What determines Success in Ministry

Every pastor wants to have a successful ministry. Sadly, many compare themselves to the highly visible leaders of large ministries and feel like a failure in comparison.
The size of your ministry does not determine the level of your success.
• Too many pastors have led large ministries while tragically failing personally and morally.
• Too many have sacrificed their families all in the name of “church growth.”
• Too many have lost their personal passion for Jesus while leading His church.

The most successful pastors may not be the ones that others read about, but the ones who faithfully love Jesus and serve people.

Do the Small Things Daily
When working with pastors, many are often looking for a “big win.” They want to have a big community event, a big servants’ banquet, or a big series that runs attendance higher. While all these can be effective, I encourage consistency in the small things daily.

I’ll compare it to football. Most championship teams win games on many four-yard, six-yard, and eleven-yard gains. They might win one game a season on a last second hail-Mary pass, but most games consistently succeeding at the basics.

The same is true in ministry. Successful ministries are built on Christ by leaders who do the small things daily:
• They return calls and emails promptly.
• They show up on time.
• They pray for God’s guidance.
• They love and serve people.
• They study hard and preach passionately.
• They have a consistent and strong work ethic.
• They follow through on commitments.

You could hope for the perfect mailer, plan the killer youth event, or pray for a news story to build your church…or you could move the ball forward one play at a time doing the small things with integrity daily.

Successful When No One Knows
You can be successful today when few people know anything about your ministry. You are successful when you:
• Live daily with integrity.
• Pursue Christ with all your heart.
• Preach your best sermon to a very small crowd.
• Visit the sick in the hospital.
• Cry with the parents who just lost a child.
• Forgive the church member who wronged you.
• Give privately to someone in need.
If your ministry ever becomes “well known” and people call you an overnight success, you can thank God privately that they couldn’t be further from the truth. Deep down, you’ll know you’ve been seeking God for years and serving Him faithfully when few people were watching.

The Private Cost of Visible Success
If you are quietly faithful for years, God may expand your ministry. One day, many will want a ministry like you have. But not everyone is willing to do what you did to have what you have. You and those closest to you will know:
• The sacrifices you’ve made.
• The pain you’ve endured.
• The hard decisions you’ve faced.
• The loneliness you’ve felt.
• The fear you’ve overcome.
• The weight you carry.
Every private painful memory you carry will draw you closer to the One who suffered and died for you. Your “public success” won’t mean nearly as much to you as your private devotion to Christ.

"What IF"

• WHAT IF the early church had been full of people who drove their “luxury camels” to church…but became angry when someone mentioned giving?
• WHAT IF the early church had decided to simply study what Jesus said but not apply it?
• WHAT IF the early church had the attitude of, “we love a small crowd…so don’t tell anyone about Jesus coming back to life. I know He commanded us to tell…but let’s keep it a secret because we don’t want to get too many people?”
• WHAT IF the early church had been more passionate about their comfort than conforming to who Christ called them to be?
• WHAT IF the early church had decided their primary responsibility was to be political, thus organizing protests against the Roman government for occupying their land?
• WHAT IF the early church had required only “religious professionals” to be in ministry?
• WHAT IF the early church had decided to yell and scream at the Romans for acting like Romans?
• WHAT IF the early church had decided their primary call was to save the environment rather than the ones living in it?
• WHAT IF the early church had substituted their personal preferences in place of the words of Jesus?
• WHAT IF the early church had been more obsessed with Robert’s Rules of Order rather than the Scriptures?
• WHAT IF the early church had been focused on the cross on the wall rather than the cross Jesus called them to carry?
• WHAT IF the early church had instructed the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 that He was a little out of hand…and that his movement hadn’t been voted on by the church board.
• WHAT IF the early church had been full of people but weren’t actually willing to do anything to reach people far from God?

WHAT IF…WOW…so glad the early church listened to Jesus and did what HE said…or else we would have been in a lot of trouble!

Perry Noble
newspringchurch.cc

Five Commitments to developing Trust in your church leadership

As I shared yesterday, these are thoughts from Catalyst Conference that I attended a few weeks back. Hope you enjoy

Occasionally they are gaps between what we expect people to do and what they actually do.

I expected ______ but you gave me _______.
we choose what to put in this gap.

We either assume the worst or believe the best.
What we see determines what we believe.
Who I am determines how I respond to others.

A culture characterized by trust produces people that are trustworthy!

If you are unwilling to trust you will never know who you can't trust until you trust them. The longer you refuse to trust the longer untrustworthy people can hide in your organization

Trusting is risky. Refusing to trust is riskier.

Developing a culture of trust begins with the Leader. Trust and suspicion is telegraphed from our actions & ideas about our trust. Quit sitting on mistrust. Don't give a barrel of response to a spoon full of mistakes.

Are you beleiving the best or assuming the worse in those on your team?

