One of the biggest frustrations and complaints that we can have as leaders is : "Why won't anybody COMMIT to this?!"
It is hard to lead well. It is hard to motivate people to get on board with us. It is hard to watch people with great potential do nothing. It is hard to watch people that are content to just sit and watch others be used by God. It is hard to move forward when no one is willing.
It is discouraging to feel like you are hitting a brick wall with your people. At times it can make us feel like failures in this thing called leadership. I completely understand. BUT...
I have learned some things over the years... things I've learned first hand and things I've learned through observing others and common patterns for success and failure. Let me share what I've learned about this very important word: Commitment.
I believe that the very first step in building committed people is realizing that the process ALWAYS starts with YOU as the leader.
If we want to lead people well, then we have to be the best leaders we can be. This is not a suggestion, it is a requirement. There will ALWAYS be room for growth in every area of our leadership but we must first commit to God ourselves that we will give Him our very best as we obey His will to lead His people.
We must first and foremost keep our hearts and minds in check with God at all times. We are to be about His business and not our own. If you have read any other blogs on here you know how important this element of our leadership is. We can't pray for God to help our people be committed to something that He has not designed. He won't do it, because He's not about our business. And secondly as leaders who want to lead well...we don't want people committed to things that are not a part of God's plan.
So we keep ourselves in check, daily, as we should be doing as a believer and follower of Christ anyway. We lead first by our example so if we want our people to be committed to the Lord in ALL things, then we better be too!
So we determine...no, we LISTEN to what God is telling us that He wants us to do with His people.
NOTE: I said People not Ministry.
The second step in building committed people is EVALUATE.
What is the spiritual temperature of your people as a whole. When you look out at the "congregation", what is the overall spiritual state? Are they already "being" the Body of Christ? Are they "in love" with Jesus? Are they "living" according to God's Word? Are they "connected" and "loving" each other?
We start with these questions because these are the areas that a good foundation for ministry is built on. We simply cannot move forward in anything until the majority of the people are in these categories. WHY?.... Because God cares more about the conditions of the PEOPLE over the activity of our MINISTRIES.
Truth is: Some ministries will just have to wait. People need to fall in love with Jesus first because that's where God's heart is. Not in them just doing things for Him, but BEING His Children first.
This gets overlooked WAY TOO MUCH!
It also matters that the majority of your church is in this category first because, in order for your ministry/church to move forward...you have to have the people moving forward. You can't have people not growing in their love and understanding of who God is and what He's called them to be and then expect them to jump on board and give everything they have to a vision only you've sought God about.
God is capable of moving His ministries forward...because He's the one that is capable of changing and motivating hearts. Some leaders seem to believe that they are capable of doing this but not one leader that I have ever met like this...has a ministry that is still standing today or have moved beyond where they were then. God has to be the one to direct our ministries, and first He has to have the hearts of the people.
This does not mean that you have to WAIT till everyone is at the same level in their commitment to God before you can begin INVESTING in individuals.
This is the process of BUILDING TRUST between you as their leader and them as a VITAL part of God's plan to move His Kingdom forward.
Remember that we are all "baby Christians" UNTIL we allow God to start transforming our lives. This means that we as leaders, have to wait, until the majority of our church/ministry is not full of "baby Christians" before we can move forward. Otherwise it will be the "blind leading the blind" so to speak, and your ministry will not go anywhere but in aimless wandering because "baby Christians" don't know how to lead according to God's Word. They MUST grow. Unfortunately, some people remain "baby Christians" for 20 years and never move forward in the Kingdom. How sad.
This is YOUR responsibility as a leader to help your people want to grow in the Lord.
When individuals start making that transition, this is when we can start investing individually. We must be in constant "prayer" over the individual that we are investing in because only God knows what their purpose is. We need to guide them and help them build the skills that God has placed in them for their purpose in the Kingdom. As leaders, one of the gifts we have is the ability to recognize potential and giftings in others. It is our job to help them realize those, embrace those, and use those giftings according to God's plan for their life. We don't know God's plan for them, but we can encourage them to seek God for their purpose and trust God's guidance for us as we help them become who God is calling them to be.
(this is really a whole other blog because there are so many tips and ways we can help people discover their place in the Kingdom, but in order to keep this blog from going for weeks, I'll stop there.)
NOTE: I said "as we help them become who God is calling them to be" not what part we want them to play in the ministry.
The third thing to remember in building committed people is: Connection is key.
