You can always get better

Tonight I got a call from Brian Berry. Brian is the high school pastor at our church. (Actually, his title is way bigger than that but he'll always be the high school guy to me.) He called to remind me to come to his 2011-2012 eval and 2012-2013 planning meeting Wednesday night.It's a good thing he called because I had completely forgotten. My first instinct when Brian called was to think... "Realistically, what in the world do I have to offer Brian Freakin' Berry? I mean, this guy has 20 years of youth ministry experience, he's been at the church 8 years, has a team full of great staff, and so many volunteers that if I didn't show it really wouldn't make that big of a difference."He asked me if I was coming and I said yeah-- but that's what was really going through my head.Here's what I'm learning from Brian that you see on display in the video above: You can always get better.That's a leadership posture more than an axiom.Just like the Sponge Bob cast practicing their technique on some clips from Casablanca probably wasn't required... it's still one way that the cast gets better. They tried something different. They stretched themselves. And they rolled with it.It's the same way with Brian. I love that his posture is always to make things better. He doesn't rest on his experience. He doesn't just coast because his staff is great and they've got it all nailed. Nope... that's not in his DNA. Those 20 years of experience have made him the kind of leader who constantly listens, constantly asks for feedback, and constantly tries to make the high school ministry better.It probably isn't popular  to say, but there are reasons why some youth workers last 2-3 years and some last 20 years. You learn, you get better, and as a result you get to stick around.I suppose this is true in youth ministry but is also true in a lot of areas of life. It doesn't matter what you do or how long you've done it: You can always get better.