Here’s what our members have shared:

I Am Enough

Eph 2:10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

I take comfort in and am inspired by the fact that God made me just as I am and that when he made me, God had in mind what he created me to do. Therefore, regardless of how I feel about myself and my capabilities, I am enough to do what God has called me to and my service to God is important to him.

Jesus Prays for Me

Rom 8:34b Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

It is always encouraging to know that someone is praying for you, but Paul says that Jesus Christ, who is standing right beside the Father, is interceding for you too. We can’t ask for better prayer support than that! Knowing Jesus prays for me boosts my confidence and ability to persevere.

God Trusts Me

1 Sam 10:6-7 The Spirit of the Lord will come powerfully upon you, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person. Once these signs are fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you.

I am so encouraged by the words “do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you.” All of us working in Christian ministry today have the Spirit within us and have discerned God’s call to ministry one way or another. While I am open to special direction from the Spirit, I am also released by God to use my common sense, my education, and my training and just do whatever I believe is required, knowing that God is with me and trusts me to make good decisions. I can be confident if I am being faithful to my call and to the Lord.

God Is with Me

Heb 13:5 “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

This is my “go to” verse whenever I begin feeling overwhelmed, hopeless, or defeated and it always strengthens my resolve to continue to fulfil my call to ministry. It is a promise given several times in Scripture. Knowing that God is always with me and will not abandon me is the rock of certainty that I stand on. This promise never fails to turn me to God in prayer as I seek his help.

God Is My Partner

Phil 1:6 [Be] confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Like you, God called me to serve him through my work in Christian ministry. His call began the good work he is doing in me and through me, and this verse is a promise that he will not abandon me midway through my call. He will carry me through to the end. My heart is full of joy knowing that I am not on my own; I have God as my partner in fulfilling my call.

Don’t Give Up

Galatians 6:9 So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.

This is the verse that keeps me going when the going gets tough with the ministries I am involved in. No matter what is thrown at us – keep doing good!

Be Strong and Courageous

1 Chron 28:20 Be strong and of good courage, and do it; do not fear nor be dismayed, for the Lord God—my God—will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you, until you have finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord.

Encouragement from a 100-Year-Old Pastor

At age 95, Pastor John Richardson told CCCC conference attendees to “Never die until you are dead!” He spoke about perseverance.

For his 100^th birthday, he preached a sermon at Waterloo Pentecostal Assembly on Isaiah 40:30-31 about gaining new strength and not growing weary. Let his inspiring words encourage you to “keep on keeping on.”

At the same service, he also sang a song every one of us would love to be able to sing at the end of our lives, “I Don’t Regret a Mile.” He joined Jesus in heaven not too long after this service.

I knew Pastor John for thirty-one years, co-taught Sunday School with him, and was always inspired by him. Let John inspire you.

The post Encouragement for Leaders appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

But when you’ve worked through the previous posts and made any changes you want to make, or if you’ve already done all that, here’s the good news. You have:

• reexplored your call and your mission
• become ever more grateful for all that God has given you
• refreshed your leadership
• gained a new, more sustainable way of working
• fallen in love with God all over again
• taken care of your soul
• held a spiritual retreat to pull it altogether and discern God’s continuing leadership of your ministry.

What is left to prepare yourself to reengage pastoral ministry as a revitalized you?

Only one thing comes to mind: Make sure you have joy!

Not just a little joy, but abundant joy! Joy that fills you to overflowing. Joy that spills over into everyone around you. Joy that makes people want to follow your leadership.

Enthusiasm, energy, passion, faith: each of these will be supercharged as joy flows throughout every part of your character and personality and makes you a leader who is attractive to the board and staff.

Here’s a post that will help you develop abundant joy!

The post Lead with Abundant Joy! appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

There are many ways to do a spiritual retreat. This post from September 6, 2010 has some suggestions to consider. However you hold your retreat, enjoy your time with God.

The post Pastors, You Are Ready for a Spiritual Retreat appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

This post from November 11, 2011 is about rekindling your first love for Jesus. While your love is most likely very deep and real, it never hurts to be reminded about how to keep it alive.