People don't feel safe to commit their lives to something until they feel connected. Jesus is our best example of this concept. He connected with people. He reached into their lives. He drew them to Himself because He had what they needed. He reached people on an intimate level.
We cannot become confused with believing that the people in our ministries are "connected" because they all show up for our monthly potluck, or they all sit together in Sunday School class, or even that they all know what each other does for a living... they can all be acquaintances and not connected.
Connecting people like Jesus desires from us is becoming the "family" of God. Families know how to really connect. We know each other, we know the "intimate" details of each others lives because we really "care" about each other. This is the kind of "connection" God desires in the Body of Christ.
Don't settle for less than what God desires in our relationships with each other. How can we really LOVE OUR NEIGHBOR, if we don't know them. Love isn't just being nice to each other, Love is sacrificial. We have to know and love people deeply.
It's easy for us as leaders to attain this level of intimacy with our people because we are usually pretty good at reaching out to people and people come to us and open up with us over life's battles. But we need to look around and see how well our people are connecting with each other. It is our job to help people get connected with one another.
WHY?
Because...
Part of being unified in the Body of Christ is being able to be REAL with who we are, where we are at in our relationship with God, our struggles, our victories, our lives with each other. If we don't feel connected with the people we do life with, then how will we know how to connect with a lost and dying world? Or more importantly...a loving God?
What is the most common excuse that people use to not go to church or have anything to do with God? It's usually because of other "Christian" people that hurt them right? hypocrites? How does one or two people hurting you turn you away from an ENTIRE church full of God's people and from a God that loves you?
The answer is actually pretty simple in 99% of cases. The people in the church/ministry were not "connected" with each other. The people didn't know how to deal with being honest with each other. The people didn't know how to handle conflict biblically. The people aren't use to the practice of confession/forgiveness. The people didn't know how to "restore" the fallen brother/sister.
If we want to love like Jesus, then we must connect like Jesus. We have to help our people connect.
We cannot make this kind of connection happen on our own. We must allow the Holy Spirit room to work in the hearts of our people, by allowing the Holy Spirit to move in our churches/ministries.
I am not talking about making people speak in tongues (which I totally believe in and experience by the way;) or have weird things happen in church. Too many people have tainted the move of the Spirit or too many people are afraid of giving the Spirit control in the service so they shut the Holy Spirit out completely. BOTH are WRONG.
We HAVE to provide opportunities for our people to really "connect" with God during our times together. Otherwise, what are we really doing all of this for anyway? If people are coming week after week to simply hear what I've experienced with God and listen to what I know about Him but don't have the opportunity to experience God on a personal level themselves, what are they walking away with when I'm done talking?
We like to think that our words are so inspirational that people go home after listening to us and spend hours sitting at Jesus' feet but the reality is... most people have a really hard time "making" the time to sit at His feet. This really is a learned response once you have actually tasted that sitting at His feet and really connecting with God is good and something you don't want to live without.
It is our responsibility as leaders to help people learn how to connect with God on an intimate level. And ONLY then, can we help them learn how to really connect with each other. The Holy Spirit is what brings intimacy and unity between fellow believers, so do yourself and everyone a favor and make room for Him in your times together.
NOTE: It is not just important who YOU are connected to, but who THEY are connected to. And it all starts with learning how to connect with the Holy Spirit. Then with each other.
The fourth thing to remember in building committed people is: Don't get into such a hurry to start a ministry.
It is difficult for us as leaders to not have things move forward and get bigger because we often measure our success as leaders based on number growth and activity. But, numbers can lie. We can have a church/ministry full of people and only a few actually going to Heaven. This is harsh but a very sad truth. It's not about numbers, it's about people who love the Lord. PERIOD.
Our greatest reward and success story in leadership, is looking around at the people who choose to follow us and see Jesus in their reflection. It's not about "how many" there are, it's about "how much" they love God.
A common mistake that a lot of leaders tend to make is: we'll start the ministry and pray for God to raise up the leaders; instead of we'll let God raise up the leaders and we'll help them start the ministry that God is calling them to do.
God is capable of running HIS church/ministry.
Sometimes I think we forget this, that He's running the show, or He should be. If God is in control of our churches and our ministries, then He is capable of preparing people and starting those ministries in His timing.
You might ask, "Well what is the big deal of trying to get ministries going in our churches?"
