that you wish you could take to the next level?
- What is something that one of your team of leaders is passionate about and skilled at that they could guide the rest of the team in trying out?
- What is a skill that you could all take on learning together?
- What is a stretch goal that your community or group could do as a project together? Something that would be easier and more achievable done with the teamwork and support of the whole community or group?
- What is something you could undertake that is someone else’s dream that you could make happen for them (even if it’s not something you would choose for yourself – you can stretch your own abilities to invest in their goal)?
- What is something you could read, individually or as a team, that could challenge your perspective on a topic that you think is important or have been wanting to explore?
- What is one thing you can try, the thought of which makes you feel uncomfortable?
I stated that we all have the capacity to create interesting and useful challenges for ourselves, but it is worth noting that growth-through-challenge can be reactive when necessary; it can be a positive moment of “challenge accepted” when circumstances beyond our control force us to take a new perspective or solve a new problem. This isn’t our preference, of course. But even when bad things happen, we get to choose how we will respond and can often take the opportunity to learn new things about ourselves, our abilities, and the resilience of the people that we work with.
Seeking to practice what I preach, I composed this blog as Hurricane Milton was bearing down on us here in Central Florida. Sure, I am sure you would have understood if I put it aside for a few days as I finished my storm prep and anxiously scanned the local weather updates, but I thought, I’m going to set a goal to finish this writing exercise even with the chaos of an impending storm like we haven’t seen in twenty years. So, forgive me if it’s a little short, or you spot a couple of typos. Still, I proved to myself that I could write even when profoundly distracted. This work will win no Pulitzer, but the challenge was accepted. That’s a win for me.
How do you do at setting regular personal growth and ministry challenges for yourself, large or small? How about your teams and the ministries you are responsible for leading? Are you satisfied with the status quo, or do you keep things interesting by pushing the boundaries and trying new things? Share your own experiences in the comments section below.
Leave A Comment