If you aren’t burning out but are tired, you still need to restore your health and recover a healthy perspective on your call and mission. You probably have come to terms with the fact that, because of ongoing need, your ministry’s mission will not be fully achieved this side of Christ’s return. A mission that has no end can seem overwhelming and sometimes undoable. And then there is your call: when can one consider one’s call to have been fulfilled? We really don’t know.

So, being realistic, how can we maintain a passion for our call and our mission when in these circumstances?

This post, from June 10, 2012, will help you stay inspired when you are only halfway up the mountain.

The post Prepare to Move Forward appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

May we all be able to sing this song after our time in vocational ministry has concluded.

Enjoy the video by following the link below.

The post A Life of Ministry with No Regrets appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

Though youths grow weary and tired,
And vigorous young men stumble badly,
Yet those who wait for the Lord
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.

Isaiah 40:30-31 (NIV)

Follow the link below to hear the sermon.

The post Inspiration from a 100-Year-Old Pastor’s Sermon appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

Pastors, it’s December 1, 2021 and there are reports that a significant percentage of you are at least thinking of leaving the ministry. How many will actually do that is anybody’s guess, but the fact that so many are even thinking about it is a concern.

After 18 months of the pandemic, gathering restrictions, and debates over vaccines and masks, you need some encouragement!

So, for 24 days, I will publish a brief post linked to an older post that addresses a topic that will benefit you. My goal is to help you get through these times and redeem their troubles for the good of your ministry and your church.

Be encouraged by these three verses that relate to God bringing good out of bad circumstances.

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

Genesis 50:20 (NIV)

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose…. In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Romans 8:20, 37 (NIV)

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

Here is today’s helpful post from July 5, 2021. It contains links to some posts that you will see again in this series, but it serves as a quick start to reclaiming the initiative over your ministry and proactively adapting it to produce great fruitfulness. May God inspire you today!

The post Pastors, You Have a Hope and a Future appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

There are times in the life of any ministry when the work is just plain hard. Sometimes much harder than anyone ever thought it would be. Ministry can be difficult and wearying. And yet, as the ministry leader it is up to you to rally the troops and lead them forward. What to do? How do you keep your own spirits up so you can inspire everyone else? A previous post has ideas for staying inspired when you have a long uphill road ahead of you to fulfill your mission. Those ideas are good in any scenario. This post, however, has ideas specifically for when the work is very hard and you are getting discouraged.

In Hard Times, Rely on Established Practices

This first strategy for dealing with hard times is to go back to basics. Hopefully, you have already established regular routines and practices that keep you grounded in your faith, vibrant in your relationship with the Lord, and well connected to other people. When you are thrown into a crisis or a prolonged time of tough slogging, these routines and practices are there to support you.

Too often, we try to be the hero and forge through difficult times relying on our own strength. But it is through working with other people that our combined skills, gifts, experiences, and education provide the breakthroughs. You are not designed to do ministry (or life) on your own. This is why God gives people different gifts and roles.

One of the striking things about how Dietrich Bonhoeffer coped with being thrown into a Nazi jail was how his regular observance of the Church year continued in his small cell, giving him a sense of connection with his family and friends on the outside who also observed the Church year. While he was indeed alone in his cell, he knew he was not suffering alone. Even when they could not physically be with him, it comforted and strengthened him to know they were engaged in the same Christian practices at the same time as he was. If just the idea of solidarity had such a powerful effect on Bonhoeffer, how much more of a powerful effect should we experience when people are physically with us and able to help us?

The Practices

Make four practices part of your regular routine so they are available when you especially need them in hard times. If these four aren’t yet part of your routine and you are already in the midst of a very hard time, it’s not too late to turn to them.

