Please Don't Quit

Why Small Beginnings Lead to Big Finishes

This past Sunday I met a young woman ready to throw in the towel. About a year ago she moved to another state to take a leadership role in an organization, and it wasn’t long before she realized how big of a task this job was going to be. Within a few minutes of us talking, she was fighting back tears explaining to me that she just had to walk away and take a break because she was on the brink of burnout.

She didn’t realize it until after I spoke with her, but she is a ReLeader. I did my best to encourage her in the few minutes we had together, I told her about this ReLeader community you are a part of. Hopefully, she went to Releader.co and is reading this article right now!

I couldn’t shake her ReLeader journey from my mind for the rest of the day. She inspired me to write this article, hoping that it can encourage and inspire someone else out there.

Bleedership and Bulldozers

This woman’s story gave me flashbacks to my “bleedership” days when I was in the beginning years of ReLeading. If you’ve ever ReLead something, then you know all about “bleedership.” In the heat of the battle, I would daydream of walking away and doing something else. I even had a job in mind that I would run to in my “burn it all down” rage moment (luckily that never happened).

What was my “runaway career” of choice?

Well, it all started when I was a Vice President at a university in Oklahoma City. The school owned a house on the property that needed to be demolished. I met the demo team there at 7 am to greet them and make sure they got the job started. One of the men pulled this massive bulldozer off a trailer and within seconds he drove that thing straight through the house, splitting it in two. I stood there with my mouth open. Maybe it was the testosterone or just the raw power of the machine in a man’s hands, but that is the day that my “walk away from it all” job of choice became…BULLDOZER OPERATOR! Yes indeed! I just think it sounds amazing to destroy something and get paid to do it.

What’s your “walk away from it all” job of choice? Tell us in the comments.

The life of a ReLeader is a life of rebuilding, but it never comes easy.

ReLeading rarely involves:
Comfort
Momentum
Fame

Instead, it more often comes gift-wrapped with:
Pain
Delay
Obscurity

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE ReLeading. It’s a calling and a passion. But I would be lying if I said there weren’t days when I dreamed of just climbing up in a bulldozer and destroying stuff all day. As ReLeaders, we are all about fixing what we didn’t break, but sometimes I just wanted to tear down what someone else built.

There I was, standing in front of a young woman that was precisely in this exact same spot (maybe not the bulldozer part). I cannot speak for this woman I met Sunday, but I think I have a pretty good idea of what she is going through. She is a ReLeader who is called, chosen, and designed for this rebuilding gig, but now finds herself ready to throw in the towel and walk away.

Everything in me wanted to scream, PLEASE DON’T QUIT!

Slow Progress ≠ No Progress

A primary reason ReLeaders feel tempted to quit too soon is the difficulty in seeing progress during the initial years.

I remember my first few years of ReLeading Victory Church. It felt like this plane was losing altitude, not gaining it. Attendance was down, giving was down, and most of all, my spirits were down. I started to question whether I was the right man for the job. Internally things were improving. The staff culture was improving, and my comfort with preaching and leading was improving. Our systems and morale were improving, but all of the external markers were seriously lagging and I could not see any progress being made.

At our previous house, one of my favorite hobbies was trimming the nearly 50 trees in the yard (I know, you think I’m crazy). My wife would laugh at me because I was constantly looking out the window, pointing out the limbs I would remove next. Although it’s grueling work, one of my favorite things to do on a day off was fire up the chainsaw and get to cutting. I would spend a few hours trimming, then cut it all up, restock the firewood stack and burn the rest.

Then on the next evening walk with my wife, I would admire the work of my hands. I think I just loved that I got to see the job through to completion and be satisfied with my labor.

Leading rarely provides the sensation of closure because the work is never truly finished.

The real test of our character as ReLeaders is whether we are willing to plant seeds that will grow into trees, even though we may never sit under their shade or pick fruit from their branches. That’s often the ReLeader’s fate.

There’s this man in the Bible who was a brilliant ReLeader. His name was Zerubbabel. He was called to rebuild the temple (that he did not tear down). You can read all about it throughout Haggai, Zechariah, and Ezra.

Zerubbabel had his own season of discouragement. After he rebuilt the foundations, he quit. Theologians and historians believe he walked away from his ReLeader calling for nearly 17 years! The “bleedership” portion of his journey drove him away to his own version of “driving a bulldozer.”

Do Not Despise What God Celebrates

The book of Zechariah is largely a prophetic word to Zerubbabel to come back and finish what he started. It was screaming to Zerubbabel and it’s screaming to us…PLEASE DON’T QUIT. That’s why chapter 4, verse 10 is such a powerful passage:

Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand. (Zechariah 4:10, NIV)

Like me with the trees in my yard, our culture loves to see things completed. We celebrate pastors and leaders who have built great things – from start to finish. That’s why ReLeaders rarely speak at conferences or get invited to be on a podcast or are offered book deals. Our world rejoices to see the work done. But not God. That’s why this prophetic word instructs us to “not despise small beginnings.”

Zechariah tells us that “the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.” So, God is rejoicing in:

• The thing you’re doing that is still just beginning.

• The thing you’re doing that feels like “just foundation work.”

• The thing no one else can see, and even if they could, they wouldn’t care.

Yes, God is jumping up and down rejoicing over that which may seem small and insignificant to you. So, why would we despise what God is rejoicing over? Let’s not call insignificant what God calls significant.

God knows something we don’t. God knows small beginnings lead to big finishes.

When Michele and I first got married, I became a professional home DIY (Do It Yourself) rebuilder (I sometimes wonder if even then, God was birthing in me a desire to ReLead). I learned how to lay tile and hardwood floors, texture walls, do trim work, and minor electrical and plumbing jobs. There wasn’t a project I wouldn’t tackle. DIYing created in me an appreciation for small details. If you ever invite me to your house, I’m looking at the minutiae other people would never notice. Wow, that was a really difficult tile cut that someone took the time to do. Look at the height of that ceiling, someone had to get up there and texture that wall!

I believe this is the heart of our heavenly Father. He is walking through your heart, and your organization, admiring the small details of your leadership that are missed by the crowds. And He is rejoicing to see this small work begin. He rejoices because he knows the faithfulness it took and because he sees the big finish that you can’t see yet. So don’t get distracted or discouraged. Find courage in knowing that God is for you, has assigned you, and is thrilled to see you begin this work.

PLEASE, whatever you do…DON’T QUIT.

I bet you know a ReLeader. If so, forward them this article and encourage them to NOT QUIT and subscribe to this community!