Over And Under.
Over the past two weeks, I received several unrelated emails from different ministry leaders I know who are in the early planning stages of starting a new church or ministry.
Interesting enough, each of the emails were requesting some kind of guidance or assistance from me regarding their respective endeavors, of which I’m not quite sure I’m qualified to give.
I tend to REFER UP before LEADING DOWN; a habit that I am proud to have learned after years of serving in ministry as a middle-tier leader. If I were to take a snapshot of today’s emerging leadership pool, I would be surprised, perhaps shocked to find anyone that desires to serve from the middle anymore.
It seems like everyone nowadays has a ‘calling’ to lead from the top.
From a favorable response to a blog post, to the thundering sound of applause one received at a youth ministy event, so many of my peers have now convinced themselves that it is now their time to ‘plant’ new trees, yet very few understand the value of ‘water’ existing ones as a middle-tier leader.
One of the greatest example of this model of leadership is found in Matthew 8:5-10v.
Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, saying “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.” And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”
The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man UNDERÂ authority, having soldiers UNDER me. And I say to this one, GO, and he goes; and to another, COME, and he comes; and to my servant, DO THIS, and he does it.”
When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!”
Before venturing out into something new to be OVER, take the time to search out God’s heart as to whether or not you have exhausted your time of being UNDER. For it is in between those two positions of faith that Christ marvels most.
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Category: Church & Ministry, Creative Leadership
Food for thought
I was recently appointed the Pastor of a small church. I did not plant this ministry but I believe that God has instructed me to water it. “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase” 1 Corinthians 3:6.
Always insightful!
This is such a powerful post. I feel like it’s too much about trying to be in charge these days and not enough about serving under people. This is why we have 10,000 churches in every corner because everybody wants to run their own show. This is good! Let’s learn how to serve under leaders and realize that at the end of the day what matters is souls being saved, people being discipled and the community empowered.