Recently I was asked, “What advice do you have for those preparing for ministry leadership”

Below are my responses, in no particular order…

What would be your response to the same question?

Discern your call. Let it be confirmed and affirmed by those inside and outside your church. A hired hand will run away.

Have people in your life who you trust and can turn to when you have questions. Let them be wise counselors, not friends your age or dopes you go to school with. Find someone a few years ahead of you who has been down the road a bit.

Discover what you are best at. Focus on that. Get away from being a ‘jack of all trades.’ Learn how to streamline ministry to focus on what the church does best. Don’t do everything. “If everything is important, then nothing is important.”
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“Then the chief priest tore his clothes and said, ‘Why do we still need witnesses? You heard this blasphemy! What is your decision?’ All of them condemned him as deserving death.” -Mark 14: 63-64

There is a time to speak and a time to listen. I think most of us struggle with distinguishing when to do which one, and at the appropriate time. In John 3 we see a man named Nicodemus come to Jesus at night. He was a member of the ‘ruling council’ and he had a very interesting conversation with Jesus. It is in this context where we are told about being ‘born again.’ It is from this text that we also draw probably the most familiar verse of Scripture in the world today – John 3:16. Do you remember Nicodemus? There was another member of such council that is described as being a secret follower of Jesus. His name was Joseph of Arimathea. He is most familiar to us as being the one who asked for the body of Jesus because he had a tomb in which Jesus could be buried in. What is interesting is that both of these men are thought of as being members of the same ruling council that condemned Jesus to death. Where were they this particular evening? Were they not present, or if they were, did they remain silent?

When were we ever silent in defending Christ?
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As part of your daily devotions I want to encourage you to check out Leadership Network and Catalyst’s THE NINES.

The video project is the result of this question:

“If you had just nine minutes to share with church leaders, what would you say?”

This might not be something you do every day, but I encourage you as part of your spiritual discipline and devotions to take time (it is only nine minutes) to watch these leaders share their hearts with you. Maybe you do this for a season after Lent, or maybe you pick one day a week to watch a video, but no matter how you choose to do this, being exposed to this teaching will only encourage and benefit your ministry and leadership. And the great part about it – there is no reading required!

Reading all of these books on leadership can take a lot of time and is often tough to accomplish. Here you get the best teaching from these leaders in only a matter of minutes. That’s enough talking from me – start viewing these videos. You will find leaders like Rick Warren, Brad Powell, but for those who are United Methodist, I encourage you to also check out Jorge Acevado and Bill Easum. These are just two great UM leaders.