1. Pray and discern how God is leading you.
   1. Psalms 13 (when you feel forgotten by God), 69 (when you are in great distress), and 34 (encouragement for when you hope for rescue) are great examples of David’s prayers in hard times. You can pray emotional prayers just like David did. Be real when speaking with God. He’s big enough to hear the raw you and he wants you to be honest in your prayers.
   2. Read my post A Leader’s Intimacy with God for some ideas on building your relationship with God. The most important point of that post in the context of hard times is to remember that the ministry you lead is Christ’s ministry, not yours. Let Jesus carry the ultimate responsibility for your ministry.
   3. I have some posts to help you with discerning God’s voice, a skill that is absolutely essential to successful ministry leadership.
2. Ask for help. Often leaders mistakenly think it’s lonely at the top and they have to bear their troubles and trials on their own. That is absolutely not true! It is only lonely at the top only if you want it to be lonely at the top. There are people who want to help you, but they may not know you want help. They may be too intimidated to offer help. There is no shame in asking for help: it is the wise thing to do and wise people will respect you for asking. Asking for help acknowledges that you are only human. And it shows people you respect them and believe they have what you need. Asking for help lets other parts of the body of Christ contribute what they can to overcome the obstacle. Don’t let pride prevent you from asking for help.
   
   Years ago, I pushed my infant daughter in her stroller on a long and steep walk up out of a deep ravine. Near the end, I suddenly felt I was being pushed ahead and the load became easier. You can see why in the above picture. When my family got behind me to push me up the last part of the hill, what was hard became a lot easier.
3. Connect authentically with peers and others. When you meet, put aside the usual success-focused chatter and get real. People are generally afraid to be the first one to get real, so be the one to take the risk. It’s highly likely that the response will be encouragement and support. I take this risk when I meet ministry leaders and almost every time the conversation suddenly turns to something far deeper than where the conversation started as they open up in response.
4. Remember God’s support. God promises to give wisdom when we ask for it and we know he also equips us for our tasks. But God can also work in people and circumstances around us in ways that only he can do. Ask God to support you. Even though he supports you anyway (he did call you, after all), explicitly asking makes you more aware that God is with you.

Overcome Feelings of Inadequacy

Wondering if you are the right person to lead when faced with a severe challenge is normal. Didn’t we all feel a sudden pang of inadequacy when the COVID-19 pandemic was first declared and we learned how disruptive it would be? I know I did. But thankfully, the Lord God likes to work through people who feel inadequate. God used Moses, Gideon, Esther, and others who felt they didn’t have what it would take to fulfill their missions. After the first pang of inadequacy, I felt God’s comfort and strength as I followed the advice I’m giving in this post.

What should we remember when we feel weak and inadequate? Well, when Paul had a weakness and asked God to take it away, the Lord said to him:

“My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”

2 Corinthians 12:9a

Awareness of a weakness or perceived inadequacy should simply drive you to turn to God for greater awareness of his grace. Remember that God equips everyone he calls with what they need to fulfill their call. Part of that equipping might be the people God placed around you. They share a call to the same mission, but they have different equipping than you have. This is what God did by providing Moses with Aaron. The group of you can then work together on your shared mission and by doing that, the group helps you fulfill your call.

Fight Imposter Syndrome

There is a thought pattern arising from feelings of inadequacy called Imposter Syndrome. You have it when you doubt your skills, talents, or accomplishments and have a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a “fraud.”¹ It can really debilitate you. If you suffer from this, challenge it with this thought: you were called by God who knows you inside out; he knows your weaknesses and yet he still called you. You are not an imposter. You are exactly the person God wanted for what you are doing. Success with your call does not depend on perfection or on you alone. It depends on your obedience to God.

There are also things that only God can do through his Spirit. So don’t try to do his work. Do everything you can and pray for God to do the rest.

Deal with Weariness and Despair

Over time we can become weary and even despair when we look at the enormity of the problems we address through our ministries. I wrote a post that addresses this exact issue. I reread it as I wrote this paragraph and, at least for me, I find it tremendously encouraging.

Contemporary Circumstances

There are two issues that are really challenging right now related to the pandemic and social conditions.

COVID-19 Pandemic Issues

The pandemic has been especially hard on pastors. They have had to deal not only with all the changes to how their churches worship and conduct their programs, but they have done this while enduring the many opposing opinions held by members of their congregations. Their concern is: how will pastors be able to lead their congregations forward in unity once the pandemic is over?

