It’s 10:20 p.m. and a piercing winter wind refuses to relinquish its iron grip on an early spring night. Kevin sits alone in his office. Normally this senior pastor of a growing church would have raced home from work, wolfed down his dinner, and gotten ready for a weekly small-group study at his house. That study was a high point of the week for Kevin and his wife, Karen.
Not tonight.
Tonight, Karen got a call saying Kevin was staying late and to go on without him. The fluorescent lights from his office shine out onto a dark, empty parking lot as he sits at his computer and struggles with the words on the screen.
Kevin isn’t wrestling with the right phrases for Sunday’s sermon; he’s working on his resumé. In fact, he’s seriously thinking about getting out of pastoral ministry altogether.
For twelve years at his last church, Kevin experienced a fruitful, fulfilling ministry. He’d built a small, close-knit staff; worked well with his deacons; and been able to focus on preaching and teaching his flock. Now, after only a year and a half at his new church, Kevin had become so frustrated—so deeply angry with Rick, the senior music minister—he dreaded even coming into the office. That wasn’t the worst. His internal tension level had risen so high because of the conflict that it often overflowed at home. He snapped at his kids and even pushed back from his wife.
I have found so many pastors in the situation; you might even be one of them. Why do some teams thrive and others seek to simply survive? Is this God’s plan? Is it His intention for church staffs to be divided? What if it could be different?
“Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.” (1 Corinthians 12:14-15)
Have you ever felt you have to change who you are to belong? Have you been chasing after things God didn’t give you to become something he did not create you to be?
“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)
God prepared in advance good works and he has called you and placed you right where you are today. The problem is you might be trusting in your abilities and not his provision.
Lets look back at that 1 Corinthians 12 passage as see if we can gain a deeper understanding of the context.
“Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge… All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines. (I Corinthians 12:7-8, 11)
“But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.” (I Corinthians 12:18-20)
The truth is that you are not alone. You have the God-given gifts (strengths) that God has given you, and you have the strengths of others that he has strategically determined and placed along side you to build up His Kingdom. And let’s not forget the Christ who holds it all together.
Lets look back at the problem – are you trusting in your abilities or His prevision – God intends for you to lead from your strengths and empower others to do the same.
Leading from Your Strengths has impacted hundreds of thousands of pastors around the world by taking a simple 8-10 minute profile that looks at the way God has naturally bent them to lead. The transformation takes place as pastors and their staffs discover their strengths and God-divine design for the uniquely different strengths he has placed on the team.
Come on – start leading from your strengths and empower others to do the same.
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This is a sponsored post from the team at Ministry Insights. In addition to the Leading from Your Strengths profile, you may want to check out the 2011 Ministry Insights Equipping Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona coming this July.
