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Beyond Me, Beyond You!

September 23, 2010 in Chrstianity, Church, Leadership, Life, Ministry, Passion, Vision with 0 Comments

I think as Christians we sometimes underestimate the responsibilities that God has entrusted us with. Don’t get me wrong, I am not in any way saying that we are indispensable; that God cannot see His purposes accomplished without us.

Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?”… Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the desert. – Numbers 14:3, 33 (NIV)

This is a part of one of the most fascinating stories in history… Israel was on the verge of inheriting what God had for them and they, in a sense, opted out.  The reason why they should have fought and possessed the land God had given them was what they used as an excuse not to fight! They did not want the ‘inconvenience’ on their part at the expense of the future of their children and their children’s children! At this point, all they thought about was themselves. Christianity at the core is not just about ‘me’. Being like Christ means that we follow His example of putting others before ourselves. Being selfless is not an optional Christian attribute, it must be characteristic of all Christians.

How we respond to God’s call now has direct implications on generations after us. The decisions we make, the way we serve God serves generations around us. Both positively and negatively. Hence the importance of us checking the basis upon which we serve God. Are we serving God with a selfish ambition i.e. for what we can get out of it and not for something greater – others and God’s glory beyond our lives. Our selflessness (or lack of it) also has direct implications for the community God has placed us in. Something I’m grappling with (I dare say) – the state of the community in which we are as a church has some sort of reflection on how we’re serving God? Is that too harsh? Perhaps unreasonable?

Jesus placed a lot of responsibility on the disciples of establishing His church after He left. I don’t think that we are too ‘small’ to impact the community or cities we’re in as the church. Jesus called us the salt of the earth. It doesn’t take a lot of salt to make a big difference! We have to think and act generationally; beyond ourselves. The Christian faith is not exclusively personal and the impact thereof has to be ‘others-focused’ too. The battles we win are not only our victories but others’ also, in our time and beyond us. This also means our failures have the same impact. Your commitment to serving God shapes the face of our city / community and many generations after us, don’t trifle with it!

My Lessons From Last Week – Week #5

September 21, 2010 in Ideas, Leadership, Life, Ministry, Passion, Productivity, Self Leadership, Teamwork, Vision with 0 Comments

I went through my blog sometime last week  – a little maintenance work, if I can call it that. I use WordPress for my blog. I checked if plugins were working the way they should, links etc. I realized something; most of the times I’ve checked my links, plugins and other functionality of my blog and overlooked the RSS feeds. Well not this time! I discovered it wasn’t working as it should be. I then installed FeedBurner to remedy that – now working perfectly.

The Lesson: There are the “invisible” components of “systems”.  Because these are more in the background and out of sight it makes it easy to forget or overlook them. Because we cannot see them doesn’t meant they don’t exist and cannot affect us. I was challenged to think about the “background” things in my life and functions that facilitate the more visible ones. These same things have the capacity to bring down projects. A little oil is necessary to prevent a gigantic machines / engines from breaking down. I realized I have checklists for some things but not all. The invisible that matters can be made and kept visible through checklists. Checklists help make “maintenance” systematic. In a team context checklists can facilitate easier duty / task transferals and subsequent continuity.

The Follow

August 21, 2010 in Chrstianity, Life, Ministry with 0 Comments

One of the worst disservices Christians can do to themselves is not fully understand their identity, i.e. who they are and what they are called to.

Being Christian is not a set of rules or a ‘to do or a not to do list’, but relationship with God. After responding to Christ’s invitation to follow Him it becomes very important to nurture our relationship with. Some of the ways of cultivating our relationship with God include Bible study, prayer and gathering in worship and community with other Christ followers. These are critical in our walk as individuals and as a church but are not the end in themselves, but form the basis from which we impact the world.

Some may say spending time with God (e.g. prayer & Bible study) is more important than doing things for Him citing the story of Mary & Martha as reference (Luke 10:38-42). I cannot overstress the importance of spending time with God, but I’d like to suggest that if it was all we did we would be falling short on our call as Christians.

Walking along the beach of Lake Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers: Simon (later called Peter) and Andrew. They were fishing, throwing their nets into the lake. It was their regular work. Jesus said to them, “Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I’ll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass.” They didn’t ask questions, but simply dropped their nets and followed. – Matthew 4:18-20 (The Message)

Jesus called the disciples out of their regular work. His goal was to make the disciples fishers of men. However, from the gospels, we learn of the disciples being with Jesus, witnessing His miracles and seeing His lifestyle first. Later in the journey we learn that “Jesus then called the twelve together… and He sent them out…” (Luke 9:1-2 NIV). Thus demonstrating that we are not only called to be with God but to do with God as well. After all, being Christian means to be like Christ. Jesus demonstrated a very good balance of being with God and doing with God.

