Ju. Jones

For some reason, I’m stuck in this whole quitting the ministry for the ministry mode. Maybe because it’s where I am, but that’s what blogging is for, right? One of the ways to get stuck in the “doing THEIR ministry” mode is by getting in the routine of picking up dropped balls. In ministry, balls will drop. Their are so many to juggle. One can drop at any moment. This is especially true if your dealing with volunteers who already have limited time and additional responsibilities. Because of the sense of ownership you have towards the vision, your natural instinct will be to pick up the dropped ball. The more dropped balls you pick up, the less dropped balls you have. For instance, someone forgets to get the drinks. You say, “You know what? I’ll get the drinks.” Someone else didn’t get a chance to do the bulletins. You say, “Forget it. I’ll do the bulletins. I already envision what I want them to look like anyway. Besides, if you want a job done correctly, you might as well do it yourself.” We end up frustrated, pulling all nighters, and forsaking time with the family. But guess what? Everybody will have drinks and bulletins…at your expense!

What we fail to realize is that we are subconsiously creating a system that looks like this: The volunteers/employees do what they can and whenever a ball is dropped, Super Leader will come to the rescue!” Guess what happens if you ever decide to let a ball drop? They look at you as if you’re the bad guy! The only person to blame is us.  We are the ones that create that expection. “I thought you would end up getting the drinks! I assumed you would do the bulletins!” Then comes the all time line, “That’s what you always do!”

As a pastor, I’m learning to let balls drop. The people that are given the responsibility needs to feel the weight of a dropped ball. They need to feel the Holy Spirit conviction and learn from the mistake themselves. I’m learning that God doesn’t call me to pick up the ball, but to be a loving support for when they pick the ball back up.

Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:5, “But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill YOUR ministry.” As a leader, you have to distinguish between YOUR ministry and THEIR ministry. If not, you’ll keep forsaking YOUR ministry for THEIR ministry. THEIR ministry is the one that God calls you to equip them for according to Ephesians 4. YOUR ministry is the equipping. Sometimes, people will make you feel guilty for not doing THEIR ministry (Why don’t you start a program for this group of people? When are you going to do something about homelessness in our community? When are you going to build a bridge between the church and the business community? What are you going to do to follow up with first time guests? When are you going to start a class for new believers?) If you never get before God and come to grips with what YOUR ministry is, you will become consumed with doing THEIR ministry and feel a sense of emptiness. You’ll say, “God, why am I doing so much and feel like I’m accomplishing so little? Why is that I feel as if I’m in your will and out of your will at the same time?”

Here’s what I think MY ministry is (at least for right now): preaching God’s word, casting vision, and developing leaders. Everything else that’s on my plate is somebody else’s ministry that awaits them. My goal is to work myself out of those ministries, so that someone else can have the opportunity to do THEIR ministry. The amazing thing is THEY can do THEIR ministry much better than I can and probably ever will.

In the life of a pastor, there are some Sundays where everything seems to go well. You’re thankful for every Sunday, but there are those memorable, extraordinary ones. For me, yesterday was one of them:

1. The praise team did a great job, despite the fact that our worship leader lost his voice. This is one of the signs that our leaders take to heart the importance of apprenticing.

2. The stage design was off the charts. Our creative team pulled out a home run.

3. We had the largest offering in the history of the church. I spoke on the importance of serving and giving. It was a blessing to see people respond immediately.

4. Here’s the icing on the cake. One of our regular attenders shared that God supernaturally healed her of cancer. She’s been ill since coming to The Bridge. This Sunday, she said, “No more cancer. It’s all gone.”

5. We had our first death at The Bridge a few weeks ago. It was a blessing to see our people at the memorial service. The body of Christ has really stepped in and shown tremendous love and support to the family. Amazing!

5. As soon as I came home, the first thing I did when I walked in the door was pray. For every mountain is followed by a valley and vice versa. Now, my wife is sick. Surprise. Surprise. I’m expecting God to heal her cold, as well.

I learned along time ago. God’s greatest revelations for your life don’t come from sermons, but personal time with Him. Since rededicating my life to Christ, I’ve always appreciated sound, relevant teaching. I’m a pastor. I sure do hope I appreciate messages (duh)! As a spiritual thirsty, deer panting college student, I took notes in church EVERY Sunday! I learned some great stuff from my pastors and teachers. One day, I was going through my stash of church bulletins with notes and compared them to the ones in my journal. The things that God whispered to me in my times with Him won hands down! My conviction stands even to this day! The messages I prepare every Sunday pales in comparison to the things God reveal to me for my personal life. As preachers, we have the amazing opportunity of turning some of those priceless revelations into life changing messages. But there’s nothing like the raw, uncut, undiluted, hardcore, unedited insights that we scribbled down during those moments with him.

