Building People

Wouldn't it be great if you built houses for a living? You could write yourself an "action plan" that had clear and measurable objectives: We build starter homes that are unique, cozy, and affordable. We will build 10 homes this year, and increase productivity by 10 percent for the next five years. We will re-invest 10% profit into the business. In five years we will add to our profile mid-priced homes that include custom design. Our goal is to build afforadable and accessible housing that is a quailty and attractive product. Houses are concrete, measurable products. It would be great to build them.

But we don't build houses. We build people. We build people who are unique, dynamic, and ever changing. We build people who are complex and come with their own variables. People have varying reactions to varying situations. No one is the same and no one comes out the same even when you invest the same attention, energy, and information. Houses are a relatively static product. People are not.

Let's say our action plan reads something like this: By God's grace and providing -- its God's doing, not ours -- Mounain Man People Builders will be

• Joyful and united in life and our approach to others
• Bold and courageous
• Child and Visitor Friendly
• Centered, Focused and Directed by God's Word and Truth
• Purposefully Outreaching -- we are always looking for the next person to meet, greet, and to invest in!

That's the plan. O.K.? Now, what's the program?

We are used to programs, aren't we? We are used to some "design." A home comes with a blueprint. Tell me the blueprint for people. Tell me the science. Tell me that when we have the right set of studies, the right set of sermons, if the leader is motivating enough, and the team is "connected enough," and when we all do the right thing the right way then everything will turn out right. Right? Probably not. We are building people. Not houses.

The temptation when people do not turn out right is to get a new "Coach" or a new "CEO" or a new "Leader" or new parents, or new whoever else we are blaming when people are not turning out right.

Forgive me, but maybe the problem is not the leader, the parent, the CEO. Maybe its you and me.

The Vision needs to stay the same. We need to keep building people. We need to keep being joyful and united. We need to keep being child and visitor friendly. We need to keep centering our life and direction from God's grace, Word, and promise. We need to keep reaching out to others. We need to keep being bold and courageous. We need to overcome our fears, inhibitions, and temptations to complain, argue, and blame others. The vision needs to stay the same.

It is "we" who need to change. You and me. Not others. No program. No plan. No blueprint. Except the program, plan, and blueprint that begins with you and me. The world changes with us. We change. We are not looking for a better community, or better church, or better anything. We are looking to be better people -- by God's grace and by His design.

It is God who is building us. It is grace that is building us. And when we fail and fall short we are forgiven and we begin again. When we are not united and joyful, when we care more about ourselves than children and strangers, when we are not courageous, when we are not rooted in God's Word, when we are not reaching out to the next soul, we are forgiven. And we are designed and planned to begin again.

Philiippians 1:6, "God is daily bringing to completion the good work He has begun in us." In other words, He is still building; still planning; still programming you and me into His perfect image.

Will you join me? We are not buildling houses. We are building people. Here's the mountain man challenge: Forget the plan and program. Take a look at people today. Smile. Show some interest. Listen. Be connected. Find children. Love unconditionally. Be bold and courageous. Do something different today. Be hopeful. Give hope to others. Hitch up with someone and help them to the top. Help someone tie a lure on their line. Take someone fishing. Go to breakfast with someone. Share your story. Ask about someone else's story. Hmmmmm. Sounds more and more like a plan to me.

I love you. I like climbing with you. Jeff on the mountains.