Issue No. 478 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting shares a “slow down/stop rushing around” lesson learned by a now-retired CEO. Powerful! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for the new book from John Pearson and Jason Pearson, Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned. See Mistake #4 below.
Like this grandparent pictured here (not Bob Lonac!) you may also discover that something extraordinary can happen when we intentionally slow down.
“I Learned to Become Still”
Warning! Read Bob Lonac’s new book at your own risk!
Reflecting on his leadership career with Young Life, International Justice Mission, and then 13 years as CEO of CRISTA Ministries (1,800 staff members), Bob Lonac confesses in Live Large! 7 Lasting Lessons for Navigating Life’s Twists & Turns:
“…I never thought that retiring in January of 2019 would provide the opportunity to learn my greatest lesson about being still before the Lord. How was I to know my teacher would be a child not even old enough to walk?”
As COO of International Justice Mission, Lonac had learned from Gary Haugen, IJM’s founder, the powerful potential of giving staff “30 minutes of quiet time at the start of each workday.” He notes, “This daily ritual and rhythm of prayer sent IJM on a new trajectory of continuing to grow a culture of listening to God and acting on what He says.” (See my brief note about “8:30 Stillness” in my list of recommended spiritual growth books for this decade. Click here.)
Yet…(perhaps you also have a “yet” in your daily discipline?)…Lonac admits, “Those 30 minutes of quiet time and being still in prayer continued to be tricky for me.” He adds, “…often it still felt more like an obligation than a joy.”
Fast forward. Grandpa Bob and his wife, Kathleen, volunteered for an 11-week stint as substitute nannies for their ninth grandchild, Keva. Just seven months old, this “gentle, beautiful, and precious” (the Gaelic meaning of Keva) granddaughter melted their hearts from the moment their son, Ryan, dropped her off at 7:15 a.m.—five days a week! Oh, my!
Read this poignant chapter and you’ll understand why the Lonacs were grateful that little Keva took several naps every day—yet something extraordinary also happened.
“I would prepare Keva’s bottle, and Kathleen would feed her sitting on the couch. I would then take Keva and walk with her around the house until she fell asleep in my arms. I started to sing the same song while I was walking her—one I liked by the Mills Brothers called “Across the Alley from the Alamo.”
Listen to the Mills Brothers sing, “Across the Alley From the Alamo” (2 ½ minutes).
“Each day little Keva fell asleep a little sooner. A few days after I started this routine, I sat down in my easy chair in my office (still singing along with the Mills Brothers, of course) with Keva on my chest. As she slept, I grew quiet.”
I don’t want to issue a spoiler alert here because you’ll reap the reward by reading this nuanced holy moment yourself. But you should know that Lonac “succumbed to the moment” and little Keva—asleep on his chest—slowed his breathing and the resulting epiphany was powerful. He writes,
“During those 11 short weeks Kathleen and I cared for Keva, I learned to slow down. In slowing down, I learned to become still. And in discovering a new capacity and desire to be still, God drew near to me.”
Whew. I’ve shared just one of the seven chapters from Live Large! 7 Lasting Lessons for Navigating Life’s Twists & Turns. Lonac is equally transparent in all seven chapters, including Chapter 5, “Bad Things Happen.” Just 115 pages, you’ll repeat the memorable stories and lessons to your family and your team members.
I’ll close with one more insight from Lonac: “During the entire time with Keva, no criticism or shame came my way from God, only affirmation and love. Thankfully, I had insights into things I had been thinking about and inspirations about current tasks. Now I try to pause before I start tasks like phone calls, errands, and most everyday stuff I do. I ask God to direct my path and my spirit. There is no rush. Sometimes even just waiting on God brought me peace and pure joy.”
NOTE: Lonac’s Live Large! stories and lessons have that familiar flavor of Henry Blackaby’s writings—“Find out what God is doing and then join Him.” Watch for my review later this year of the 2021 expanded edition of Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God. Blackaby’s all-night prayer for his newborn son, Richard, is inspiring and convicting (ditto Lonac’s 11-week prayer sessions!). Richard now leads Blackaby Ministries International.
To order this book, click on the title for Live Large! 7 Lasting Lessons for Navigating Life’s Twists & Turns, by Bob Lonac. (Note: not available on Amazon.) And thanks to the author for sending a review copy.
YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS
1) “There is no rush,” writes Bob Lonac. If (like me) you find slowing down almost impossible, read the four chapters in Part 5, “God Moments, Joanne’s Question, Dorm Room Evangelism, and Idolatry,” in Mastering Mistake Making. Mistake #19 suggests you begin by listening to Chuck Girard’s classic anthem, “Slow Down.” Click here.
Listen to Chuck Girard sing “Slow Down” (4 min.).
2) If we can’t spare four minutes to listen to “Slow Down,” what does that say about our pace of life in our organization and our own lives? Yikes!
3) Raise your hand if you’d hop on a short Zoom call just to hear Bob Lonac sing “Across the Alley from the Alamo.”
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Mistake #4 of 25:
Not Learning How to Listen
Insights from Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned, by John Pearson with Jason Pearson
Hot-off-the-press! Read the new book by John Pearson and Jason Pearson and then feature a “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” segment at your weekly staff meeting.
“Way too late in life I’m learning how to listen.” That’s the subtitle of Mistake #4 in the new book by John Pearson with Jason Pearson. John describes a wake-up call in 1993 when he was facilitating a Q&A with Lee Strobel and 920 church leaders in Auckland, New Zealand. (LOL!)
John writes, “I thought I was a decent listener, but I wasn’t. I had never read even one article, chapter, or book on effective listening. I preferred talking!”
Each chapter in Mastering Mistake Making features a brief and personal “mistake story,” (often a hilarious management mistake), and then what John learned after reading a recommended fork-in-the-road book. He recommends one book for each mistake: 25 must-read books!
For Mistake #4, in addition to Strobel’s classic, The Case for Christ (over 5 million sold), John recommends The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever, by Michael Bungay Stanier. The mistake chapter also quotes Ruth Haley Barton on effective listening: “Do not formulate what you want to say while someone else is speaking.” Whoa!
Click here to view the list of all 25 mistakes and read the introduction to Mastering Mistake Making. To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned (10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you dashing and racing to the finish line—rushing around without direction—in your communication strategies? Slow down…and check in with Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
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