Alignment...

...is what happens when you can take your hands off the steering wheel on a flat, straight road and the car just keeps on cruisin'.

Misalignment is when you're always pulling the wheel one way or the other, and sooner or later the tires go bald, the engine has to work harder, and you're facing quite a bill from the auto repair shop.

And alignment is what we talked about at the Next Coaching session today. We've been reading Andy Stanley's 7 Practices of Effective Ministry. Here are some thoughts generated out of our discussion:

In ministry, alignment is everything. While not everyone needs to walk in lock-step functionally, there has to be clear communication about what it is we're trying to do, all the way from the top down.

So last night in our Leadership Development class, I asked the dozen or so who were there: "Is the vision clear?"

Then I held my breath.

To my great relief, heads nodded all around the room, and were able to articulate the three words: Know, Grow, Go.

While the answer could have been more vivid, like, "we're here to tell everyone in the West Valley about Jesus, plant churches locally and worldwide, and reduce the crime rate within a ten mile radius becuase so many people are following Jesus," I'll take "Know-Grow-Go" just fine for now!

The point is, if "success" at Compass Church isn't clear, then folks over time will get frustrated, wondering what all their hard work, dedication, and financial support is actually accomplishing.

It is the job of the leader to define what a "win" is, and then point it out when we get one.

This Sunday we're going to have a huge win: In the second service, the church is going to see a young man who came to Christ not too long ago get baptized. There is perhaps no greater picture of what it is we're trying to do here than that.

In fact, everything we do at Compass is designed to eventually bring us to the place where more and more people in our community can't wait to jump into our portable (but attractive) baptistery and tell of their new life in Christ.

That's the Big Win, as far as I'm concerned. Godliness, maturity, knowledge, service, sacrifice, purity, and preaching, all done with excellence, will bring as an end goal what we will see this Sunday - another person giving God the glory for his love and his grace.