Jeff Adams

NOW WHAT?

My name is Jeff … and I have a Life Team.

There. I’ve confessed it. I feel much better. Do you still respect me?

A few months back I attended a unique leadership conference in California sponsored by a couple of shrinks that I hugely admire. Actually, it was more like going on a blind date secretly arranged by a mutual friend because you saw some really, really gorgeous person across the lecture hall in your Western Civ class.

I had seen those two shrinks only in a couple of videos and read one of their many books. That’s all. But I was immediately intellectually infatuated. I really wanted to hear more that these shrinks had to say. They’re good.

So, a couple of weeks later (I know that’s insane!) I was sitting in a resort center in southern California waiting for them to speak. The conference was limited to only 40 admirers, so I was thinking I’d have a week to get acquainted with them and learn some really neat stuff.

I was snookered.

They did speak – for an hour in the morning and another hour just before supper. They were as good as I thought they would be and I did learn some neat stuff. But, there was more.

The rest of the time was spent in several hours a day of group therapy – every day. All day long my little group moved from room-to-room and from shrink-to-shrink (different ones – not the famous shrinks who were speaking). It was one of the most horribly wonderful miserable experiences of my life.

Among the much neat stuff I learned was the fact that I needed consistent, continual, loving, and insightful input from faithful, compassionate friends who love me unconditionally, encourage me, advise me, keep my confidences, share my biblical values and are just as flawed and needy as me. Does that make any sense? Well, after my week in California it made perfect sense to me.

The two shrinks I’m talking about work with some of the world’s top leaders – heads of Fortune 500 companies and the like. They say they have never met a leader who has been successful over the long haul without having this type of insightful interaction with a small group of peers. That’s a pretty impressive statement.

Anyway, I knew I had better get my act in gear. When I got home I hand-picked three other guys to be with me what I call my Life Team. I picked them for the reasons I mentioned above. They all agreed.

Here’s the really funny thing. They agreed because they thought they were helping me. For whatever reason they like me and already knew that I was needy. But, after we had been up and running for a few weeks, one of them said, “I’ve been snookered! I thought I was joining this group to support Adams. Now, I realize that this is about all of us, not just him.”

Got all that? Sorry to have to unloaded all that on you, but I had to set the stage for what I wanted to say.

Fast Forward to this morning. It’s early and I’ve just slipped into the cozy little suburban Panera Bread that we lease out each week for our “office.” I try to get there first so I can get the coffee flowing through my veins and be semi-social. At that time of day I have often thought about making a cardboard sign to hang around my neck -”Helpless. Will work for coffee. God bless.”

So, here I am nursing my coffee when one of my Life Team comes in. The two other guys were out of town. As long as there are two of us we still meet. We sat down and began to talk about whatever. By the way, that’s our agenda – whatever. We don’t do a Bible study; we do life … or whatever. We don’t feel guilty about that because each of us has a life filled with Bible studies out our ears.

OK, I started out this post to talk about “now what?” but I’m really getting into this confession about my Life Team. I feel like I need to explain what I just said about not doing a Bible study and not feeling guilty. This is one of the principle purposes of my Life Team – we do life, not a Bible study. Life involves the study of the Bible, but you don’t have to do a Bible study to do a Life Team. Got it?

Honestly, sometimes I feel like I have biblical constipation. I do Bible studies all the time. When I’m not doing a Bible study I’m studying the Bible for my next Bible study. No wonder I need a Life Team! People like me tend to get really, really goobered up if they’re not careful. They start running around and saying things like “Praise the Lord” and “Hallelujah” and “Amen” at the most inappropriate times and places, even when there are people around who don’t speak Christian jargon and have no clue what we are saying or why.

So, in our Life Team we deal with the demands of life. We just keep dealing and talking. After a while, Bible begins to ooze out. No, we are NOT saying things like, “In Deuteronomy 3:42 God said ….” No, the Bible just oozes out naturally. It’s like when you have had a massive sinus backup headache and finally your nose begins to run and you can’t help it. I don’t mean to gross you out. Just be thankful I switched metaphors from the constipation. Once the Bible starts oozing out naturally like that, I know I’ll be fine.

I’ve stopped ranting now.

So, the two of us are sitting there and this sharp, successful young businessman begins talking about The Mission. He’s talking about the challenge that this whole series has been to him. He’s not just kissing up. He really means it. I can tell. That’s why I hand-picked him for this assignment. He is sincerely, honestly and intensely wrestling with the implications of The Mission for his life, his family – all that. NO! I WON’T tell you what we said. That’s why this Life Team thing is built around confidentiality. But I can tell you that we had a great time talking about how The Mission might apply to the very same life he is living out through his natural sphere of influence in economics. Cool, huh? It was VERY cool, and after a while some Bible began to ooze out around the corners of our conversation – not overtly, but just shaping and forming the parameters of our thoughts and ideas and stuff like that.

In essence, he was saying, “OK, I get The Mission. Now what?”

I’m thinking that there are others like him. For you, this Sunday I’m doing this – Accepting the Challenge of The Mission. I guess I could have called it Now What?