Q. #2 What is your family's top priority – your rallying cry – right now?

I want to reflect on two posts ago when I was explaining the first question of Patrick Lencioni's book, The 3 Big Questions for the Frantic Family. Creating your "What makes you unique?" paragraph should not be a long process. In fact, I believe Lencioni encourages this to be a 15 minute thing. You should be able to describe your family off the top of your head with ease. The statement does not need to be fine tuned to perfection. No one else is going to be checking out your statement to see if it's grammatically correct (unless maybe you're posting it on a blog :). You're simply saying, "This is who we are."

Now, onto the second question (post title). I think it is safe to say that most people/families know what their current top priority should be. It didn't take Dennis and I even seconds to figure this one out. We both looked at each other and almost answered simultaneously.

"We need to get healthy - physically, emotionally, and spiritually."

Life and ministry transitions brought us to a place where we needed to re-focus on these three areas. Lencioni suggests a 2 - 6 month process for the rallying cry. He explains that most people can wrap their heads around a shorter length of time versus a longer or indefinite period of time. People can't think a year or two out.

Dennis and I decided to make our rallying cry a 3-month priority. Currently in the middle of our third month, we can't say enough about how effective this resolve has been. Our decisions, choices, and activities have largely centered around our rallying cry.

Along with answering the second big question, it is important to list out what Lencioni calls "defining objectives." These are categories that help your rallying cry become reality. Lencioni writes, "Without identifying those categories, you’ll be left with nothing but a general statement—and no context for getting it done." It helped me to write next to our objectives, "how we will get there."

So, our rallying cry is:

To focus in the next 3 months on becoming physically, emotionally, and spiritually healthy

Our defining objectives are:

• join Spring Lake HS Fitness & Aquatic Center
• eat healthy
• get counsel
• establish individual spiritual patterns
• establish couple spiritual patterns
• build a prayer team

Within two days of our stated rallying cry we joined the fitness center (great facility for only $45/month for both of us as SL residents) and we have been consistently working out at least 5 days a week since then. Evenings work best for us. We usually go between 8 and 8:30 p.m., work out on the elliptical machine (great time to catch national/world news on CNN), hit the weight room, and finish the night off with a 10-15 minute soak in the hot tub. We're usually closing out the place close to 10, but it's great because sometimes we have the hot tub all to ourselves. We definitely see and feel the affects of exercise and healthy eating habits.


We also lined up some insightful counseling within a couple days. Other resources - books, people, scripture - have brought new perspectives to this season of life.

Fresh patterns to experience God individually and together are reviving our souls.

Prayer support was important to us. I love a verse from Isaiah that speaks of how God "speeds the cause of righteousness." God can do in our lives in minutes what may take months or years otherwise.

New Year's resolutions are noted for premature deaths. A rallying cry does the opposite. It musters up the troops (family) for a strategic plan. With single focus for a short duration, a rallying cry produces camaraderie that gives birth to new energy and enthusiasm. It gives hope.

As we carry out our defining objectives we cannot help but see the benefits of a rallying cry. The difference is obvious. But, we don't want our rallying cry to distract us from the normal responsibilities of life, which leads us to the final element of question #2 - writing your standard objectives. I will explain this quick and easy exercise in my next post.