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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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.

By Michael Smith

Jesus talked more about money than he did about love or grace. Jesus talked more about money than he did heaven. But when we think of Christ’s message to us, these are often the themes we tend to think of first. The kingdom of God was the only other topic that Jesus talked more about than money. For Jesus it was the kingdom of God, then money, in terms of what he wanted to convey in his teaching. Often we find Jesus talking about both of these subjects at the same time. This is because the two are closely linked.

Dave Ramsey, a New York Times best-selling author, is very helpful in lending a humorous definition and understanding of stewardship. He says that, ‘In church language, stewardship is code for building a building.” As funny as it may be, sadly it is also very true. The only time we really begin to get serious about financial matters in the church or other nonprofit organizations are when they need money. Unfortunately, these are all misuses of the word and overall concept of giving.

Steward or stewardship isn’t in my language today. I can’t remember ever using it as part of my daily conversations. When was the last time you mentioned stewardship? “Honey, make sure you put your money in your piggy bank so you use it later in your stewardship.” Stewardship needs to be redefined for us.
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