Before going further, I and every other Christian must say a huge "Thank you!" to the pastors who have guided us and helped us stay steady in our faith and Christian life throughout the pandemic. To every one of you I say, "Thank you! Well done."

If this is an issue you are troubled by, please see my post Making Peace in Your Church. Now is the time to provide leadership like never before to help your congregation navigate through and out of the pandemic. Show them how it is done in God’s kingdom.

Something else to think about is just how far we’ve come since March 2020. Who would have thought churches everywhere would be streaming their services? That virtually everyone would get comfortable with video meetings? This past year, you have likely led with more strength than you ever have because you have guided your congregation through all the tumult and disruption. Congratulations! Celebrate what you and your team did. It’s beginning to look like the end of the pandemic is in sight, at least as I write this in the first days of July 2021.

Social Issues

Another issue is troubling, especially for older leaders who have seen the whole world they once knew turned upside down and the pace of upheaval accelerate rapidly in recent years. Like waters rushing through rapids, postmodern thinking has swept us up and carried us swirling down the river into a strange new world without objective truth, the antithesis to everything Christians believe based on God’s own revelation in Scripture. In these tumultuous times, some leaders wonder if they are the ones to take their ministries into a future that looks so contrary to God’s way for humanity.

If this is your concern, it may be helpful to remember that the Church has twice before had to adapt to a complete change in how the world works. The first time was due to the collapse of the Roman Empire, and the second was the decline of feudalism. Both times, the Church ultimately figured out how to adapt and through bursts of creativity recovered from the losses it had suffered in the transitions.

Remember, the Spirit Will Guide Us

We can be confident about our future because Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit precisely to guide us² so we can handle issues like we face today. Take heart that the Holy Spirit continues to breathe new life into the Church each and every day. The end of the Roman Empire resulted in the birth of religious orders that led to renewal in the Church. Today we have multiple movements within the Christian church creatively testing ways forward. It may take time to assess these new ways of being the Church, but the Spirit will help us discern what to do. Be confident. Be patient. Keep giving God your best.

In the End

Just because God called you to ministry does not mean your ministry will be easy. Ministry can be very hard and there is no denying that. But even in the midst of hard times, God provides the people and the equipping you need. And whatever is not provided is what God has left for himself to do.

Let’s not become discouraged in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not become weary. Galatians 6:9

CCCC’s members can discuss this post in The Green.

Key Thought: Knowing God’s perspective changes everything.

The post When Ministry Becomes Hard: Help Is at Hand appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

What do you do when your passion for your call is dwindling and you are beginning to feel like you should leave ministry?

Ministry leaders all have up and down seasons. Enthusiasm waxes and wanes. Work can energize and drain us. Sometimes, even though we know we were called to ministry, our passion for our call diminishes, and then we wonder if we are still called to ministry. If this happens to you, remember that a loss of passion for your call does not necessarily mean you are done with ministry in your current role or with your current church or agency. And it doesn’t mean God has released you from your call. It just means you need to think about:

• what your call is,
• your expectations about what fulfilling your call will be like,
• how you personally are fulfilling your call, and
• your ministry’s mission.

I have another post about developing a passion for your mission that focuses on developing passion by knowing God’s heart. I recommend you read that post as well because there is nothing like seeing your work the way God sees it to motivate you. And if you have lost all sense of call and are doing your job without any connection to God’s leadership, my post about partnering with God should help you re-establish a dependence on his direction.

However, this post focuses on practical things you can do to rekindle your passion for your call. Leaving ministry is not your only option and the best years of your ministry may still be ahead of you. It might be that all you need to do is make some adjustments to what you think about your call or how you are fulfilling it. So, let’s start.

1. Relive Your Call Experience

To correctly discern if you have been released from your call, go back to the call you received (and any other ways you’ve felt called since then). The goal is to find greater clarity about your call and help you understand it in today’s context. Then you will know better how to pray about your call and to assess your options. Are these options variances to your call, logical extensions of your call, or outside of your call?