“We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent us here, working while the sun shines.” – Jesus (John 9:4 – The Message)

When we spend time with God and do nothing to serve His body and purposes and vice versa, we are imbalanced Christians. Also, when we concentrate on ‘doing’ without relationship with God we are anemic Christians.  It means we fail to fully follow Jesus’ teaching and example.The challenge is that we do not become obese because we’re always ‘taking in’ without giving out; it is that we are not always ‘giving out’ that we get depleted to our peril. A balance of both is what I believe God wanted us to embrace…

How have you been doing in relation to spending time with God AND serving?

Ask Moses!

July 16, 2010 in Leadership, Ministry, Teamwork with 2 Comments

Imagine being a leader responsible for, let’s say, about 3 million people. Picture all of them looking to you for direction and answers for diverse situations. It excites and scares me at the same time. Leaders’ scenarios vary. Some lead larger teams or organisations than others, but one of the common attributes to all of them is that those they lead are looking to them for direction and answers. “What should we do about…?” and other similar questions are nothing foreign to leadership and as a leader one needs to be comfortable with questions; they are not going anywhere!

I came across an interesting part in Scripture for leaders and some lessons also specifically for ministry leaders:

6-7 But some of them couldn’t celebrate the Passover on the assigned day because they were ritually unclean on account of a corpse. So they presented themselves before Moses and Aaron on Passover and told Moses, “We have become ritually unclean because of a corpse, but why should we be barred from bringing God‘s offering along with other Israelites on the day set for Passover?”

8 Moses said, “Give me some time; I’ll find out what God says in your circumstances.” (Numbers 9:6-8, The Message)

  • You haven’t seen it all: There are still more unique and unpredictable situations yet to arise as you lead. It’s the nature of leadership. The men that approached Moses came to him with a situation that they hadn’t encountered as a nation before. It doesn’t matter the size of your team or organization, you haven’t seen it all! During Israel’s journey God gave Moses what I think were very elaborate instructions on how to handle different situations, yet a unique one still arose. Not knowing everything as God sends us is a good thing; it helps us stay reliant on Him as we lead.
  • It’s Obvious!: As leader people are going to look to you for answers and for you to navigate them through unfamiliar ground, as in Moses’ case. That’s why you are there; to give direction. It should not be surprising for you to have ‘all eyes on you’. When there are challenges or crisis it should not be a nag for you to have people continually come to you looking for direction or guidance. That’s an inherent part of your job. Make peace with this fact.
  • Respond: I think one of the big “don’t dos” of leadership should be not having a response for your team or organisation especially when in unfamiliar ‘territory’. When you respond to questions or objections it tells the team you are listening to them and helps reduce undesired anxiety or panic in your camp. Responding does not necessarily mean you give them the solution immediately. Sometimes a response may be I Don’t Know, but don’t leave it at that. You must communicate what you are going to do about what you may not know. Don’t be afraid to put your team on pause. Moses put the men asking on hold, told them he didn’t know and what he was going to do in order to reach a solution (Num. 9:8). A team can be easily unsettled and lose morale if there is no form of assurance that something is being done to reach a solution.
  • You Can Also Ask: In the case where Moses did not know what to do he asked! The day a leader thinks he either knows it all or stops asking questions to curb his ignorance is the day his leadership sets on a course for destruction. Asking questions is an important part to growth of a leader. You can never ask enough questions.
  • Where To Go: When you do not have any answers to new situations and or challenges from within your organization it is not the end of the world. Because you haven’t found someone who has the answer and or solution, it doesn’t mean there isn’t one! Look beyond your enclave. There are innumerable resources on the internet for instance. In some instances employing the services of a consultant could prove more worthwhile than trying to find an answer on your own.

For ministry leaders, especially, Moses gave a great example. He went straight to the Owner of the mission. Many ministry leaders and the initiatives they’ve led have suffered because they stopped asking the most important Person – God!  At the start of their leadership journey they consistently sought direction and answers from God, the one who mandated them, but as they journeyed got complacent. While it is beneficial to be diligent in resourcing yourself, there is no blog, book, mentor, idea, research, conference or any other resource than can substitute God’s leading in your ministry! It is God you serve and only He must be the first you seek wisdom and guidance from! He’s the one you should be consumed in pleasing above anyone.

Think about the last few challenging decisions you’ve made. Who was the first you consulted? Keep in mind when you hit the next challenge, you need not lose sleep. God has and knows all the answers. Yes! There goes all the pressure and stress – you don’t have to know it all!  I cannot overemphasize the importance of where you seek answers. Your solution will be as good as the source from which you draw. Moses chose to tap into the unsurpassed and inexhaustible wisdom of God and as leaders we have to follow suit.

What are you going to do differently next time you get to unfamiliar ground?

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