Why are you involved in ministry? What makes you give of your time, talents, and resources?

For me, it comes from a desire to serve God. I was called at a young age to serve full-time in ministry. There are many ways to serve in ministry, not everyone needs to be a full-time pastor to be “in ministry”.

The reality we face though is that being called to serve isn’t enough to sustain us in our ministry. It’s a great starting place, but if we only serve because we are called then we miss a large part of serving.

1 John 1 (The Message)

^1-2From the very first day, we were there, taking it all in—we heard it with our own ears, saw it with our own eyes, verified it with our own hands. The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes; we saw it happen! And now we’re telling you in most sober prose that what we witnessed was, incredibly, this: The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us.

^3-4We saw it, we heard it, and now we’re telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy!

Our service needs to be joined with our experience! Look at verses 3-4 :”this experience…we want you to enjoy this, too.” John, the beloved, writes that the reason he serves is so he can share his experience with others! If we have no experience with God then our service, or at least our desire to serve, will eventually run out. Our ministry life and spiritual life (experience with God) belong together!

We minister out of the overflow – so if we are not overflowing with God then we are ministering on reserves, at best. Henri Nouwen shares this thought in his book titled “The Selfless Way of Christ”:

“When our ministry does not emerge from a personal encounter, it quickly becomes a tiring routine and a boring job. On the other hand, when our spiritual life no longer leads to an active ministry, it quickly degenerates into introspection and self-scrunity, and thus loses its dynamism. Our life in Christ and our ministry in his name belong together as the two beams of the cross.”

Too often someone will get “burned out” in ministry and react by quitting everything to focus solely on their relationship with Christ. The mistake that is made with this reaction is they associate Sunday morning with their only opportunity to experience God. If we are leaving our experience with God to 90-minutes once a week, it’s not going to be a enough. We need to spend time daily, feeding ourselves.

Then there are those who are so wrapped up in soaking up all they can that they never find a place to serve (so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.) In Galatians 6:9 when Paul says “Let us not grow weary in doing well…” there are a couple of things implied. The first implication is that you are serving. The only way to stop doing something is to be doing it. The other implication is that we should not stop serving.

When we take our eyes off the mission that God has called us to we become focused on our problems, situations, and obstacles. When we keep our eyes focused on Christ all other things pass away. We need to continue to serve, not to the detriment of our relationship with God–our service should come from the strength from that relationship! If we find our desire and ability to serve waning then we may need to examine our experience with God. Up your experience – up your ministry.

     We’re all familiar with the story of Chicken Little. The frightened fowl gets hit in the head with an acorn and runs around scared yelling “The sky is falling, the sky is falling!” Ultimately, Chicken Little and her friends get eaten by Foxy Loxy – why? Because of fear.

Fear causes us to do funny things.

     In the Bible we see a great example of bad decisions driven by fear. In 1 Samuel 17 we see the nation of Israel and King Saul paralyzed by fear.  “On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.” 1 Samuel 17:11.  Fear of one man. Yes, he was a giant, but he was still just one man. There are several things fear causes us to do – but there are three things I want to point out.

1. Fear causes us to waste a lot of effort.

         Think of Chicken Little – how much effort did she waste running around saying “the sky is falling.” The national of Israel’s army and king camped across from the Philistines – frozen by fear and Goliath challenged them. For 40 days!  I imagine they had an immaculate camp (after all, they had nothing else to do.) But what a wasted effort – 40 days (at least) of camping with no advancement because of fear.

2. Fear causes us to miss opportunities.

Think of Saul’s tenure as king – what was the thing he was most known for? In my opinion his most notable accomplishment was being jealous of David. Here he stood with the rest of Israel – afraid. Saul could have walked out there and fought Goliath. Yes, he may have died, but he never knew what potential opportunities could have arisen from leading his men boldly.

3. Fear causes us to live with unrealized potential.

Imagine if David had quaked with fear like everyone else. Do you think the nation of Israel would have accepted him as king and followed him into battle like they did if they hadn’t heard of the great feat of bravery? He, potentially, would have never been the man God had called him to be if he had lived in fear like Saul.

THE POWER OF CONQUERING FEAR

When we learn to overcome fear – something significant happens. Just as fear causes us to lose something, overcoming fear lets us gain something. Being the wonderful Bible scholars that you are, you probably already know this, but just in case you don’t, let me ask you—did you know there are four more giants in the Bible?

  “Once again there was a battle between the Philistines and Israel. David went down with his men to fight against the Philistines, and he became exhausted. And Ishbi-benob, one of the descendants of Rapha (The Hebrew word for rapha “ h#Dp∂rDh “ can also be translated “giant” or “tall”), whose bronze spearhead weighed three hundred shekels and who was armed with a new sword, said he would kill David. But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to David’s rescue; he struck the Philistine down and killed him. Then David’s men swore to him, saying, “Never again will you go out with us to battle, so that the lamp of Israel will not be extinguished.”  In the course of time, there was another battle with the Philistines, at Gob. At that time Sibbekai the Hushathite killed Saph, one of the descendants of Rapha.  In another battle with the Philistines at Gob, Elhanan son of Jair the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, who had a spear with a shaft like a weaver’s rod.  In still another battle, which took place at Gath, there was a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all. He also was descended from Rapha. When he taunted Israel, Jonathan son of Shimeah, David’s brother, killed him. These four were descendants of Rapha in Gath, and they fell at the hands of David and his men.” (2 Samuel 21:15–22 NIV11)

Here, just as in 1 Samuel 17, David does not shrink back from fighting the giant. As a result, something significant happens.  He helped others overcome their fear. Overcoming fear has an effect on life:

1. Overcoming fear inspires others.

        David’s men knew he had slain a giant before. They did not hesitate to go after their own giants. David inspired them to overcome their own fear, by his example of overcoming the fear that dropped everyone else. When we move past fear, we show others what is possible.

