enemies of unity

today our staff team and our spouses from Ridge Church talked about these 5 enemies of unity. we want to fight against these enemies with everything in us.

These 5 enemies are from a Dave Ramsey talk & i actually wrote about this talk HERE right after he did it at Catalyst '08.

below are just the rehashed notes again.

this is still so important because we all agreed that NONE of us want to be a part of a church where any of these 5 exist!

The Enemies of Unity 

"Unity is a spiritual happening."

-  Few churches or organizations experience real Unity. Most organizations DO NOT work to their full potential because there is no unity!

- The 5 Enemies of Unity --> **To the extent we fight back these enemies we will have success in our organizations!

1 Poor Communication = when this happens in any form, problems and disunity come. it's hard work to keep up good communication though.

2 Gossip (Dave fires peeps for this... pretty awesome) = it is degrading & will DESTROY a church or organization. 

*"If you're talking to someone who CAN'T fix it, THAT'S GOSSIP!"

*"A successful leader MUST develop & maintain a culture where negatives are handed up and positives are handed down."

3 Unresolved Disagreements = these happen when the leader is clueless or when he avoids confrontation! a Leader by definition must have a BACKBONE! 

[awesome quote] = "Sometimes in the name of being 'Christian' we avoid confrontation. That's not nice it's WIMPY!" [haha :) very true.]

A little confrontation CLEANSES THE WOUND and allows everyone to go forward in a spirit of unity! (the Leader must lead in the confrontation.)

**"When you are aware there are hurt feelings and/or disagreements, act quickly and decisively!"

- 2 GREAT quotes = "An indecisive leader is not a leader. That's squirrel theology. Leaders make a CALL." [haha, get it?... "squirrel theology"!] 

+ "Nobody ever killed anything by saying 'Ready, Aim, Aim, Aim, Aim, Aim, Aim, Aim...'"

4 Lack of shared Purpose = this happens when the leader doesn't restate the GOAL, VISION, and MISSION early & often. i can't imagine working in an organization like this. doesn't even register.

5 Sanctioned Incompetence = remember we're ALL incompetent at something so that's not a bad thing. BUT, sanctioned incompetence demoralizes.

"Team members will eventually become demotivated when someone else on the team can't or won't do their job and a leader won't take action (because they all know they're working for a wimp)."  

only 3 real options when dealing with incompetence = 1) Training (to help them be competent), 2) Transfer (to different role), 3) Terminate.

***[we resonate so much with Dave's statements @ Ridge church. especially this one...] = "There's 1 way to penetrate the marketplace = extreme excellence!

*So, the leader must go to battle early & often with these enemies FOR THE SAKE of UNITY!

"When unity is valued in the culture, the whole team will also act to keep these enemies from the gate."

Wow. good stuff Dave. thanks for this

***I am flipping proud to work on a staff team that embraces unity and puts the beatdown on these 5 enemies!