Pastor Steven Furtick

I suffer from A.I.O.  Acute Idea Overload.  At this stage in my ministry, I’m rarely at a loss for initiatives, concepts, and experiments.  My dilemma is in discerning which ideas to keep on the bench, and which ones to send into the game.  They’re all screaming: put me in coach. But only so many players are allowed on the field at a time.

Hence, a new terminology that has been helping me lately.  Some ideas need to be cut from the team.  They just suck.  Eliminate them.  Ruthlessly.  They’re taking up valuable space on your roster and sapping your scholarship funds.

But other ideas are great.  Just not now.  Don’t cut these ideas.
Redshirt them.

When a college coach redshirts a player, it’s usually to give the player an extra year to develop so that his 4 years of eligibility will make the most impact.  It’s not because the player doesn’t have potential.  Quite the opposite.  He has so much potential that the coach doesn’t want to waste a single year of it by playing the athlete prematurely.

Introduce this terminology into the meetings and decisions you’re a part of.  When an idea comes up that’s a good idea, just not right now, make the suggestion:
Let’s redshirt that.

But don’t put it in the basement where you’ll never see it again.  Make a plan to revisit it in the near future.

There are some Heisman ideas that just need a little more time to mature.
Give them space and opportunity to make the starting lineup.