God does not use a formula to call people to ministry. He calls people many different ways. Don’t think less of your call if it came about a different way than others experienced theirs. Some had a dramatic word from the Spirit that called them to ministry. Others came to a gradual realization of their call based on circumstances, personal interest, or conversations. I’ve heard several hundred call stories and I’ve never heard the same one twice. Treasure how God worked in your life to call you into ministry.

Write Your Story

If you have already written out the story of your call, read it again now to refresh your mind. Otherwise, think back to when you discerned your call and capture the story by using the following points as a guide. And then update that story with any further times of discernment about your call.

Write down:

• What was happening in your life at the time
• Whether the call found you “out of the blue” or if you were seeking to discover what God wanted you to do
• Your emotions upon receiving the call; for example, excitement. If excitement, what excited you? Be specific. If fear, what were you afraid of and how has it worked out since then?
• Whether the call was a natural fit that made sense to you or if it was a radical departure
• Who helped you discern your call
• The steps you took throughout the discernment process
• The timing of the discernment process, whether quick or slow
• How much you relied on trust and faith in God when you accepted the call
• The reactions you received as you shared your call with others
• How the call affected your plans, your career, and your family

You may not have anything to say for some of these points, but the more vivid your story, the more it will help you understand what God wanted you to do when you were called.

Recall Your Dreams

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:10

Remember the enthusiasm you had when you came to work at your current ministry and when you accepted the job you have now. What were your dreams for what you would do and accomplish? Relive the early days and note how you have accomplished or expanded your dreams over time. Are you still dreaming today? Ask God to give you a fresh vision for your call.

Get the Big Picture

You might find it helpful (I know I do) to step back and see how your call fits into the bigger picture of God’s plan for humanity. Your call is not just about you and your job. It is a delegation from God to you to do something important in service to his mission. It is also important to the people God wants you to reach through your call. By understanding the metanarrative of the Bible, you set your work in the context of God’s work and will find it easier to set priorities and determine, of all the good things you could do, which ones are the priority from God’s perspective.

Studying the Bible’s metanarrative doesn’t need to take a lot of time. If you have twenty-one minutes, two videos from The Bible Project provide an excellent overview of the Bible’s metanarrative, the Old Testament Overview and the New Testament Overview

When I review the big picture of what the Bible reveals about God and humanity, I feel very confident that, however turbulent things appear in this moment of history, there is a solid foundation upon which to base my ministry. I see the importance of my work and I challenge myself to do my very best while relying on the Holy Spirit for direction.

Other Ways to Fulfill Your Call

It could be that your passion is dwindling because you have maxed out the opportunity to follow your call in your current position or current ministry. For example, as I worked with a youth pastor to help him regain his passion for his call to ministry, he realized that after more than a decade as a youth pastor he was ready to lead a church. The loss of passion was a signal that he was ready to step up to a new way of pursuing his call. He went on to successfully pastor a church of his own.

Define Your Call

Once you’ve done these reflections, write out a fresh definition of your call. If it has evolved from its original state, defining it in writing will help align your thinking with your call as you now understand it. You will also know more precisely what steps you should take to keep progressing towards your call’s fulfillment.

2. Reset Your Expectations

Sometimes reality can be so different from the dream! We set out working in our call expecting God’s blessing and protection, but while God does always work for our ultimate good, it does not mean that his ways will be exactly what we want them to be. If you are losing passion for your call, it may be time for a reality check. Acknowledging the following realities will change them from being surprises that might defeat you to potential events that you can plan for and overcome. You won’t feel defeated when they pop up.

There will Be Obstacles

For a number of years, things went very well for CCCC under my leadership, making for an unusually prolonged period of good times. I thought, “This is easy.” But I always qualified that statement by reminding myself, the board, and the staff that continuance of the current good times couldn’t be taken for granted. There will come a day of testing. I didn’t want them devastated if hard times or even normal times returned. “Don’t get cocky or overconfident,” I repeatedly said to myself.

