3 Things To Avoid
Forgetting who you are.
It always amazes me, in my limited perspective on life and ministry, that at the start of Jesus’ ministry the Father speaks. It doesn’t amaze me that HE speaks (although there’s indication that this is unique) but what amazes me is what HE chooses to say. Of all the advice you could give to a first time ministry leader, it’s shocking. There are lists and lists of what God the Father could say to God the Son at this moment and yet, HE chooses to say,
“You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” – Luke 3:22b.
We could spend days unpacking this but suffice to say, God chooses to speak to Jesus’ identity. So, this must be critical and foundational for Jesus. What about us?
In Andrew Peterson’s series, “The Wingfeather Saga” he makes this statement in the book “North! Or Be Eaten”; “No, when a king forgets who he is, he looks for himself in the rubble of conquered cities. He is haunted by a bottomless pit in his soul, and he will pour the blood of nations into it until the pit swallows the man himself.” In ministry, it is tempting to define ourselves by our successes (or failures). Our ambitions become tainted by our brokenness and we seek to fill the void for significance through our work…sometimes at the cost of others. But, Kingship is bestowed not earned or obtained. God has declared who we are as HIS children. The question of the book of Galatians is; Will I believe HIM? Will I, by faith, find my identity in the declarations of Scripture or in the trophies I seek to pile up? Ministry becomes a painful, terrible place when I ride the ups and downs of the rollercoaster of opinions and success. We find ourselves constantly chasing the next benchmark to prove ourselves…to who? Often to ourselves. But, all the while, God has cried out that we are HIS CHILDREN, WHOM HE LOVES and WITH US HE IS WELL PLEASED. Disaster lies ahead for the ministry worker that would forget this.
Who will lead?
Let’s look again to our model – Jesus. During Passover in the spring of 27AD Jesus is just beginning ministry and people are really getting excited about it. Remember the saying, “God loves you and everyone has a wonderful plan for your life.” That was true for Jesus as well. Everyone has great ideas for what you should be doing, saying, where you should be going and more. But, in John 2:24 it says, “But Jesus would not entrust Himself to them…”. This happens many times throughout HIS ministry. In one famous occasion, Jesus goes right to the source and says, “Get behind me Satan!” HE understands that Satan is tempting HIM to take HIS lead from the wisdom of men. There are successful people around HIM or just people that seem to make a lot of sense that HE is tempted to listen to about the direction of HIS life and ministry. What about us? Where do we get direction?
In Ephesians 5:23 we are told that Jesus is the head of the Church. This same idea is stated and implied in other New Testament passages. And honestly, we don’t seem to have a major problem with the idea. “Sure, Jesus is the head of HIS Church.” But, is that statement true? If we were to poll the people of your local fellowship and ask, who really runs this church, who would they point to? Would they say a wealthy businessman or a certain “squeaky wheel”? Would they point to the Pastor or Elders? Or, would they say Jesus?
Scripture is clear that there is wisdom in the council of many and that we are to seek wisdom but ultimately who is setting our direction? This implies that we are listening closely to Jesus for direction?
I remember when I was leading a large ministry and a group came to me and offered to raise at least one million dollars, if I would just “tone down” our Jesus talk a bit. I’d love to say that it was a no brainer to kick them out of the office but it was a hard decision. In the end, we said we couldn’t do that and moved on. In your ministry, like Jesus’, you must get direction from the Father and not everyone will agree. Some may not “support” where you are leading the ministry. Some may be openly critical. But, in the end we will answer to Jesus, the Head of HIS Church. Surround yourself with wise leaders that can help you guide this work but make sure they are listening first to Jesus not the newest trends or ideas.
What to measure?
Do you enjoy a peaceful walk through a botanical garden? Or can you at least imagine that some people would? That’s because it’s beautiful and relaxing. Among the many things in a garden are flowers. Flowers matter. Flowers have value. Flowers serve a purpose. But, as my friend Donnie says, “Flowers ain’t Fruit”.
It’s important to regularly and ruthlessly evaluate things in our ministry. More about that another time. But, what should we be evaluating – flowers or fruit? In ministry there are lots of beautiful things, lot’s of neat things, lots of things that impress our flesh, and many things that are actually important but aren’t fruit. In your ministry are you measuring fruit or flowers?
In Luke 10 Jesus sends out a short term missions team. When they return they are so stoke! Jesus doesn’t criticize their excitement but HE does clarify their values. HE says that there is something more important than the thing they are celebrating. HE points to fruit over flowers. We see HIM do this throughout HIS ministry.
One might ask, well, what’s fruit? I could give you a list but I think I’d be cheating you out of the joy of discovering the answer from Jesus. So, I’d encourage you to dig into the Gospels and begin to see what Jesus considers fruit. Those are the things that you should be measuring. There are other components to ministry – Flowers. They are important. They matter. But, they aren’t fruit. What I mean by that is we should not exclusively measure flowers and conclude that our ministry is doing great. Flowers are necessary – things like tracking numbers, following a budget, but, those are not the fruit we should make decisions based on.
There are many pitfalls to avoid in ministry but these are 3 that we see in Jesus that seem critical.
So, avoid:
- Forgetting who you are
- Letting someone other than Jesus lead
- and Measuring Flowers and not Fruit