What One George Thinks of Another

Together with Brad, Jeff, Mark, Paul, and Tory, I traveled to Springfield, Missouri, last week to meet with Dr. George O. Wood, otherwise known as "My Dad." Unlike them, I already knew my dad pretty well: his work habits, story-telling ability, leadership style, vision for the movement, etc. Like them, however, I also learned a few new things that I didn't know. Admittedly, my observations are biased in favor of our new general superintendent, but I'll try to be objective.

First, the general superintindency is a very big job. I knew this in a theoretical way, but I experienced it first-hand in my dad's office. The number of people he deals with, together with the range of issues he must handle, makes me tired. While the other guys went on a tour of headquarters, I sat in my dad's office and read. He was constantly on the phone talking with pastors, responding to email, or dealing with his coworkers. And I knew he got into work early that day. Frankly, my dad--who's 66--made me a bit embarrassed about my own work habits. If I worked as hard as he did, I bet my church would be healthier and larger than it is now.

Second, I was very surprised by how pastorally focused my dad is. Remember, my dad's been in denominational office (first district, then general council) for 19 years. Aside from a six-month stint as Central Assembly's interim senior pastor, he has been focused almost exclusively on denominational issues. And trust me, they're huge. AG Financial Services has $2.6 billion in funds under management. The US AG is primus inter pares with over 200 other national AG fellowships. Important decisions must be made about national schools, GPH, and other General Council level ministries. But my dad communicated to us bloggers the importance of the general superintendent pastoring the pastors. As you know, there were huge wildfires in southern California last week, and I heard my dad make calls to several pastors whose homes and congregations had been effected by the fires.

Third, my dad is a team player. He knows that the general superintendency is a spiritual trust, and he is incredibly appreciative of all that his predecessors in office (Brother Trask particularly) have done for the movement. He also values what his co-workers do, whether at the level of the executive leadership team or the guy pushing the broom in the warehouse. Part of that team-player attitude is being open to the constructive criticism of others, being willing to let them lead from their strengths, and being ready to share credit for successes. One of the ways this team-work attitude showed up was in a pretty frank meeting with J.T. Wray and Julie Horner of GPH. Dad encouraged them to be open to our (hopefully) constructive critiques of GPH. I personally thought our hour-and-a-half meeting with them was really successful.

Anyway, for what it's worth, that's what this George Wood thinks of the other George Wood.