Here’s a moment from an event that I produced last night

It required working with worship directors and campus pastors from across 14 campuses to put together this event. We had two weeks to produce the whole thing LOL Obviously the type of thing well it should be 3 to 4 months out...

I always remember one of my mentors saying way back when we were starting Genesis (a nonprofit that I had the privilege of being part of the founding leadership team on) that you "can figure out how to pull off any single event in as short as two weeks...that creating the infrastructure to pull off continuous weekly events is a different thing." Anyway, for more than two decades now, remembering hearing that spoken has helped me define the audacious things I say yes to even if they’re not fully even in *my* head when hearing about the concept.

Another mentor regularly talked about finding your "killers"...your "Barry Sanders to hand the ball to"...your people to partner with and give them ownership to make their part great. I am so blessed to work with multiple such people in their areas!

I always respected that mentor. And I’m super grateful to have learned by watching them. I had no idea how difficult, complex, and nuanced their job was. The past few years as I’ve grown into hey season where I am the executive producer and leader of process, my appreciation has grown so much for those who helped shape me and those that I get to currently journey with.

Anyway, it was a lot of hard work, however what a gift to add this event to my treasured memories.

My view of the moment in the video from the front row:

I wouldn’t be me without some great mentors along the way. I’m grateful to them.

I’m grateful for the team that I get to partner with. Some amazing people with incredible talent and even more beautiful hearts. it’s a thrill to be part of such fun with them.

Just read this this morning after conversation with a friend I’ve mentored and hoped for for more than a decade now. I pray for us to have oneness. I pray with grand hope for humanity also... I will work hard at the former that I may have some bit of actual control of. I will pray for the utopian hope as well...

Sometimes the best path is nonlinear. Process matters. Effective is more important than efficient.

Life is too short to allow people to cherish the lesser. Break paradigms. Call people to the higher standard.

A couple years ago I was introduced to a talented young man at a conference. Like a lot of us in this community, Don wears many hats in his responsibilities preparing for and supporting weekend services at his church. He’s a bit of a jack-of-all-trades and has a particular aptitude and curiosity for creating beauty and helping communicate through the discipline of scenic design. This I’m sure is a big part of why we were connected. Anyway, it has been great to get to know him as we get together for coffee a few times per year. In spite of being in significantly different life stages, our conversation always flows beautifully and is rich in mutual encouragement. Not only does neither of us like to settle for a mediocre cup of coffee; but we segue that thought into dialogue of our passion for preparing a quality storytelling environment for our guests.

During one of our meetings, we were discussing everything that goes into a stage design. The next day, Don emailed to ask me if I wouldn’t mind typing some of the things out so he could chew on them further. I sent him a stream of thoughts that covered what I remembered us musing about along with a few other ideas to consider... The next time we got together, he shared the document that his leadership team uses as a guide every time they plan an event. He had reworked my thoughts into a list and he was excited to share with me stories of the fruit of our coffee meetings.

I was humbled and honored to have been useful. I hadn’t really thought about it since sending the email. For him to have taken the time to separate them into bullet points and create a document from them that was used as it was really struck me. We all want to be helpful. I think that is perhaps the most common trait of production artists. Yes, we’re all a bit geeky, but mostly we want to help people. It was a real gift to me for him to thank me in the way he did.

When I started writing this post, I thought the story about my coffee with Don was simply setting up the list that I’m including. Perhaps the list is a helpful tool. If so, cool; here's the link: egwolfe.com/post/thoughts-to-remember-when-creating-a-space-for-worship

However, I realize the greater challenge comes in at least one of the following:

Realize the genius you have to offer someone else and share it. I think that far too often, we fail to realize the unconscious competency we have in our unique areas of expertise. Especially those among us who have been working in our craft for a long time have wisdom to share in how to we make the most of our situations. It is a crime to not share the ideas we have. These "simple" ideas will likely be a profound blessing.

I encourage you to seek out (or at least seize the opportunity when it presents itself) the person you can meet with to either pour into or draw insight from. We all have busy schedules; and the thought of taking an afternoon to do something that doesn't directly accomplish a task on our todo list is difficult to justify. In the short term, perhaps so; but in the bigger picture, the mutual sharpening from the new friendship will pay off in unseen dividends.

Ask the Lord to show you who you should meet with. Commit to the building the relationship. Share with a posture of open hands and receive with an open mind.