The post Fall In Love All over Again! appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

Let me draw your attention to Isaiah’s prophecy: Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel (Isa 7:14).

We know Immanuel means “God with us.” How can we embrace that prophetic comfort in this current time? So many Christians serving in ministry are tired from the pressures and distractions swirling around, some even to the point of wondering whether continuing in ministry is still their call. If that’s you, please hear the Christmas message that God loves you and is with you. And not only is God with you, but he wants very much for you to come to him. His arms are open wide to embrace you—always.

When Jesus was born, the Son of God became flesh and fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy. God was now with us. Later, Jesus himself made his presence with us permanent by saying, “I’m with you always, to the end of the age.” Take comfort that Jesus will stay with you as you serve in your call from beginning to end. From Jesus’ perspective, the prophecy “God with us” has become the promise “I’m with you”. His presence with us today is truly a gift of Christmas.

How can we experience Jesus’ gift of Emmanuel, God-with-us? Well, Jesus gave us the perfect model in his retreats to the wilderness to be with his Father. In prayer and solitude he found guidance, support, and a Father’s loving embrace that told him everything is okay. That time with his Father gave Jesus the strength he needed to persevere in his mission. And Elijah is an example of experiencing God’s embrace even when we are too depleted to seek it. When Elijah fled his ministry and wanted to die, God instead fed him, encouraged him, and launched him back into his call. And that guidance, support, and loving embrace is what Jesus wants to give you, right now!

And there’s more that Jesus wants to give you. He gave us other ways to experience Emmanuel, God-with-us. Christians can be “little Christs” to each other and provide an ear to listen, a heart to pray, and a partner to help process the challenges of ministry. In being both supportive and vulnerable, we can be there for each other as we press on. Other ways to be replenished for frontline ministry might include a stay at a pastors’ retreat centre, professional counselling, or a reprioritization of self-care.

Emmanuel, God-with-us, Jesus, is with you right now, ready to listen to whatever is on your heart. Be encouraged by these Scriptures:

·   “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

·   Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7

·   Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4:16

Christmas is the perfect time to remember that you are not alone. All the love, all the care, all the healing power of Emmanuel, God-With-Us, is now yours to receive as God’s gift to you.

Emmanuel! God with you! Hallelujah! Merry Christmas! From myself and the CCCC board and staff. 

The post God’s Loving Embrace: Christmas and God with Us appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

Search me, God, and know my heart;
Put me to the test and know my anxious thoughts;
And see if there is any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.

Imagine someone asks you, “What does it take to be a successful leader of a Christian ministry?” How would you answer?

You may have a different take or more to say than what is in this post. If you want, you can share your answer in the comments below or, if you are a CCCC member, you can go to The Green and contribute your answer as part of a discussion about this post.

To be a successful leader of a Christian ministry, you must not only deliver results but you must do so in a way that pleases our Lord. How you get results is more important than the specific results you get.

So if you want God’s blessing on you, your leadership, and your ministry, you will have to be a godly leader.

While we might like to think we are already godly enough, I have found that deeper reflection always leads to greater growth. God sends us tests, both large and small, as a way of getting us to do some personal reflection. I have found myself repeatedly tested through the years and every time, the test is an opportunity to examine myself, build my character, and choose a godly response. No matter how mature and experienced you are, there is always room to grow in some way.

Introduction to the Checkup

The checkup has two parts with a total of eleven components:

Part One: Personal Checkup

1. Personal Identity: Ways to think about yourself at home and at work
2. Personal-Public Life: Everything you do affects your ministry leadership
3. Intimacy with God: Be a faithful leader
4. Personal Renewal: Keep your leadership healthy and fresh
5. Personal Vitality: Strengthen your efficacy and resilience
6. Godly Traits: Please God and enable everyone around you to flourish
7. Immune System: Protect yourself against failure

Part Two: Vocational Checkup

8. Call & Vision: The foundation of your ministry leadership
9. Your Aims & Goals: The direction of your ministry leadership
10. Motivation: The driving force behind your ministry leadership
11. Influence: How you affect your staff and others

I have provided a worksheet as a download to help you track yourself as you do the checkup. When you are done, you will have your personal development plan to work on over time.