Of course, we worked very hard to make the continuation of those wonder years more likely, but the time of testing did come, more for me than for CCCC. What kept me going was reflecting on my call. On a number of days, I repeated to myself, “I will not let these circumstances prevent me from fulfilling my call!” And with prayer and professional growth, I came through those years.

If you believe the good times are actually the ordinary times, then the first obstacle that arises might knock you down. Some ministries are difficult all the time. Maybe some are easy all the time. But most ministries will have their ups and downs. Work hard, do your best, and acknowledge that there will be tough times. Enjoy the good times while you have them. Do not let the hard times separate you from your call.

It Will Take Time

Sometimes it seems like all we are doing is planting seeds. Wouldn’t it be nice to harvest some of the seeds you have sown and watered over the years! But unrealistic timelines can become demotivating and lead you to wonder, “What’s the use?” One helpful way to keep your passion ignited is to see regular progress towards your hoped-for results.

Set realistic timelines and let God do what only he can do. Read my post How to Stay Inspired When You Are Only Halfway Up the Mountain.

You Will Have to Grow

There is a possibility that leadership is not your strength. Perhaps you misunderstood your call. Maybe it was to serve a mission rather than lead it. If you think this is a possibility, then read Maybe Leadership Isn’t For Me. More likely, though, you correctly heard your call to leadership but you need further equipping to lead well today.

I've had a series of five-year contracts with CCCC (I'm on my fourth). Some time before each renewal, I've said to the board chair, "I was the right person to be the leader when the last contract was signed. Am I still the right leader for the next contract? If not, can I become the right leader for the next five years, or am I not at all the right leader?" My goal is through personal and professional development to be a fresh, new leader perfectly suiting the organization's needs for the next contract period.

Undoubtedly you will have to invest in your personal and professional development over time so you can keep up with all the changes in our society that touch on your mission. You can’t expect that who you were twenty or even five years ago when you accepted your call will still be sufficient to fulfill your call today. Expect the need to learn and practise new skills to come up again and again through your career. Regularly research the best current thinking in your field of ministry. Continuous learning means continuous growth.

There May Be a Cost

There may be some costs that come with your call. For example, as you engage in the lives of your congregation or help people on the street, their stories and problems could take an emotional toll on you. Another example is that what is happening in the world around us could depress us. But we must accept the costs as part of the call and not let them beat us down. After all, Jesus did say to “count the cost” before engaging in ministry. There may be other costs you can identify with your call. Acknowledge them and find ways to mitigate them if you can. Be ready to bear with them if you can’t. As you face these weighty realizations, remember to keep a balanced perspective with all that is good about ministry. My soul, my soul must sing! is a great post that celebrates joy in the ministry workplace.

I highly recommend, as does everyone else who writes on this topic, that you have something apart from your vocational life that restores your soul and gives you joy. My post Work, Work, Work, Work! Is that all there is? will inspire you to emerge from work into a full life. Make family a priority. Find a hobby. Take time to enjoy God’s beautiful world.

State Your Expectations

Review this section and update your list of expectations. Prior to this, your expectations were probably assumed rather than stated, and that likely led to disappointment when they turned out not to be your experience. By listing your updated and maybe more realistic expectations, you won’t suffer disappointment. You are better prepared by knowing what goes along with your call and your passion will endure through it all because you will know your circumstances are just part of life.

3. Examine Yourself and How You Fulfill Your Call

There may be things about you that are holding you back from fulfilling your call. You need to smooth out your rough edges as a ministry leader. I know that, as much as I think the obstacles are “out there,” the ones that are really holding me back are very much “in here.” If you are losing enthusiasm for your call, it could be a sign that you have some personal attributes that you need to work on. My post A Self-Checkup for Ministry Leaders will help you work through those internal factors and discover what you can do to set yourself up for greater success. You don’t want to be your own stumbling block.

