At a church I worked at years ago I had someone on my paid staff I just couldn’t connect with. To top it off they weren’t very good at their job so I had to spend extra time with them to get them up to par.
I had extra meetings with them. Wrote them detailed lists. Double and triple check everything they did. But in the end none of it paid off.
Why?
Because you can’t build in to someone you don’t believe in.
You know the old saying people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care?
It’s true.
I didn’t care a whole lot about them as a person. I cared more about what they could do for me than what I could do for them. And I think they sensed that. And that built an invisible force field between us that kept anything I said from being heard.
I didn’t realize what I was doing until after they left my team. And I knew it was because of me. They certainly played a role in that mess, but it was our mess.
The Apostle Peter says it this way:
“Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve” – 1 Peter 5:2 (NIV)
Be willing to believe in the people you want to build in.
Remember all the people you let build into you? Do that for the people you hope to build in to.
Jeff McClung 