The other day I started a series for you all about a seminar that I taught to some Jr. and Sr. Ministry Majors at Dallas Christian College. Here are a few more thoughts for you to chew on.
5. Spend More Time Working & Developing Your Strengths Instead Of Your Weaknesses- For the first few years of ministry I had people tell me all the time that I needed to really spend the majority of my time working on my weaknesses. So I did just that. I spent hours trying to be more administrative, more organized, more type “A” personality. The problem with that was the fact that I was absolutely miserable and became ineffective in the areas that I was actually gifted in. Do I think weaknesses need to be developed…ABSOLUTELY!!! Do I think that should be your focus? NOT A CHANCE. I have learned to surround myself with people that are strong in the area’s that I am not and let them be passionate about those things. When I can truly focus on my strengths I become way more effective in ministry.
6. If All You Do Is Criticize The Bride Of Christ…Don’t Marry Her, The Divorce Sucks!!!- I have to admit that this is something I struggle with daily. There are always things that I don’t like, or things that I don’t agree with. However, if all I ever do is complain about the Bride of Christ, I either need to get into marriage counseling with her, or I should just walk away. The bride in all of her dysfunction is still the BRIDE OF CHRIST!!! We are to love her unconditionally. Serve her unabashedly. Go to the wall for her willingly. I hear to many guys that want to plant churches because they are angry with how “their” church does ministry. Something I am learning more and more is that there has never been a revolution started out of anger that has ever lasted. Revolutions that change the world are ones done out of love and grace and purity of heart, for the love of someone else.
7. Fat And Lazy Physically Means Fat And Lazy Followers In Your Body- This is a touchy one for most people. All of a sudden we start attacking the physical attributes of a person and emails and comments start flying in. We take this one very personal. I know because I have walked miles in these shoes. I found myself three years ago morbidly obese. My weight was out of control. I was lethargic. I was lazy. I had no ambition. I had no desire to more than what I was required to do. As I look back my ministry reflected that. I had a bunch of out of control, lethargic, lazy, unambitious Christ followers in my ministry. I had conditioned them to be this way by the way, or the lack thereof, of living my life. I looked at the scale for the first time in months and weighed in at a whopping 245lbs. On my 5’10″ frame that was a lot. It became a stewardship issue for me. How could I lead the body of Christ, if I could not take care of my own body? ANSWER: I couldn’t. I decided to do something about. A year into it I had lost 75lbs and felt better than ever. The result…my ministry began to flourish too.
8.Love People Unconditionally, But Be Smart About It- You are probably a lot like I was when I entered ministry. You don’t want to let anyone down. You wanna give everyone your undivided attention. Now this is great in theory, but horrible in practice. People are all going to be fighting for your time. At some point you have to realize that it is ok to set boundaries with people. You don’t stop loving them, you just help them to understand that you have a family, or other people that are in need as well. I am reminded of Jesus when he was healing people and he told them, “I could spend the rest of my ministry here, but there are people in other towns that need me too.” So what did he do…he went to the next place to heal and minister.
Would love to hear your thoughts on these. Some of these are touchy and I am sure there are multiple opinions. Feel free to have LOVE filled conversation here. We are not here to tear down, but to build up. With that said…DISCUSS!!!
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