Hit by a Bus

Last week in our staff meeting, I challenged everyone to serve and lead their areas out of the Hit-by-a-Bus philosophy of leadership. That is, everyone has asked and addressed this question: What would my area look like tomorrow if I got hit by a bus today?

The clearest measurement of a leader's effectiveness is what happens when she's not there.

Little did I know that I would have to live it out so quickly. The "bus" that hit me was the flu--or at least flu-like symptoms last Thursday. I'd gone to bed Wed. night feeling bad, woke up Thurs. a.m. feeling achy but no fever. By lunch, I had a 101.5 and was facing the prospect of not being able to preach Sunday.

I called Chris Larsen to prepare him for the possibility that he would be teaching. Jon Jennings and Mark Groutas got on board with the fact that our service was going to change significantly from what we had planned to kick off the Spur message series. And by dinner on Thursday, everyone was ready to go if I couldn't be ready to go on Sunday.

Fortunately, a shotgun protocol of a Z-pack (God's favorite antibiotic), Tami-flu, Gatorade, and sleep got me back on my feet and we rolled Sunday just like we had planned.

Do you have a hit-by-a-bus plan?