Five commitments to developing a culture of Trust

1. When there is a gap between what I expected and what I experienced, I choose to believe the best.

2. When other people assume the worse in you I will come to your defense.

3. If what I experience begins to erode my trust I will come directly to you about it.

4. When I am convinced that I will not be able to fulfill my commitment I will come to you ahead of time.

5. When you confront me about the gaps I've created I will tell you the truth.

Andy Stanley
www.northpoint.org

10 Things I have learned in 50 years of Leadership

I recently attended "Catalyst" conference for Next Generation Leaders. This week i will be sharing some of my experiences from this event. Each year they give the Catalyst Lifetime Achievement Award to a very distinct leader. This year they gave it to Chuck Swindoll. At Catalyst Chuck Swindoll spoke a powerful word on Leadership:

10 Things I have learned from 50 Years of Leadership:

1. It is lonely to Lead
2. It is dangerous to Succeed
3. It is hardest to lead at home
4. It is essential to be Real
5. It is painful to Obey
6. Brokeness and Failure are necessary
7. Attitude overshadows Actions
8. Integrity eclipses Image
9. God's way is always better than mine
10. Christ-likeness begins and ends with Humility

To hear a man who has led for 50 years was quiet breath and his words of wisdom given to 12,000 Next Gen leaders with most of them being between the ages of 20-30. I love the fact that there are leaders with many years of wisdom who are willing to share with Next Gen leaders even when they do not understand or agree with how Next Gen leaders sometimes lead.

There's a Rebel in the House!

I was spending time with one of my pastor friends from Ghana, West Africa (he ministered for us on "International Sunday"). As is the case so often, the subject of rebellion came up.

There is not a pastor, manager, parent, or leader anywhere in time past or present who has not had to deal with rebellion.

I have learned that you can't counsel rebellion; and, in my ignorance, I have even attempted to pastor it. It cannot be pastored, loved, corrected, swept under the carpet or pampered. It must be stopped. It must be cut off. It's influence must be minimized, because innocent people always get trapped in the web of rebellion.

How did God deal with it? Like a lightening strike, He dealt with it swiftly. Even in the perfect environment of Heaven, rebellion found company. Rebellion will always play the part of the victim and find others to take the fall with it.

Absolom gives us a tremendous picture of rebellion. When David returned to his palace after the death of his son Absolom, he would not sleep with his wives (they had slept with his son Absolom). Why? For many reasons, I'm sure. For one, if one of them became pregnant, he would not know who the real father was. We must be careful to deal quickly with rebellion in the church, because when we fail to do so and our people become pregnant with doctrine, philosphy, or vision....we will not know if they are impregnated with rebellion.

Pastors, are you dealing with rebellion swiftly? What are your experiences? What are your thoughts?

Double Portion Anointing!

As one of my spiritual sons was team preaching with me last weekend in Europe (we ministered at two pastor's conferences...one in Hungary and one in Romania), God was giving him incredible revelation while preaching. (For the record, I have never experienced anything like what we experienced as a father & son preaching on the subject of "Spiritual Fathers & Sons"). He said, "Elisha picked up the mantel. The son's mantel is not to out-perform his father. His mantel is not to preach twice as good, or perform twice the miracles. The son is not in competition with his father. No! My spiritual Papa always says, 'God raises sons & daughters in the House to preserve the vision of the House!' God will never honor the proud, arrogant, or competetive son. The mantel is to continue what the father starts. The mantel is to run with his vision, his dream, and his anointing. When the son runs with the father's mantel, he positions himself for incredible fruitfulness, effectiveness, and results. If it's twice, three times, or more, the son doesn't care. His only desire is to run with his fathers dream!" I thought that was good enough to share with you today! God, give our sons & daughters our vision! Give them our dream! Let them run with it when we're gone! Give them humble hearts! Give them honoring hearts! Position them for DOUBLE PORTION ANOINTING!

Who are your spiritual sons & daughters? How much time do you spend with them daily, weekly, monthly, and annually? What are some of your experiences with them that would encourage pastors to invest in their spiritual offspring?

Tell us something good!

What is going on with you and your church? What has God done recently that you want to share, not boast but share something that God did that we all can rejoice over? Anything at all?

I will go first. Times have been a little rought lately and felt like our people needed a break. A little laughter if you will. So, I invited professional comedian Scott Wood (left) who is not only a top comic but is a fellow believer as well. In fact, he attends and occasionally teaches Jr. High at Greg Lauries church in Riverside CA. So yesterday was the day and it was beyond what I expected. He did a 30-40 minutes stand up ruotine, shared his testimony and 15 people got saved! The church was nearly packed both services (255 total which is great for us) with several new families who after service came to me and told me they loved the church and would be back.

Now we are gearing up for our annual Halloween & Thanksgiving Day outreaches. Let us know what God is doing where you are so we can rejoice with you!