Take it from the one who’s been on both sides of the fence (the preacher and the seeker). Keep on valuing the messages God speaks to you from spiritual authority. But there’s no substitute for ancient, old-school, raw, prostrate laying, before His throne moments with God. Any trade off for those moments is a bad one.

When God gives you an idea, just go for it! Many times, we talk ourselves out of doing some of the most amazing things. We often complain about our criticizers, but we are sometimes our own worst critic. The difference between us and other critics is we distrust their voices, but trust in ours. The same negativity that we completely reject from another party is fully embraced when it originates from within. There’s no need for anyone to come between us and what God wants us to accomplish. We are doing a tremendous job of that all by ourselves. We can come up with a hundred different reasons why it’s a “bad idea.” Then when someone else musters up the courage to do it, we want to jump on board and snatch some glory. “Well, to be honest, I thought about doing the same thing five years ago.” Well, it’s too late now! So what if it doesn’t work out? You’ll have peace knowing that you at least tried!

I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s time for me to quit the ministry.  Since launching The Bridge, I’ve been doing ministry full-time.  I’ve come to the realization of something I’ve always known intellectually.  My main responsibility, as a pastor, is not to do “ministry,” but equip others to do it.  This means I must give ministry away.  Ephesians 4:11-12 says, “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers [Not to do ministry, but...] for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.  When pastors are busy doing ministry, two things happen: 1) those that are called to do the ministry miss out on ministry opportunities because the pastor is filling the slots himself and 2) the people aren’t equipped to do ministry because the pastor doesn’t have enough time to develop his leaders due to his ministerial busyness.  My wife and I looked at this passage during our time with God yesterday.  The reality hit me like a ton of bricks.  There’s a domino effect in that passage: leaders equip body which leads to body being built up which leads to maturity which leads to believers not being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine.  In the book of Acts, the apostles refused to neglect the preaching of the word of God and prayer in order to wait on tables.  They didn’t even entertain the thought.  If you had to make a choice between neglecting an area, which one would you choose?  Waiting on a table or the preaching of God’s Word and prayer?  If you neglect the tables, people will get angry and frustrated because it appears to be an urgent need.  It’s easy to neglect adequate sermon prep and prayer because God is not going to screem at you like the neglected widows.  Yet, this practice will hinder you from achieving your potential as a leader and weaken your voice as a prophet and proclaimer of God’s Word.  We always preach and lead best when we carry less.

God will make you rest by will or by force. For the past few weeks, I know that I needed to take a few days off just to rest and recuperate. As you leaders know, there’s always work to be done. We can find ourselves ripping and running. Even when we’re resting, we’re still working. Then, guess what happens? You got it! We end up getting sick with the cold, flue, or something else of the sort. In these circumstances, you have no choice but to rest. Voluntary rest is much better than involuntary rest. As I recuperate from this unexpected cold, my goal is to get rest and not feel guilty about it.

I walked into Starbucks the other day, and the baristas were wearing a T-shirt that said, “BOLD.”  Of course, it was referring to their coffee, but what better way to describe how God wants us to be.  Bold in our cities.  Bold in our schools.  Bold amongst our families.  Bold at work.  Hezekiah demonstrated boldness by doing what many urge new leaders not to do.  He stepped into a new leadership role as king and began making immediate changes.  He begin tearing down the high places and removing idols that many people had grown to love.  As leaders, we need to have the boldness to kill ministry idols that people have grown to love.  Ministry idols are programs people cherish, but hinder the vision.  One of the best things a leader can do is kill them…or at least threaten to kill them.  If the people really want change, they’ll keep you around like Hezekiah.  You’ll be their greatest hero.  If they don’t want change, you’ll be their worst villian.  The great thing is you’ll know that up front.  You will save you and your family endless years of frustration trying to change the unchangeable.

My wife and I spent the day checking out at Elevation Church in North Carolina.  I appreciate The Bridge staff for holding things down when I’m gone.  It’s a blessing to be away and not have my phone ring at any time.  It couldn’t happen without a team of wonderful, committed individuals.  Thank you, guys!

I just pulled a quote from Holly Furtick’s blog.  “Remember that life, no matter what your profession, is difficult, messy and stressful.  Don’t blame it on the ministry.” So often we give full-time ministry a bad rep for being difficult and hard.  Great news.  It is.  Nothing of significance come to fruition without challenges. If you’re struggling as a leader, welcome to the club.  As a pastor or church planter, the grass can sometimes look greener on the other side.  If you took on another profession, the challenges of dealing with difficult people, message prep, and strategizing will be replaced with the challenges of a long commute, micromanaging boss, and unpaid overtime.  Count your blessings. This takes me to another one of her quotes. “Focus on what you get to be a part of, a great move of God across our city.  And we get a front row seat!” Great stuff!