Here are a few of the possible down sides:
1. Ministries without people...won't last. If you start up ministries hoping to reach a large gamut of people but have no one invested but yourselves...pretty soon YOU will burn out and so will that ministry. First you need to evaluate WHY this ministry is so important and necessary that you start it now:
A. Is God actually telling you to start this ministry or do you just see a need and are trying to meet it because you believe that's your job?
B. What is your goal in starting this particular ministry? Everything that we do needs to have some kind of goal. We may not know where God is going to take us or our people but without goals, we are just aimlessly wandering wherever. Having goals is a great way to seek God every step of the way. Having goals keeps us on track with the direction God is taking us. Our goals need to reflect God's heart for His people and you can find those practical goals in your Bible. The physical goals of your ministries can start small and grow big. Goals also help us determine which ministries start first and which ministries come later. Growth is a process, so not every ministry is beneficial to the state of your people.
Ministry vs. Discipleship
There are 2 types of ministries that take place in our churches:
Those that focus on Discipleship: the inward spiritual growth of a person
and those that focus on Ministry: the outreach that flows from our relationship with God to others.
Discipleship Ministries often consist of:
Bible Studies
Sunday School
Church in general
Outreach Ministries often consist of:
anything you do for the purpose of reaching outside of the 4 walls of your church to share the message of Jesus Christ to those who need to hear.
a. those who have never accepted Jesus/ heard of Him.
b. those who have at one time accepted Him and have turned away/living in sin.
2. Premature ministries lead to confused and frustrated people. Yourself included.
Discipleship: Providing opportunities for people to grow in the Lord is always good, however, you can fill up your church's schedule with a lot of opportunity but very little attendance...why? The reason could possibly be that the opportunities available are only appealing to small amounts of people. For example: A New Believer's Class will only bring in New Believers, Women's Ministry = Women, Men's Ministry = Men, ect. There is absolutely nothing wrong with these specific ministries but sometimes we need to think outside the box and create opportunities that reach specific goals. What areas do the people of this church need to grow in...and create an opportunity for that area. This is where we sometimes see a church full of a lot of activities but very little spiritual depth in the people.
Getting people to attend these opportunities will solely probably rely on your personal relationship with them and specifically asking them to attend and explain why you want them to come and your constant reminder in group settings how important it is to grow in the Lord.
Outreach: If people aren't ready for the kind of commitment ministry involvement takes, then they probably won't last because they were not equipped in the first place. Then they often fizzle out because they feel overwhelmed by the process and responsibility of it all, often leaving them feeling like failures in ministry and in extreme cases (which happen more than we realize) they can walk away from a ministry that God actually intended them to do but now that they've tried it and failed, they start down a different path and not one that God intended for them. This is why it is so important that the people involved in outreach ministries are walking solid in their relationship with the Lord before they get involved in outreach.. God always wants us before He wants our ministry.
Remember that the MAJORITY of the Gospel Message that God gives us, is not how important it is to Him that we tell so many people about Him, the majority of His message to us revolves around how well we really know Him and live for Him. It's our relationship with Him that is of the utmost importance. If our relationship with God is where He desires it to be, then telling others will always follow.
This lesson has to be one of the hardest lessons that any of us leaders have to learn.
Sometimes we just have to WAIT...
The longest short word in history. We live in a fast world. Most of us grew up in I'm guessing, active churches with lots of ministries. This is why this thought of waiting seems to go against our grain a little bit. But biblically... there's lots of examples of waiting till the time was right. There is a difference between waiting on the Lord and...becoming stagnant in ministry. The difference always is: growth. When we are waiting on the Lord, growth is still taking place in our relationship; when we are stagnant, then we are not growing.
Waiting is not a bad thing. There are a lot of elements to God's plan that we are completely unaware of. Sometimes God is working on someone's heart that is vital to that particular ministry and He simply needs us to wait for our brother or sister. Sometimes God is waiting for a particular "season" in our church before we begin a certain ministry. God is a God of structure. You can't read the Bible without coming to that conclusion. He has an order to things, so it is very important to HIM that things are done accordingly. We can really mess things up if we just plow ahead and don't wait for the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the area of timing.
Don't get swept up in doing ministry the way the world does life. Way too fast, way too selfish, leaves people empty and lost, and left wanting. Fill up you church/ministry with Jesus. Make Him the very center of absolutely EVERYTHING that you do and your people will NEVER walk away disappointed.
Commitment starts with our desire to follow Him. He will fulfill HIS desires for the ministry He's called us to be a part of. Allow Him to lead. Love God first, Love your people well.
Commitment will come. I promise.
Stay the coarse my friend, we're in this together!
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