How to Make Something Great, According to Kevin Kelly
Part 2 of the Kevin Kelly preview of his new book
This is part 2 of my series on Kevin Kelly’s list of unsolicited advice statements. He has a new book being released in May. Check it out here.
744 words - 2 1/2 minutes
See the first part here, but as I said, I am a sucker for little lists like this that capture accumulated learnings over many years. Doing it in short statements makes it more brilliant.
So here are five more with some lessons to apply for church leaders.
Kevin’s number 25 –
“To make something good, just do it. To make something great, just redo it, redo it. The secret to making fine things is in remaking them.”
Since most of you are senior pastors, you will know this phenomenon. The first service was almost a dress rehearsal when I was an interim pastor of a larger church with three and sometimes four services a weekend. You learned what was working and what went flat. And you changed things.
The second service was better, the next close to gold, but the last one, I was always wondering: “Have I already said that? And second-guessing myself.
Part of that was editing each time. Part of it was practice.
While preaching/teaching leaders should always learn new things; taking older messages and refreshing and renewing them to improve them can be good practices.
Our people learn from repetition; most can’t remember when you taught that last. Just make it better the next time through.
Kevin’s number 26
“The Golden Rule will never fail you. It is the foundation of all other virtues.”
I met Kevin once at a Christian conference. You may have as well. He is a practicing follower of Jesus.
And I think he is right when it comes to human interactions. Treat people better than you want to be treated and it will eventually change your community.
Kevin’s number 28
“Saving money and investing money are both good habits. Small amounts of money invested regularly for many decades with deliberation is one path to wealth.”
This is very true in my own family’s life and my work with pastors in their legacy planning phases.
Many of you planted churches and had little to invest early but did into a retirement account.
Some of you were fortunate that the church did that for you or added more on your behalf.
A few have been fortunate enough to have boards that enabled or provided some “catch-up” contributions or other vehicles to help plan for the future once the church was healthier financially. Sometimes that is one of my roles with a board to point that out.
Regularly investing in one’s future financial security is wise and prudent.
The most challenging situations are when there has been little preparation or squandering of investments as one nears the end of your working life.
Kevin’s number 32
“Show up. Keep showing up. Somebody successful said: 99 percent of success is just showing up.”
Great people make an effort to be fully present and there.
There are some challenging realities to ministry. Crises situations. Places where others fall and fail. Events where some people fail to show up or give up.
Followers remember when leaders are there in tough times. Whether that is being personally present in grief, a challenge, a community tragedy, or just when the kid’s event goes bad.
Be present. Do your best. It’s not so much what you say – so don’t sweat that. Just be there.
Kevin’s number 41
“Hatred is a curse that does not affect the hated. It only poisons the hater. Release a grudge as if it was a poison.”
We have all seen how a past remembered harm can still impact the present, usually negatively.
I mention this one right after the prior one here because I know the deepest hurts for pastors are often the departures of those where you were there for in their crises, but they bail or leave the church over small things.
I understand the feeling. I don’t know if it goes to the level of “hate,” but it is one of those shoe-pebble irritants that lasts in our souls and psyches.
The advice here is sound. The practice is harder.
But it is accurate that it poisons our lives and work to hold onto. Let it go.
I had only planned to do two of these issues, but I will do one more in two weeks.
When you are ready to talk about your legacy season of ministry, let’s talk.
Even those that don’t hire me to work on Senior Pastor Smart Succession tell me that our talk saved them $100,000.