The Checkup

Take your time working through the checkup. Each element will require time for personal reflection. May the Spirit give you great insights.

Each link takes you to a post that covers that element and contains a reflection document you can download to help you apply the ideas to yourself.

1. Personal Identity: Ways to think about yourself at home and at work

Your identity as a leader is crucial to how you lead. Everything about how you lead, for good or ill, will flow out of your identity.

• Answer the question, “Who am I?” Ministry leaders must resist building their personal identity based on their jobs. As a leader, your role is something outside of yourself that you fulfill.
• You are a steward. Self-centredness is a significant threat to authentic Christian witness by Christian leaders. You belong to Jesus Christ and are his steward.
• You are a shepherd. Several pastors who reflected deeply on the “shepherd” metaphor reported that they felt a profound change in their sense of identity as they became more connected to the historic plan of God for his people, felt awed that they were called to serve the Great Shepherd, and developed a new regard for their vocation.

2. Personal-Public Life: Everything you do affects your ministry leadership

A ministry leader is always “on” in the sense that you are always representing your ministry, even at private family gatherings, because people know what you do, and while we adjust some things for our non-work lives (such as playfulness, personal interests, etc.) our basic ethics and behaviour must be consistent with what we profess at work.

• You cannot “compartmentalize” your life. Compartmentalization happens when we build walls in our lives to prevent inner conflict, say between what we believe and what we do. This is always a problem.
• Set boundaries to protect your non-work life. Some Christian leaders are such workaholics that they aren’t living the life they were created to enjoy. Setting healthy boundaries is different from compartmentalizing your life.
• Your personal spirituality affects your entire ministry. As a ministry leader, your spiritual life is inextricably linked to the health of the ministry you lead. 

3. Intimacy with God: Be a faithful leader

Ministry leaders must be closely connected with the Triune God because the very nature of their work demands it.

• Cultivate a divine intimacy with God. A Christian leader is really a follower of Christ (the real leader). Developing intimacy with God and knowing his heart is the essence of Christian leadership. 
• Learn to discern how God speaks to you. Jesus said he would provide his Spirit to be our guide and this series of four posts will help you “hear” him.
• Take care of your soul. Christians working in ministry risk professionalizing their spirituality. If the only time you pray or study is for work, you will dry up spiritually.
• Do personal spiritual retreats to sustain your leadership. Christian leaders need vibrant, healthy spiritual lives to follow God and lead his people. Here’s a way ministry leaders can conduct a balanced, five-day retreat. The first two days are a personal examination and they could be done as a standalone retreat. The last three days relate to the organization you lead, and they also could be done independently as a three-day retreat or a team retreat.

4. Personal Renewal: Keep your leadership healthy and fresh

Leaders do not need to have all the answers, but they are expected to cast vision and set basic direction. Leaders will only be successful over the long haul by keeping their leadership healthy and fresh.

• Be intentional about regularly reinventing yourself as a leader. Every leader asks at some point, “Am I the one to lead this organization through the next phase of its life?” Leaders become stale-dated if they do not take steps to stay fresh. Here’s what to do.
• Get out of the rut. When there is no vision for anything different and people settle for what already is, they are in a rut! Here’s how to get out.

5. Personal Vitality: Strengthen your efficacy and resilience

There is a reason why God placed you and not someone else in the leadership role you have. There is something about you that God wants to come out in your leadership. Personal vitality is about contributing the most you can, including what makes you you, to the ministry’s cause.

• Be yourself. Success stories of other leaders inspire and encourage us, but they become obstacles when we turn them into guides that we slavishly follow. We must ask: When should we copy other leaders, and when should we not?
• Keep the joy in your leadership. Lead by joyfully remembering whom we serve. Knowing God is life-giving and liberating, so as a leader, your leadership should likewise be life-giving and liberating.
• Rekindle your first love. Remember what brought you into ministry leadership.

