Listening to All the Voices

After months of talking, and more importantly, listening to many people, reading, observing the world, and praying about SpringHill’s vision for our next season of ministry, I discovered my role, in this process, has been to listen for God’s voice in the voices of others.

As you might remember from earlier posts, vision answers the question “what does God want us to become in the next 10 to 20 years?”

I also discovered four voices I needed to pay special attention too. The first voice is the voice of SpringHill – including the SpringHill of today and the SpringHill of yesterday. In particular I needed to focus on the unchangeable DNA of SpringHill – our statement of faith, core values, mission, and philosophy of ministry.

The second voice is what I call “the world”. The world includes those trends, cultural issues, and industry realities that stand outside of SpringHill but can, and most likely will, impact SpringHill now and into the future.

The third voice’s represented by the people of SpringHill – our staff, board, donors, volunteers, and alumni. I found my experience listening to these voices to be informative and inspiring. These conversations also reminded me why I love working with and for these incredible folks.

Finally, with encouragement of our board chair and vice chair, I’ve listened to all that God’s put on my heart and in my mind about SpringHill, most of which now resides in my journal.

So after listening to these voices it became clear that each one had many significant things to say about our future. But it’s where all four voices meet that I’ve heard God’s voice, and His clear calling, for what SpringHill’s to become in this next season of ministry.