2. Overcoming fear changes things.

        The course of Israel was changed, by God’s design, when David overcame his fear to slay Goliath. Likewise, when David’s men overcame their fear and faced their giants, something changed. Imagine the confidence David had in his followers when he realized they had learned by his example. This was a significant moment. His men took the burden of leading upon themselves.

“Never again will you go out with us to battle, so that the lamp of Israel will not be extinguished.” again will you go out with us to battle, so that the lamp of Israel will not be extinguished.”(2 Samuel 21:17 NIV11)

David realized that a life of faith and a life of fear couldn’t coexist.

David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”  1 Samuel 17:45 – 47          

Fear and Faith don’t work together. Isaiah 41:10 shows us to have no fear because the Lord is with us. This is what allowed David to overcome fear. He knew the battle was God’s. Even if he died, so what? The battle is still the Lord’s.

“The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” Psalms 118:6 NIV11

What’s the worst that can happen? God still owns my spirit and it is in his hands.

Paul echoes a similar thought later.

”For God did not give us the spirit of timidity (fear) but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline” 2 Timothy 1:7


So what situation do you need to overcome? What fear in your life do you need to overcome? Who will you inspire by overcoming fear? What will you change by overcoming fear?

I spend a lot of time on this blog talking about goals, vision, growing as a leader…these are core values for me as a leader. As I’ve been thinking about things over the last couple of weeks I was presented with an interesting question in some of the challenges I’ve faced recently.  ”How have I contributed to the problem?”

So I want to ask you a similar question – in the problems and difficulties you may be facing – how have you contributed to the problem? There are a lot of resources out there on how to become a better problem solver, but I think any solution that does not start with understanding how you contributed to the issue is inadequate.  Let’s be honest, if you’ve had the same problem (I’m not talking illness or infirmity here) for an extended period of time – you probably need to look inward to begin getting it fixed. Likewise, if you have moved to a new job, church, or location and you find that the problems you had at your last local have followed you–then it’s a good bet part of the problem is within you.

I wrote a chapter for a book that should be coming out soon and the entire chapter was dedicated to the concept of “Self-leadership.” At the core of self leadership is understanding what in you needs to be grown, healed, or cutout in order for you to advance in life. So when faced with a problem–start looking at yourself first and then look at the outside factors. Only you (and the Holy Spirit) can change you…

“…so are the days of our lives.” Yes, I just quoted a soap opera…no I don’t watch them.

Who out there has ever said – “Where did the time go?” “It’s how late?” “I lost track of time!” or something else to that effect? Time can be slippery – especially if you don’t manage yours well.

I think one of the greatest hurdles to accomplishing our goals is not using the time you have wisely.  There are a lot of resources out to help with time management (Here’s a good one from Jim Wideman – Beat the Clock). I wanted to share a good resource with you that I came across. It’s from Gene Wood’s book, Leading Turnaround Churches.

Self-Discipline Tips

1. Just say NO! (learn what you should and shouldn’t do)
2. Hold Stand-up meetings. People will stick to their focus if they don’t get comfortable.
3. If you have an open door policy – remove the chairs from your office so people can’t sit and settle in.
4. Use to-do lists. Quote: “A commitment unwritten is nothing more than a nice intention.”
5. Use a time analysis sheet for a week or two. Compare it (using 15 minute blocks) to what you planned to do vs. what you actually did.
6. Establish Priorities and review them regularly.
7. When you suddenly remember something you forgot to do just before you drift off to sleep – get up and write it down.
8. Carry something you can take notes on for when you remember things you forgot.
9. Do tasks that require creativity in your peak time.
10. Do mundane but necessary tasks in your downtime.
11. Handle paper only once. Don’t just shuffle things around your desk – make a decision and move on.
12. Develop a habit of punctuality.
13. Do two things at once. (Listen to a book and drive, etc.)
14. Get sleep.
15. Build extra time into your schedule for unexpected things.
16. Do the hardest things first.
17. When you’re very busy, avoid new things. Stick to routines.
18. When on the phone, deal with business and get off the phone.
19. Meet in other people’s office – this means you can leave when the purpose of the meeting is fulfilled.
20. The goal of a to-do list is not to have a long list, but to cross things off in proper order.
21. Delegate – use the time of others.
22. Plan your time.
23. If you can communicate in writing – do that. Don’t have a meeting to talk about something you could have emailed.
24. Do your most bothersome tasks first.
25. Avoid television like the plague!

Try to implement a few of these things at a time and you will find you have a better handle on your time…