6. Godly Traits: Please God and enable everyone around you to flourish

These traits will protect you from yourself, keep you reliant on God, and make you an attractive leader others will want to follow:

• Graciousness. If you want to be “Christ to your employees and volunteers,” you must be gracious towards them even when it’s challenging.
• Gratitude. We can take satisfaction in our abilities and accomplishments but must always remember God gave us our abilities and makes our work fruitful.
• Humility. Praise can be both affirming and damaging to leaders. Here’s an appropriate way for Christian ministry leaders to handle praise. For a humorous example of being humbled, read about my humbling experience and maybe you’ll feel some compassion for me while you laugh.
• Love. Leaders must love the communities they lead and care for them just as God loves and cares for the entire human community.

7. Immune System: Protect yourself against failure

The goal of every leader at the beginning of their leadership is to finish well. Unfortunately, that is not always how their leadership ends. You must be vigilant and constantly find ways to protect yourself. I will be writing a series on avoiding leadership failure later this winter that will deal with specific snares that bring leaders down. In the meantime, here’s what you can do to protect yourself.

• Keep a full life. A possible downside to ministry specialization is that leaders, who are devoting themselves to a specific cause, can fall into the trap of allowing that cause to consume their whole life. Here is some common sense advice for how to stay balanced and healthy while committed to a cause.
• Protect your call. Two kings of Israel were approved by God and later lost his support. They are sobering object lessons to ministry leaders today.
• Acknowledge that you have “blind spots.” I read a case study about a leader who thought he knew what the answer was, but didn’t know that he didn’t really know what was actually going on.
• Seek out your “blind spots.” Leaders need their board, staff, and outsiders to ask them the right questions.
• Make sure you don’t have “CEO Disease.” CEO disease is the withholding of important information from a leader, usually because it is not good news.  Since a leader needs accurate information in order to lead, this is a real problem. 
• Learn to appreciate annoying people. How should we think and respond when we feel annoyed by someone?
• Learn from your critics. God could be using them to speak prophetic correction to you.
• Control your dark side. The traits that enabled you to become a leader are the same traits that can be your downfall.
• Watch out for the early warning signs of impending failure. The earliest warning signals of impending failure are things we tend to honour: performing well and working hard.
• Take Jesus up on his offer of peace. The prospect of burnout and losing one’s joy is very real for people working in ministry, so it’s very good news indeed that Jesus says he has a better way.
• Set a goal to finish your ministry leadership well. Leaders who do not finish their careers well usually share a set of common traits. Here’s what the traits are and what to do about them. The goal you set can address any or all of them.
• Decide now what your legacy will be. Here’s my wish list for the legacy that all Christian leaders will leave, one that reflects our Christian faith.

8. Call & Vision: The foundation of your ministry leadership

You must remember your call every day of your leadership. It will keep you focussed on what God wants you to do.

• Discern your call. There are so many different ways of discerning your call. Here are some helpful discernment principles.
• Continue discerning your call. However far you have come in ministry since your initial call, Jesus is still going ahead of you and keeps calling you to follow him, so never stop listening for his voice.

9. Your Aims & Goals: The direction of your ministry leadership

Determining specifically what the ministry will do is where Christian and secular practices intersect. Leaders need to navigate carefully to be sure they are acting in the interests of those they serve rather than their own interests, and that all the practices of the ministry stand up to theological scrutiny.

• Serve while leading. What does it mean to be a servant leader? Whom should leaders serve? What service do they provide? How does one serve and lead at the same time?
• Check that your leadership practices are faith-friendly. The Bible says a lot that applies to leadership, but so does human wisdom. Here’s how to know when secular leadership practices are acceptable in ministry.

10. Motivation: The driving force behind your ministry leadership

Over time, people will see what truly motivates you. Make sure your motivation aligns with our faith, which is all about others and community. Leading a Christian ministry is not about you, but about the Lord and the mission given to your particular ministry.

• Know your deepest motivations. Reflections from the life of a 100-year-old preacher about how to live well with no regrets will help you assess what is really driving you. This post includes a video of him singing “I Don’t Regret a Mile” as part of the service when he preached his 100th birthday sermon.

11. Influence: How you affect your staff and others

Since you have the most influence of anyone over your workplace culture and environment, it is your job to ensure that you model Christlike behaviour.

