1 , Prioritize Spiritual Formation
Practice the spiritual disciplines. Worship. Stay in the Word & in prayer daily. Pursue personal spiritual formation. Let your ministry flow from your own spiritual life…not the other way around.
2 , Protect Your Family
“You cannot sacrifice your family on the altar of your ministry.”
3 , Place Faithfulness Over Results
Results are not God’s highest priority. Faithfulness is.
Being faithful to what God has called you to do is your highest priority.
4 , Promote Vision
Make sure that you share the vision with potential leaders. Make sure that your facilities, your program, your systems and procedures, your staff meetings, your training, your…everything!…is pointed straight at that defined, clear and compelling vision.
5 , Pursue Leaders, Not Followers
pursue leaders with an invitation to invest in that grand, clear and compelling vision.
6 , People, People, People
as a leader is to invest in people…to equip and develop people to pursue the ministry vision…period.
然而,我今日成了何等人,是蒙神的恩才成的,並且他所賜我的恩不是徒然的。我比眾使徒格外勞苦;這原不是我,乃是神的恩與我同在。 不拘是我,是眾使徒,我們如此傳,你們也如此信了。
哥林多前書 15:10-11
But because God was so gracious, so very generous, here I am. And I’m not about to let his grace go to waste. Haven’t I worked hard trying to do more than any of the others? Even then, my work didn’t amount to all that much. It was God giving me the work to do, God giving me the energy to do it. So whether you heard it from me or from those others, it’s all the same: We spoke God’s truth and you entrusted your lives.
1 Corinthians 15:10-11
What would you say if I told you there’s a simple way to turn ordinary things into something extraordinary? This often overlooked principle is found throughout the Bible, but the story of Moses’ shepherd’s rod is a good place to start.
In Exodus 4:2, God asks Moses the same question I believe He’s asking you today: “What is that in your hand?” All Moses had in his hand at that point was a simple wooden shepherd’s rod—certainly nothing extraordinary.
When you look at what you have in your hand, it might seem as insignificant as the piece of wood Moses had been using to care for his sheep. How could God use something so ordinary?
God was commissioning Moses for the daunting task of delivering over a million Israelites from slavery in Egypt. And all he had in his hand was the wooden staff he had used for 40 years to tend his flocks of sheep. It was just an ordinary piece of wood. An inanimate object. A tool of Moses’ trade.
Yet something amazing happened when Moses obeyed the Lord’s instruction to lay down his rod, a sign of surrender and relinquishment. Exodus 4:20 says this unimpressive wooden pole was transformed into “the rod of God.” Endued with God’s supernatural power, Moses’ rod now was able to part the Red Sea (Exodus 14:21), bring water out of a rock (Exodus 17:5-6), and gain supernatural victory over enemy armies (Exodus 17:8-13).
Do you see how powerful this message is for you and me? Like Moses, we’re being called to do great things…supernatural things…things much bigger than we could ever accomplish without divine assistance.
Yet too often we think our problem is that we lack some important ingredient or resource needed for success. “If only I had this or that…” we complain.
But notice that God wasn’t asking Moses to give Him something he didn’t already have. Instead, He asked Moses, as He’s asking you today…
“What’s that in your hand?”
Moses had been carrying around that ordinary piece of wood for many years, and nothing dramatic had happened as a result. But after he surrendered the wooden rod from his hand to the Lord’s hand, it became a powerful tool for an extraordinary life.
After breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Master, you know I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” He then asked a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” “Yes, Master, you know I love you.” Jesus said, “Shepherd my sheep.” Then he said it a third time: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was upset that he asked for the third time, “Do you love me?” so he answered, “Master, you know everything there is to know. You’ve got to know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. I’m telling you the very truth now: When you were young you dressed yourself and went wherever you wished, but when you get old you’ll have to stretch out your hands while someone else dresses you and takes you where you don’t want to go.” He said this to hint at the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. And then he commanded, “Follow me.”