8 principles: Define the Boat

“8 Principles: Define the Boat”
We are looking at “8 Principles for Growing a Healthy Organization.”
3. Define the boat
The boat is basically what you are about. With  a fishing boat there can be many poles in the water catching one fish at a time. There could ne nets catching many fish at once. If you sacrifice a pole or net, you can still survive. You cannot survive without the boat. May organizations sacrifice or lose who they are because of putting a new idea or even a tradition ahead of what the prganization is all about. That’s  why its crucial to define the boat. Jim Collins in his book good to great says your hedgehog 9 or boat0 can be determined by a combonation of your passion, economic engine, and what you are best at. The boat can be determine by defining the one thing everthing elae is dependent on. What you could not live without.
In a church the boat is the Sunday morning experience. It is the place that people most grow in the Word of God. It is the time that we rally the people together. The time that we see one another and build community.
If you define your boat mistakenly, it will hurt and maybe fail your organization. As important as a student ministry, a Christian School, a special event, placing these ministries first can cause the church to be off balance and make wrong decisions. I once new of a church that built its worship center for the annual Christmas pageant. What difference did it make.? The builing cost more. The chrch spent 5 months preparing for the event. The budget was off balance and other ministries hurt for funds and energy. Eventually they had to pivot. They now no longer have a pageat. The boat is Sunday morning and instead going toward extinction, they are one of the fast growing churches in their state. What is your boat? Leaders must define it?