• Your leadership is contagious. Your staff will inevitably grow to become more like you. If you are casting vision, inspiring hope and brimming with enthusiasm, then you hope other people will catch what you have. But if you are crusty, suspicious and cranky, you might be infecting your staff with your negative attributes.
• Ensure that God’s will is done in your workplace. Let God’s will reign in your workplace. The way I think of this is, if Jesus were to return to serve as an employee at CCCC, would he fit in with our culture and way of being? Would he be able to say of my leadership, “John reminds me of myself?” Would Jesus be willing to stay under my leadership or would he soon be looking for some other ministry leader to share his talents and gifts with?

I hope that the posts have sparked some ideas to help you become an ever more godly leader. May the Lord richly bless you as you strive to become more like Christ in all that you do.

The post A Self-Checkup for Ministry Leaders appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

Yet once the Spirit-led leader is hired, that person is placed within an organizational structure, otherwise known as an institution, which has policies, procedures, and plans that are supposed to be helpful. In fact, institution means an organization founded to help people do something together (rather than separately) for a religious, educational, professional, or social purpose. All churches and specialized ministries are institutions.

Institutions and Institutionalism

Now, I have to acknowledge that the word institution has a bad rap. As soon as it is said, one thinks of a stodgy old organization that is set in its ways and resistant to change. But that is not the way an institution has to be. Stodginess, being settled in one’s ways, and resistance to change don’t define institutions, but institutionalism.

Institutionalism arises when maintaining the organization itself becomes the primary object for a group within the organization. For them, the idea of what the organization is becomes what the organization was at a moment that is now frozen in time, and then bad things happen:

• Form takes precedence over substance
• The servant becomes the master
• The tail wags the dog
• The organization that once served the mission has displaced that mission

Institutions and organizations are good things. As Carl Dudley wrote, “Organization puts ideas on wheels, translates faith into action, and enables our vision or ministry to become tangible reality.”¹ There is no reason why an institution should necessarily inhibit charismatic ministry. And yet much conflict, particularly in local churches, occurs when Spirit-led ministry runs up against entrenched institutionalism. When the institution takes precedence over its mission, institutionalism has inhibited the charismatic work of the Holy Spirit.

The problem from a leadership perspective is that, once a Spirit-led leader is hired, the stage is set for conflict with the powerful force of institutionalism. The Spirit-led leader could find resistance coming from any or all of the board, the staff, or the donors. Any of these persons could be predisposed to revel in the fresh work of the Spirit today (charismatic ministry), or to trust in the time-tested ways of the ministry’s institutional life (institutionalism).

The Solution

The solution is to recognize that people suffering from institutionalism have lost sight of how God works and what the purpose of the organization truly is. My own observation is that those people have displaced Christ at the centre of the ministry with their own personal preferences for the ministry. In other words, the ministry is now serving them as opposed to the mission. They may still be actively engaged in mission, may be significant donors and volunteers, but only in so far as how the mission is conducted suits their own preferences.

We all need to acknowledge that Christ and his mission for our ministry come first, and our personal preferences come much lower in priority. The welfare of the community within the organization ranks in-between.

The board and leadership need to help people understand this. Discipleship programs should include teaching about the place of individual preferences in the life of the church. When everyone keeps Christ at the centre, we will all get along. We’ll not be self-centred and will be much more charitable towards others. We will be more willing to follow the Holy Spirit wherever he leads us.

The Spirit’s Leadership

The primary correction for institutionalism, a fixation on the past, is to focus on the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church today. So here are some thoughts to help you teach your community about the role of the Spirit and, consequently, to be more receptive to Spirit-led leadership.

The Holy Spirit Continues Jesus’ Ministry

Luke says his gospel concerns only what Jesus “began to do and teach,”² and yet his gospel and its sequel, Acts, show that Jesus’ time on earth came to an end shortly after the close of the gospel when he ascended into heaven. So how does Jesus continue to do and teach?  Luke makes it clear that Jesus continues to work through the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit Helps Us Adapt

According to the lexicons, the Hebrew and Greek words for the Holy Spirit mean “invisibility, movement, power, and life” and convey the idea of “God in action.” We live in an ever-changing world, so when we know that the creative and dynamic Spirit of God is actively guiding the church to meet new challenges, we should expect change and development to be the result. While the church’s mission does not change and the gospel of Jesus Christ does not change, how the church conducts its mission certainly can and does change.

