Water can do a lot of damage to rocks and roads as this view of Bourke’s Luck Pot Holes in South Africa reveals. Everyone knows what happens when you slam into a pothole. It could be the same when you encounter a pitfall in a new leadership position at a church. When a pastor moves to shepherd a new church, some unhealthy patterns may emerge, and some members may have unrealistic expectations of their new pastor. Charles suggests some ways to avoid the pitfalls and some questions to ask the church leaders to better shepherd the congregation.
Don’t grow weary in doing good. Remember, the seeds we sow are powerful. Something good really is happening even if we suffer initially. Our seeds will bear fruit in God’s timing. We will reap a harvest in God’s perfect timing, in his “due season.”
Do you know that the Lord Himself finds joy and satisfaction in His people? God’s people give Him pleasure! He joys over us with singing and takes delight in us. The new creation that is the church is a foretaste of the New Heavens and New Earth. While awaiting that glorious future God Himself says that we ought to rejoice in the people He has created. Enjoy the fruit of the ministry. See what the Lord has done and be glad in it!
When you woke up this morning, did you get pumped that you could have an encounter with Christ, that you could meet the Spirit of God to see Him living through you in a supernatural way? Or did you go back to the flesh-and-blood stuff again?
The long view, a generational view, is the kind of view that provokes patience and compels us to initiate collaboration with the generations before and after us in accomplishing Kingdom work. God has included in the assignment of each generation, the intentional sowing into those who are coming up after us.
I still laugh at when my dad built a birdhouse and put it up in his back yard. Thoughtfully, he stuffed the cute little structure with twigs to help the birds with their nest-building. Watching one day he saw a bird go inside the birdhouse and come out with a twig in her mouth, take it to a tree and return, only to get another twig. That resourceful mother bird had found a great cache of perfect twigs to build her nest somewhere else!
We're not to "think of ourselves more highly than we ought, because God has given everyone "the measure [metron] of faith," and we're to stay within our own measure. “We have many members ... but all the members do not have the same function ..." (Rom 12:2-4). Christ delegates to us the authority to follow His call within our own metron, but not outside those boundaries.
Most of us would like to think we are open-minded about our hiring, promotions, development, team-building, etc. And I would never suggest hiring someone based solely on their gender, ethnicity or other external factor. But even healthy leaders can fall into the trap of familiarity, when the talent and competence they need may be lying untapped in the unfamiliar.
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