When you are doing a self-evaluation, it is a good time to also get some honest feedback from people who know you and care for you. You want to find people who truly desire your ministry success and who are willing to speak the truth to you. Listen carefully to them. If you are married, ask your spouse for their observations. No one knows you better than your spouse and no one is as invested in your personal success as your spouse is.

Out of this investigation, develop a personal development plan. Your passion should revive as you enthusiastically take positive action that will help you better live out your call.

4. Reexplore Your Ministry’s Vision/Mission

It could be you have simply fallen into a rut. Perhaps your work is so easy for you that there is no challenge anymore. I find that every time I dive into CCCC’s vision (our End Statement – CCCC members will be exemplary, healthy, and effective Christian ministries) I emerge energized, full of creative thoughts, and itching to get back to work. If you are in a rut, it may be a sign that you are ready for a bigger challenge. That challenge could come from expanding or deepening your vision for your current ministry or it could mean you are ready for a different role somewhere else.

My post, The Untapped Potential of Your Mission Statement, shows you how to explore your strategic statement. Although my passion was not dwindling at all, exploring the CCCC End Statement afresh pumped up my passion for my call and for CCCC many times over. It led to the discovery that CCCC as it was (and as far as it had come), was still just a glimmer of what it could be.

Conclusion

A friend of mine, a retired pastor, gave the closing speech at the 2007 CCCC conference at 95 years of age. John Richardson said his best advice for ministry leaders is, “Don’t die before you are dead.” Don’t give up. Keep going. God’s not done with you yet.

CCCC’s members can discuss this post in The Green.

Key Point: Keep your call fresh and vital!

The post Rekindle the Fire: A Fresh Passion for Your Call appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

Well, if it is that important for ministry leaders to be passionate, then it is also important for staff to be passionate too! So let’s discuss helping staff find passion in their ministry’s mission.

Hire Well

Recognize that when you hire people, they choose to work for you for their reasons, not yours. In some way, the job or role you offer helps them achieve what they want.

So if you want passionate people, it starts right at the beginning of the selection process. It is important that people want to work for your cause. In the best-case scenario, they are deeply attracted to your particular mission. It might be acceptable if they are attracted to the cause of Christ more generally and see your ministry as a way of fulfilling that aspiration. But depending on how demanding your ministry’s mission is (for example, requiring relocation to a difficult area) that more general attraction might not be enough.

One of the questions I ask job candidates is, “When there are so many ministries you can apply to, what is it about CCCC in particular that caused you to apply for this job?” There are some other questions that address the issue in a more roundabout way, but together they give me a good understanding of how we fit into their career plans. The nature of the work determines whether this question is a make or break question.

The goal in hiring is to match people to jobs that appeal to their passion, give them great joy, and that they can do with natural excellence.

Personalize Roles

To have a wonderful workplace where everyone is enthusiastic and seriously engaged with their work, craft jobs to suit them. Jobs and their responsibilities need not be cast in stone. Various responsibilities and tasks can be shifted from one job to another based on the preferences and interests of the incumbents. At CCCC we have many times shifted something from one person to another with the agreement of the two people involved, at both management and administrative levels. I love to hear someone say how much they enjoy their work! What might be a chore to one could be a joy to another.

Motivate to Sustain Passion

Never stop talking about the mission! It is what everything about the ministry revolves around. And once you have hired people to your mission, you need to hold their interest by talking about the mission all the time. Don’t just repeat the mission statement, talk about it from different angles. Here are some ways to do that:

• Explain how the ministry’s mission supports the larger mission of the church and of God
• Teach about various aspects of the mission, perhaps:
  • The psychological and sociological issues related to changing one’s worldview
  • The systemic conditions which your mission challenges, such as those which entrench poverty or make it difficult to get homeless people off the street.
• Paint the big picture of the impact your ministry is having.
• Tell stories of individuals whose lives have been improved by your ministry.

Celebrate to Foster Joy

Celebration can be a large, planned, formal event or it could be a spontaneous “high-five” as you encounter someone in the hallway who has just enjoyed a success. Celebrations should always be based on some specific achievement and the degree of celebration should be linked to the significance of the achievement. Otherwise, celebrations will be seen as manufactured celebrations and become meaningless.