The changes brought about by the Holy Spirit help the church address current conditions and are not changes that we humans can control. All we can do is acknowledge that the church and its various ministries belong to God and are his to do with as he pleases. The Holy Spirit therefore has primacy over the church, its methods and its structures, and we must accept his leadership.

The Spirit Prevents Decay

As often happens as organizations age, we get attached to the structure and the methods already in use and then, as it has been so eloquently said, the “encrustations of time . . . come to be valued as the most distinctive feature of the organization.”³ The organization fossilizes and declines.

We must keep our focus on God and remember that the church exists for a reason. It’s been well said that, “There is church because there is mission, not vice versa.”⁴ Mission comes before organization, therefore organizations (institutions) can be adapted to support the mission.

The Trinity and Institutions

A Trinitarian view of the church helps us see the continuing work of Christ through the Spirit to accomplish the Father’s purposes, giving the church a dynamic quality that prevents fossilization.

Where the Spirit is at work, things happen. The people of God should be solidly grounded in the historical, incarnational ministry of Christ, but also open to the continuing, fresh, dynamic work of the Spirit.

Surprise!

There will always be an element of surprise as we discern where the Spirit is and how he is leading us. We must be careful to not make the Spirit fit our preconceived notions of how things should be!

Spirit-led leaders and the institutions they lead will always be highly compatible when everyone is focused on Christ and his mission and sees the organization simply as a helpful means to fulfill Christ’s mission.

Key Thought: A Spirit-led ministry uses its institutional structure to accomplish its mission.

The post Spirit-Led Leaders and Institutional Life appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.
John 10:1-4 (NASB)

Christ’s Call to Ministry

I love hearing ministry leaders tell their stories about how Christ called them into vocational ministry.

Every story is unique. No two are alike.

Every story is very personal.

And no one ever forgets their call story.

They treasure it!

Christ the Great Shepherd

The Initial Call to Ministry

When Jesus Christ enters the sheep pen, he knows all his sheep individually. He even knows them by name. And they know his voice. You’ve probably had the same experience I’ve had. You hear someone talking but can’t see them, and yet by their voice you know exactly who they are. As I read these verses, I can’t help but imagine that when the shepherd speaks, the sheep’s’ ears perk up, they turn their heads toward the voice, and they listen intently. And when the shepherd calls them out of the pen, they follow.

As Christian ministry leaders, Jesus called each one of us from the pen to go out through the gate and enter into vocational ministry.

Many of us were probably quite attentive to his voice at that time because many transitions come when we are in crisis or upset, and are looking for direction:

• It may be that we are unsettled in what we are currently doing, restless and needing a change.
• Perhaps we’re finishing up a seminary degree and anxious to find a place to serve.
• Maybe our world has turned upside-down and we are in crisis. Everything is changing and we need to find a way forward.
• Or it could just be an opportunity comes your way, and you wonder what to do about it.

In all these scenarios, we end up searching for what God wants of us. And thus we are particularly attentive to his voice at the time when we first come into ministry leadership. And we probably stay attentive for at least a while, earnestly seeking to discern what God wants us to do.

The Continuing Call While in Ministry

But as we mature in our leadership roles, we may find ourselves growing in confidence of our own abilities, and we may lose the sense of dependence on God, and gradually his voice grows dim as we focus on doing our very best for God based on our own self-reliance.

Yet once the sheep have left the pen following behind the shepherd, the shepherd doesn’t stop talking with his sheep. The shepherd walks ahead of them, still talking with them, and they continue to follow wherever the shepherd leads.

However far you have come in ministry since your initial call, Jesus is still going ahead of you and keeps calling you to follow him. We must continue to listen to his voice just as intently, just as closely, as we did when he first called us to ministry, because he knows the good works that he has in store for us to do, and he doesn’t leave us to guess what they are. If you continue to listen to our Great Shepherd’s voice just as earnestly as you did at the beginning of your ministry, you will be led to all that he has in store for you. And having heard Christ’s continuing call, respond to it just as eagerly as you did his initial call.

