DINING WITH SINNERS
WITH (prep) function word to indicate manner of action
Splitting Wood
Seth Godin, on his blog, writes:
When using an axe to split logs, it’s awfully tempting to aim at the top of the log.
After all, if you miss the log entirely, it’s dangerous or at the very least, ineffective. One can argue that if you don’t split the top, it’s pointless—nothing else will happen.
The problem with aiming at the top is that the axe loses momentum before its work is done and you end up with a stuck axe and half a split log.
No, the best approach is to focus on splitting the bottom of the log. Split the bottom and the top takes care of itself.
Split the bottom and the top takes care of itself?
Not to think about this in terms of hierarchal leadership – I’m at the “top” because I’m the pastor – but rather multiplying from the bottom up.
What I am trying to say is (I’m thinking out loud here) that I have concerned myself over the past 2 years with multiplying leadership and all I have been left with is lost momentum and an ax stuck in a log.
Of course a church needs leadership, but what if we simply multiply the people of God and let the “top” take care of itself.
Any thoughts that could help flesh this out a bit?
Michael Carpenter
Michael is an urban church planter in the Argenta Arts District of North Little Rock. He and his wife Amanda have been married since 2003 and have two children – Austin and Max. Michael is an entrepreneur, missiologist, and chef.
In basketball it’s called “follow through.” You don’t shoot for the rim….if you hit the rim, you miss! You shoot through the rim to the bottom of the net. I’m wondering if multiplication is the focus, have we not made numbers the goal? And is that even our business?
Back to basketball – “What’s the bottom of the net? What are we shooting for?”