Celebrations can either relate to the mission, or to an individual or group of individuals.

• Mission-related celebrations recognize progress in mission fulfillment, whether it is an output or outcome, or it is acquisition of a new resource to help you achieve the mission, or recognition by others of the good work you are doing.
• People-related celebrations recognize something significant that one of our workmates or a team of workmates, has accomplished. When one part of the body has a reason to celebrate, we all can support them by celebrating with them, strengthening the bonds between us. Their success encourages everyone because it means the ministry organization is better able to achieve its mission than it was before.

Train to Cultivate Excellence

It is a matter of good stewardship that leaders know their staff and volunteers just as a shepherd knows his sheep and calls them by name. The senior leader may not be able to know all the staff and volunteers well enough to be personally aware of their abilities and potential, but each staff member should be well-enough known by someone in leadership who will support their training and development to become everything that God intends them to be.

Leaders should never consider a staff member’s development complete at the time of hiring. During their time under your leadership, it is your responsibility to enable them to keep on developing themselves, growing in skill and capability so that they can be excellent in their work.

Cooperate with the Spirit

Finally, if you have passionate people working joyfully with excellence to fulfill your mission, don’t hinder what the Spirit is doing in them. Dave Blundell asks in his book Professionally Religious, “Do we, as leaders, trust the power of the Holy Spirit in the lives of followers?”¹ Assume that the Holy Spirit is working in their lives just as he is in yours. Cooperate with the giftings and experiences that God has given each staff member.

Key Thought: Your mission can only be accomplished by people who are passionately engaged in it

The post Passion, Joy, & Excellence in the Workplace appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

What keeps you from becoming cynical and giving up? When Jesus acknowledged, “The poor you will always have with you” (Mat 26:11), how do you keep your inner city mission team motivated? Knowing that the Lord told Jeremiah, “You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you” (Jer 7:27), how do you continue in evangelism ministry given that we may be speaking to a similarly hard-hearted generation? What is the secret to perseverance when working on a mission that seems unlikely to be achieved in our lifetimes? When you have given it your all, and realize you are still only halfway up the mountain, how do you get the wherewithal to keep climbing?

Keep a Healthy Perspective

My mom was an operating room nurse at the Hospital For Sick Children in Toronto back in the 1940s and she worked for a world-famous surgeon who operated on the most severely deformed babies. My mother spent every working day in the operating room confronted by the evidence of what can go wrong in the womb: babies born with cleft palates, heart defects, missing limbs, and all kinds of other severe problems.

She said to the surgeon one day that when she married, she didn’t want to have children because of all the things that can go wrong. This wise man said, “Shirley, you forget that your world is filled with the 0.001% of all live births that are problems. Remember that there are many more babies who are up in the nursery with no problems at all. Don’t be afraid to have children!!” And then he assigned her to the nursery ward for two weeks, and the rest of her life, she had a sunny disposition. (And of course, she had me! Yea! Thank you, Dr. I-don’t-remember-your-name!)

My mom had a huge passion for improving babies’ lives, but when she was immersed in it, she lost her perspective. She needed to be reminded that life is bigger than the medical mission she was committed to. In the same way, we must remember that if we focus only on what remains to be achieved, we will miss out on what already is—the positive, uplifting, and refreshing aspects of this beautiful, lovely world that God made for us—and the progress we have already made and the people we’ve helped. We need to soak in the nurturing and encouraging relationships we have with the people whom God has placed around us. Christ died so that you could live the abundant life. Smell the roses! Watch the sunsets! Listen to the rainfall! Take a walk with a friend! Hold someone’s hand! Remember the lives already changed by your ministry.

Enjoy the Journey

From 1950 to 1977, Dr. Andrew Lawson was senior minister of the church I grew up in. In 1958, Harold Richards wrote a book about preaching and used Dr. Lawson as an example. In Feed My Sheep, he wrote:

“One of the most successful preachers in North America today – one who holds big crowds, including college and university students, with a full church almost every week – Dr. C. Andrew Lawson advertises such sermon titles as The Kingdom of God, Foundations in Christ, Does God Have a Plan? The Trinity.

