One of my favorite Bible characters has always been John the Baptist. There's something fun about a guy who lives in the desert, eats locusts and honey, wears clothes made of camel's hair and addresses at least some of his crowd (who came all the way to hear him, by the way) as "You brood of vipers!" Come on John, tell us how you really feel!
His appearance was foretold in the Old Testament, and he himself could point to Isaiah 40:3 and say, "See there? The Voice? That's me." He was filled with the Spirit before his birth and of him Jesus said, "Among those born of women there is no one greater than John" and "He is the Elijah who was to come." More could be said, but without question John was an important figure.
Despite all of these great things about him, or perhaps because of them, what amazes me most is the humility of John. Nowhere is this better displayed than in John 3:30, "He must become greater; I must become less." I want to analyze the context of this statement and what's going on, because I think it has profound implications for those of us in ministry today.
John said this in response to some critics of Jesus. Their comment was that "he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him." This hits me as, "Hey John, Jesus is cutting in on your action! People used to come to you, now they're going to him!" But this doesn't faze John. In fact, it's already stated in John 1:29-39 that after John repeatedly told his disciples Jesus was "The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" that they left John and began to follow Jesus. It was his goal that they become followers of Christ.
It's this mindset that is expressed in John's statement, "He must become greater; I must become less." The "must" here is very intriguing to me, because it's the same word Jesus used when He said He "must suffer... must be killed and after three days rise again." This isn't simply something that should be done - it must be done. There's no other way. And for John, it must be that anyone who follows him is ultimately learning to follow Christ.
The very simple reality is that your students will not always be your students. They'll transfer or graduate (or drop out!) and will move on in life. If their walk with God is dependent upon you then they will be in trouble. However, if by following you they've learned to follow Him, then they'll be prepared to continue following wherever He leads for the rest of their life. While you will (hopefully?) always have a special place in their heart, their allegiance must be to Jesus.
This truth has collided with my life on more than one occasion. I had a student leader who decided she needed to step down because she didn't have time to lead and also be faithful with the outreach opportunities God had given her. Another student stepped down from leadership in order to follow God's direction in being a leader somewhere else. In both cases it didn't fit in with my plans, but it was an instance of Jesus calling away one of "my followers" to pursue Him and His plan.
How about you? Are you preparing students to follow Jesus for the long haul? Are they simply relying on you, or are they diving deeper in their relationship with Him? And how will you respond when He calls one of them away from you? Will you rejoice like John, thankful that you were able to point them to the Lamb of God? After all, that's the way it must be.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Monday, November 2, 2009
Play to Your Strengths: Finale
So far in the first three posts on playing to your strengths, I've only talked about personal strengths. In this final post, I want to challenge you to do the same within your ministry. Just as each individual is different and has his or her own unique strengths and giftedness, so does each ministry.
Just as we can more easily identify our weaknesses than our strengths, you can probably more readily see things that are not going well in your ministry rather than things that are. And while we want to grow and do all things with excellence, I wonder if you've taken the time to really consider just what the strengths of your particular ministry are?
Going back to our tendency to compare with other ministries, it's easy to forget that they are working with a different set of variables than you are. The campus doesn't need you to be carbon copies of each other! What it needs is each of you playing your part in the Kingdom, making the most of the unique strengths and ministry opportunities you possess.
When I stop and consider what we have that makes us unique, I quickly see that I haven't even begun to tap into all the possibilities to fully play to these strengths. One strength for us is that we have a building. It's easy to see how that can be a weakness (certainly meeting on campus would be more accessible to on-campus students) but it presents us with a lot of opportunities as well. It allows us complete control of the environment we want to create for our worship gatherings. It gives us unique opportunities to serve students - through meals, laundry facilities, computing services and just a place to hang out. It also makes us more accessible to students that live off campus. I think we could still do a lot more with what we have.
Historically, ours is a ministry that has been around for over 70 years. That means a lot of people have been connected and have served here. Many have been marked by the Lord during their time in college and recognize the value of this ministry. That gives us a great group of people to partner with - in both prayer and financial support. We could do so much more in utilizing this strength.
Denominationally, wearing the name "Baptist" certainly doesn't endear us to all students. And while we don't make a big deal about it or check anyone's denominational preference at the door, we're also not ashamed of who we are. That same label gives us a great starting point with a lot of students - and also allows us to show that loving Jesus is far more important than whatever "brand" of Christian you happen to be.
Locally, we're supported by an association of Baptist churches. This is yet another strength that we could build on so much more. Here is perhaps our greatest wealth of resources - and far too often I give it very little of my time. Through these churches we have access to missions and service opportunities, discipleship, connections with older believers, the list goes on and on.
Within our ministry, the list of strengths is ever changing because the students involved constantly change. At times we've had great ministries to certain parts of the campus, only to see that door close when one or more people of influence moved on. However, as new students have emerged with a passion to reach the campus, new doors have opened as well. These, too, are strengths we must play to.
Are you considering the particular strengths that your ministry has? Are you seeking to develop those to the fullest? Do you think Reggie's quote could be directly applied to your ministry as well? Is it true that "Our best chance at making our biggest contribution is to get better at what we're already good at?"
What do you think?
Just as we can more easily identify our weaknesses than our strengths, you can probably more readily see things that are not going well in your ministry rather than things that are. And while we want to grow and do all things with excellence, I wonder if you've taken the time to really consider just what the strengths of your particular ministry are?
Going back to our tendency to compare with other ministries, it's easy to forget that they are working with a different set of variables than you are. The campus doesn't need you to be carbon copies of each other! What it needs is each of you playing your part in the Kingdom, making the most of the unique strengths and ministry opportunities you possess.
When I stop and consider what we have that makes us unique, I quickly see that I haven't even begun to tap into all the possibilities to fully play to these strengths. One strength for us is that we have a building. It's easy to see how that can be a weakness (certainly meeting on campus would be more accessible to on-campus students) but it presents us with a lot of opportunities as well. It allows us complete control of the environment we want to create for our worship gatherings. It gives us unique opportunities to serve students - through meals, laundry facilities, computing services and just a place to hang out. It also makes us more accessible to students that live off campus. I think we could still do a lot more with what we have.
Historically, ours is a ministry that has been around for over 70 years. That means a lot of people have been connected and have served here. Many have been marked by the Lord during their time in college and recognize the value of this ministry. That gives us a great group of people to partner with - in both prayer and financial support. We could do so much more in utilizing this strength.
Denominationally, wearing the name "Baptist" certainly doesn't endear us to all students. And while we don't make a big deal about it or check anyone's denominational preference at the door, we're also not ashamed of who we are. That same label gives us a great starting point with a lot of students - and also allows us to show that loving Jesus is far more important than whatever "brand" of Christian you happen to be.
Locally, we're supported by an association of Baptist churches. This is yet another strength that we could build on so much more. Here is perhaps our greatest wealth of resources - and far too often I give it very little of my time. Through these churches we have access to missions and service opportunities, discipleship, connections with older believers, the list goes on and on.
Within our ministry, the list of strengths is ever changing because the students involved constantly change. At times we've had great ministries to certain parts of the campus, only to see that door close when one or more people of influence moved on. However, as new students have emerged with a passion to reach the campus, new doors have opened as well. These, too, are strengths we must play to.
Are you considering the particular strengths that your ministry has? Are you seeking to develop those to the fullest? Do you think Reggie's quote could be directly applied to your ministry as well? Is it true that "Our best chance at making our biggest contribution is to get better at what we're already good at?"
What do you think?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
