What would happen in the ministries we lead if we began to stretch our leadership, our volunteers, our structure, and ourselves in order to make our ministry dreams a reality? Incredible is what would happen because we serve a God who desires for us to live in faith and rely on him. When it comes to making change happen instead of allowing change to happen to us we often become fearful of taking the steps needed to take. Many times we just need a little push, a dose of encouragement, and a ton of prayer in order to move. Jim Wideman just released a book that I think will help many student and children’s leaders understand the next step to take. STRETCH is all about helping you understand what it takes to structure your ministry for growth and forward progress. When it comes to volunteers, structure, and vision casting Jim knows what he is talking about and the entire book reads like you are sitting down for coffee and talking real life ministry. This is a book I hope you will check out. I am sure you could find it on an online retail like Target Book promo codes at a great price. Here are a few notes I highlighted on my Kindle…

• The right structure can keep you from being afraid of growth. The wrong structure can keep growth from happening. Improving your structure can allow growth to continue. What you do now really is going to matter later.
• As you establish your organizational structure, you can create a growth structure by asking, “What can we do now that we would be forced to do when we are double or triple our size?”
• The moment you get comfortable and let your people get comfortable is the moment you turn back into a maintenance structure.
• I’m not married to anything but my wife. If there’s a better way to do it, then let’s do it the better way.
• People follow people with a plan. Planning always needs to go before action.
• The devil attacks busy people by getting them to do stuff they have no business doing. You are the only person who can control your priorities.
• Responsibility without authority only brings frustration and never leaves fruit that remains. You must dare to trust people to represent you well.