Blessing

Now [may] the God of peace,… the great Shepherd of the sheep … Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Hebrews 13:20

Key Thought: The Good Shepherd’s call to ministry becomes his guidance in ministry.

The post The Shepherd’s Voice appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

A theme that runs through my posts on the spirituality of leadership is that if ministry leaders are going to be successful over the long term, they must always remember three truths which will keep them receptive to God’s leadership:

1. God created and owns everything, and we are his stewards.
2. God is our Creator and is the ultimate source of all our gifts, skills, and talents.
3. God is always at work through us and around us to accomplish his purposes, sometimes in ways we know and often in ways we’ll never know.

Gratitude & Humility

When it comes to assessing our own leadership, these truths remind us that while we can take satisfaction in how well we develop our abilities and in the accomplishments we achieve, we must always remember that God is the source of everything. He gave us our abilities; he called us to leadership; and he works in people and in circumstances to make our work fruitful.

A sure way to lose God’s support is to proudly claim his work as our own! If I believe I really get results independent of God, I can just imagine God sitting back and saying, “Well now, John, let’s just see what you can do on your own!” A key verse which I remind myself of again and again is:

You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.
Deut 8:17-18

When people think they are responsible for their results, they are:

• likely going to pray less frequently about their work
• more likely to rely on human, rather than divine, wisdom
• more likely to ask God to bless their plans, rather than giving God time to reveal his plans
• going to get the results of human effort, rather than of Divine intent

The appropriate response to the three truths is to live in a constant state of gratitude towards God for his many blessings. When we live with gratitude, we live in humility, and God says repeatedly through Scripture that he looks for those with humble spirits. If we want God to work through us, we can’t be self-reliant.

Something to remember is that human effort can frustrate Divine intent, at least as far as God’s intent is to work through you as opposed to someone else! As Mordecai said, if Esther didn’t step up and do what was needed, God would bring deliverance through another person. God will get done what he wants to get done, but if you aren’t going to cooperate, he’ll change his intent to work with you and work with someone else! Gratitude keeps our focus on God as the one who will continue to bless us and work through us.

Gratitude in Action

Here’s a vivid description of gratitude in action.

When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”…Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
Luke 7:36-39 & 48

As leaders, we can learn some valuable lessons.

• This woman had either already met Jesus or she was very well aware of his reputation as a friend of sinners, people like herself. Either way, she was overwhelmed by the magnitude of his love and concern. She wasted no time going to meet him, because he was already at dinner when she heard he was there, and he was still there when she arrived.
• She was courageous. Just think about it – a known sinner, most likely a prostitute – somehow bursts into the house of a Pharisee and gets right to the guest of honour! Nobody would be more antagonistic towards her presence than a Pharisee, and yet she went anyway!
• She wouldn’t have had time to go shopping for a gift, so she brought what she had, a jar of perfume. Given her likely work as a prostitute, her gift was probably a tool of her trade – and yet Jesus accepted it anyway!

She was a remarkable woman, full of gratitude. In response to her display of gratitude, Jesus forgave her of her sins.

As ministry leaders, we need to be like this woman, living with deep, heart-felt gratitude for the enormous blessings that God has poured out upon us. God put you where you are, entrusted you with stewarding his resources, people, relationships and opportunities, and then enabled you and your team to produce the fruit which comes from your work. Praise God!

Our Gratitude

To help you develop your gratitude to be just as deep and heartfelt as the woman who washed Jesus’ feet in the Pharisee’s house:

1. Watch this classic video of Zig Ziglar telling how he explained to a woman who hated her job and who could think of nothing to be grateful for, how many things about her job could make her feel grateful. Apply Ziglar’s approach to your own life, and you’ll find many more things to be grateful for than you might think of at first.
2. Read the wonderful book, One Thousand Gifts to help you appreciate God’s many blessings which you might easily overlook.
3. Practice expressing your gratitude by regularly thanking God for various blessings, and by giving credit to him as you speak about your ministry’s achievements.