“There are no catches, or even catchy phrases, in these subjects. What is the result? Hundreds of people attend. He says: “We try to take the biggest things graspable, recognizing that we can gain a hold only of a tiny corner of them. We try to discuss them in simple terms, as the Gospels do. The hearers seem to prefer this to the exhaustion of some minor point which does not affect the deeper aspects of their religious life and faith. We assume that if we can’t reach the mountaintop, the view still may be inspiring from halfway up the side.“

How did Dr. Lawson fill his church? Not by dumbing down his topics. Not by focusing on small points. He kept the inspirational in view, grabbed hold of what he could, and basically told his congregation (in my words, not his) that, “This is a piece of what we are aiming for. We don’t know about the whole thing, but this much we do know. We can’t explain everything about God, but this much we can say.” He recognized the truism that while the destination provides direction, life exists in the journey itself.

As you climb up the mountain, stop every once in a while and enjoy the view. Celebrate what you have achieved. Don’t shy away from the big ideas — the lofty dreams and goals. They are motivational. But to stay motivated, grab onto what you can, take it a step at a time, and celebrate whenever you can.

Practical Ways to Stay Inspired

Here are some suggestions for how to keep a healthy perspective and a joyful heart as you labour in your ministry:

• Yes, Jesus said we would always have the poor among us. Due to human failings, our societies will always be structured to favour those who have power and therefore the weak and the powerless will always be marginalized and suffer poverty and other misfortunes. Jesus did not mean that there should be poor or that they are part of God’s plan. He simply acknowledged the reality of the human condition. But Christ calls his church to be a transforming influence in society, working our way through it like yeast through dough to make it better. Jesus laid out the scope of the problem, and while we know it won’t be fixed completely until he comes again, our goal is to see how far we can take it towards God’s ideal before then.
• Yes, the Lord called Jeremiah to be a prophet and then said no one would listen to him. Our faithfulness to our call matters more to God than the results of our service to him. This is a worst-case scenario – being told by God there will be no fruit from a ministry he has called you to. But unless God has told you there’d be no fruit, don’t take Jeremiah 7:27 as your excuse for lack of results. The record of Jeremiah’s ministry is a lesson in faithfulness and perseverance even when God said there would be no fruit. We find satisfaction and fulfillment in being faithful to God’s call.
• Take the long perspective. The church is still around 2,000 years after Christ. People have proclaimed that God is dead and they have tried to wipe out Christianity numerous times. The tenth century was the low point in Christian history, with just a rump of Christians left in western Europe. Christians in the 900s had every right to be gloomy about the future of their mission and the existence of the church, but God isn’t subject to the vicissitudes of human history.
• I am so tired of the starfish story. I feel manipulated every time a speaker uses it, but I have to reluctantly admit that it does make a good point. Yes, we’ll always have the poor, but that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t try to make a difference for the person right here in front of me. I can’t solve the world’s problems, but I can solve a problem for one person. And some of us will push through and solve some pretty big problems. William Wilberforce is a great inspiration for those of us trying to change systemic evils.
• Go and meet with graduates of your program who now have jobs, families, or who have overcome addictions. Visit with beneficiaries who now have justice, who have found Christ and are living out their faith.
• Develop other interests. Get a hobby. Grow a garden. Buy a telescope and look at the galaxies. Make a stained glass window for yourself.
• Take a break. Go on vacation. Volunteer somewhere else. Attend a concert.
• Feed yourself. Read a good book: a biography or a history of something big that was accomplished.
• Pray, meditate and listen to the Spirit, who will minister to you exactly as you need.

Finally, remember that nothing you do is ever lost. Paul’s insight for the Philippians is an insight for us. The good work we do today will be completed one day. Read this passage as a direct word of encouragement from Paul to you:

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Philippians 1:3-6

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