Leaders who are fully engaged in their mission fight battles.
There is no way to avoid battles if you want to make progress consistently.
New territory is never easy, and it always comes at a price.
Life never grants a free ride, and leaders don’t receive a “get out of jail free” card when it comes to solving serious problems.
The good news is that we don’t fight alone. God brings His presence, power, and favor to the mix, but He never removes the human element.
The most daunting and challenging responsibility for church leaders is not church growth; it’s leading people to greater spiritual maturity.
We’ve learned much in the last thirty years about how to grow a church. Growing an organization is “easy” compared to helping a person grow as a spiritual human being.
We understand stuff like small groups, how to follow up on a new guest, children’s ministry, etc. We do well with org charts, financial reviews, and we almost have the coffee right. But the transformation of a person from a spiritual infant to spiritual maturity – Whoa! That you can’t fit in a blog post, a conference talk and even a good book can’t cover it all.
Personal transformation requires the grace and power of God, along with the desire and deliberate effort of each individual. Then, there is a “real and present” enemy who wants to stop the process! Only the courageous keep leading here.
Easter will soon be here, and I’m confident you are deep into prayer and planning. But here’s my question for you.
What do you want to be different about Easter this year?
If you don’t do anything different, you won’t experience anything different.
What is your vision for Easter? Are your plans clear?
There is still time for the weekend of April 16 to have the greatest Kingdom impact possible. There is still time to work on all that you are praying for.
Interruptions can be frustrating.
But as long as you’re in local church ministry, interruptions are not going away.
If you are involved in the lives of people, and the real issues they deal with, interruptions will be part of your work. You can choose to fight that reality, or embrace it.
The goal isn’t to pretend that interruptions don’t bring complexity to your schedule. They do! The goal is to learn how to best navigate interruptions, so your ministry has the greatest impact, and you continue to experience inner peace even on difficult days.
Dan Reiland is the Executive Pastor at 12Stone Church in Lawrenceville, Georgia. He previously partnered with John Maxwell for 20 years, first as Executive Pastor at Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego, then as Vice President of Leadership and Church Development at INJOY.
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