Fred Flintstone's Footmobile

Fred Flintstone’s Footmobile

Ro Sham Bo

As many of you already know, I have twin seventeen year old daughters (yes, I’m getting old and I certainly don’t need you to remind me).  Two daughters and only one 2002 Honda Accord that we bought from our friend J.R and K.R.  We knew that this was going to be a huge problem and for months we discussed possible solutions to the problem; how will they decide which one will get to drive the car?  

Ro, Sham, Bo.  This is how I solved the majority of my problems growing up (who am I kidding - I still do).  

Even and Odd

We came up with a few totally unacceptable ideas until one day shortly before their 16th birthday my wife said, “Corryn gets to drive on even days and Madison gets to drive on odd days.”  Genius!!!  Every day is either even or odd; it’s black and white, no gray area here!  It was a perfect solution that has served us very well.

Lightshine is the 4th church that I have been on staff with in the last 23 years.  My previous three churches were all wonderful experiences that helped to prepare me for what I am doing now.  

Staff Driven or People Driven?

What I learned in all three of my previous churches was that if anything was going to happen at all, if the church was going to move forward then it would be the church staff that would make it happen.  The staff drove the church.  The staff made stuff happen.  

No wonder these churches had such dynamic and talented people on staff.  Some of the people I worked with were absolutely amazing and extremely hard working!    

When the reality of planting a church came along I began to explore other ideas, other possibilities about who gets to drive.  We too have a very talented and hard working staff, but all of us together only represent 60 hours a week.  We aren’t even financially sustainable yet, so throwing money at the problem to hire a bigger staff wasn’t an option.  

The idea that we landed on is to allow everyone a turn behind the wheel.  At Lightshine, our people remind me of the awesome staffs I used to work with.  They are talented, creative, visionary, and very gifted.  They are also hard working because they care!  They are the ones that are making it happen; it’s the people that are driving the mission of God in and through Lightshine forward. 

This idea isn’t nearly as clean and simple as my wife’s brilliant solution to which daughter would get to drive the car, but it does get people off the sidelines and into the game.  It’s true, there are a lot of bad drivers out there, but at Lightshine we haven’t revoked anybody’s license (yet)!

If the car is gonna go, it’s gonna take a lot of people to push because right now………. 

we can’t even afford the gas!  #FredFlintstone #Footmobile #oneofthecoolestcarsever 

Robert Douglas - Organizing Pastor - Lightshine Church