Lies Leaders Believe

I asked Bob to contribute to the Daily this week! I decided to take a vacation…well, actually I am spending three days in the Kansas City area at a writer’s conference and then going on vacation. I also had the opportunity to have lunch with some of our friends-in-ministry and fellow LifeServers…I am always humbled and amazed at the gifts and commitment of leaders in the church. So often, we focus on the people who don’t serve (or won’t serve) that we forget to be thankful for the amazing people who continue to carryout the legacy of serving. I could go on and on, but lets just leave it at that. Thank you to you who ARE serving…we appreciate you!

Lies We Believe

I ran a red light this morning rushing my son to school so he wouldn’t be tardy. I justified my transgression by telling myself a little lie that almost made sense—I’ll slow down later. Of course, I didn’t.

Ministry leaders tell themselves little lies every day. The lies speak to the foundational value of equipping: Do I release volunteers into ministry—or do it myself. We try to justify our efforts to go solo.

Be honest. Have you ever told yourself this ministry lie?

I can do it faster myself. – The process of discovering the uniqueness of each volunteer, inviting them into ministry, training, scheduling, and supervision can be overwhelming. It may actually be easier for you to do the ministry task yourself, rather than release it to a volunteer. But if you buy into that lie, it begins to define your leadership style. The message you communicate says it’s way too much hassle to deal with volunteers. The easy route is to turn it over to someone who’s paid to do the job. Consider the fact that for every ministry task you perform, you remove an opportunity for someone else to serve. We rob others of ministry joy when we go it alone.

Don’t run a red light to answer this question, but do stop and take a moment to examine if faster is always better—when it comes to developing people and growing ministry.