My prayer for you is that you will be aware of all that God has done to bring you to leadership and achieve the results you have, and that your gratitude will keep you humble and in a place where you can continue to be a fruitful servant of God.

The post Gratitude: The Key to Longevity in Christian Leadership appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

The prospect of burnout and losing one’s joy is very real for people working in ministry, so it’s very good news indeed that Jesus says he has a better way. Let’s let him minister to us through his words.

“I will give you rest.”

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30

Verse 28 has a very powerful, attractive pull to it. Jesus’ invitation to come to him and receive his rest simply screams at me, “You’re okay. I love you. You’re safe. That’s enough now.” Sometimes I just want to surrender myself into Jesus’ care and be enveloped in his arms.

But no! That is not what Jesus is telling us to do. Jesus does not intend for us to escape from the world or our jobs. He wants us to continue working, but to work differently—his way.

The Context

Matthew 11, which contains this offer from Jesus, opens with John the Baptist languishing in a prison cell wondering about the legacy of his life of obedience, hardship, and sacrifice. Looking back over his life and ministry, he asks, “Is this all there is? Is there any fruit? Are you the one who is to come, Jesus?”

In response to John’s questions, Jesus reminds John of the prophecies of the One who is to come and that Jesus’ ministry gives evidence of their fulfillment. He then pays tribute to John.

However, John’s questions lead Jesus to review his own ministry thus far, and he marvels at its lack of results. He remonstrates against the cities which didn’t respond in faith to his miracles, but then does something quite unexpected. He praises his Father and says that the way God works is pleasing to God and that’s good enough for him.

Jesus’ Invitation to Us

It is then that Jesus says to others, presumably his followers (including us), to come to him. The point isn’t to let people retire and “be okay”, but to give them a new perspective and send them back out to work again. The key statement is “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

Jesus’ Kind of Rest

When Jesus says we’ll find rest he does not mean that we will be inactive. Christ’s rest is very active. It involves a yoke after all, so he means for us to be working. But he wants us to learn from him. He wants us to learn to evaluate our ministries and our efforts the same way he did his. Doing so will result in our results-driven souls taking a rest.

• Jesus accepted that God has a way of working and the implication is that he was comfortable doing his part and leaving everything else to his Father.
• Jesus was committed to obedience to his Father, not to achieving results. His attention was on what his Father revealed to him to do. He could afford to be gentle and humble in heart as he served his Father because he wasn’t measuring his success by external results.

Jesus will use his yoke to get us to work with the same gentleness and humbleness as he did. If you want to know how well you are leading like Jesus, ask yourself, “How gentle a leader am I?”

Gentle Leadership

The issue comes down to a simple question which can be asked three ways:

1. Am I satisfied with knowing that I am leading the ministry in a way that is pleasing to God, or must I have external results to satisfy me?
2. Are results the goal of my work or the consequence of the good work that I do?
3. Am I content to do what God has asked me to do and leave the fruit to God?

I know that getting results is very important. They show good stewardship of the ministry’s resources. They indicate that the church’s mission is being advanced. They mean that people are benefiting from the ministry’s work. This is all good. But we should be pleased with results, not driven by them.

If we are following Christ, and conducting our ministry in alignment with Christ’s values, then we will be faithfully obedient and God will provide fruitfulness as a by-product of the good work we do in his name. The problem we should avoid is what happens when people are driven by measurable results: they can easily fall prey to seeing people from a utilitarian perspective, making people a means to achieving a goal rather than seeing them as fellow image-bearers of God.¹

Jesus was satisfied with a ministry career which he saw as just a process (albeit an important process) in his Father’s work plan. He could perform his duties and not worry about the outcome because the outcome was God’s responsibility. Paul wrote something very similar: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.”

So in this passage, Jesus says to do the work we have been called to do (and we know he expects it to be very well done), but that we should take our pleasure from doing it in a Christ-like manner. If we do that, we can pray for God to bless our work with much fruit, and the results will be the reward or consequence of the good work we do.

Conclusion

All Christ asks us to do is to gently and humbly fulfill his call and leave the consequences up to God. What are you striving for that you need to turn over to Jesus? “Come to me…and I will give you rest.”

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