How do you work with leaders who would rather be nice than to bring order to their ministry?
February 10, 2010 - 4:15 am
Many people who volunteer for ministry will be friends, but they also have to be held accountable to their commitment. One leader would rather not risk offending people, then having order and proper follow through within the ministry. Basically, just the bare minimum winds up getting done.
A church without discipline has no authority and is a dead church. Unfortunately this is one of the problems encountered by ministers who just want a job and don’t want to upset the congregation that hires and fires them. This is especially true when they are nearing retirement age.
February 10th, 2010 at 9:22 am
I have run into this issue time and time again. I no longer attend church as a result.
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February 10th, 2010 at 10:12 am
Tell the person you don’t like this:
2 Timothy 4:3,4 – For the time will come when they will not endure
sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they
have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and
they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside
to fables. ~ Note: This is what has happened to some of the people
who believe in "Once Saved, Always Saved." The word for endure
also means suffer, bear with, forbear, to hold up, to sustain. The
word for sound in sound doctrine also means of Christians whose
opinions are free from any mixture of error. So bear with the
correct doctrine of Scripture and not man-made doctrine that’s
full of errors. The word for itching in itching ears means
desirous of hearing something pleasant. Hearing that you are
"Once Saved, Always Saved" is pleasant, but it is not the truth.
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February 10th, 2010 at 10:58 am
Unfortunately a lot of Christians do one or the other. Both are commanded in scripture. Leaders and every one else for that matter, who call themselves Christians must do everything in love. So not being nice is not the answer. I think the answer lives is that we live our lives with grace and truth. God gives leaders of ministry His power to serve and lead with both grace and truth. I have been apart of ministries where only "truth" is issued, and that is not good either. What a leader has to do is look to Jesus- when truth needed to be told it was told, however, He never said anything with love in His heart. Love can be different then being nice though- nice can mean they don’t want to offend anyone. Leaders are sometimes called to being hard in that love, so that ministries can be successful in the eyes of God, not man.
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February 10th, 2010 at 11:23 am
Here’s a scenario, the only way I know to stay in ministry however much others do. I take my turn at helping a homeless men’s mission for men hoping to replace lost jobs. For a log time I was the only male, and the young women volunteers (one the founder’s daughter, the other preacher’s wife whose church supplies donations) couldn’t cook anything fit to eat, burning beans right out of the can, etc. There were times when I came close to asking them to not bother coming back, though I didn’t have the authority, and I did need extra pairs of eyes since I couldn’t watch everything going on. My solution was to stay busy enough not to notice what those two did or didn’t do, mostly just "being there". I arrived at 5:30 every morning, roused the sleepy men with 3,200 watts of light, started the drier for the wash from last night, cooked a great campfire style breakfast (5 doz scrambled eggs, pot of oatmeal, Christmas ham fried up, 50 slices toast & 60 cups coffee) for 20 ready to eat at 6:15 no matter what. One of the women at least helped fill plates. "I sure wish I could cook like that." (but never getting there to watch and learn) made me want to spit, but I’d just smile and go strip beds, start the wash loads, make sure each man had decent clothes and got their tote bags they carry all day ready at the checkout window. I lead a short devotion, then got them out onto the street. I’d go scarf down some leftovers, sweep, mop the showers with disinfectant, then go home by 7:30 when the day crew of one showed up. The wash was left for me to dry, fold and put away the next morning.
The way I looked at it was if anyone else showed up and did just one chore, I had one less chore. The job got done. Eventually a retired marine "mas-saw" he would say (Master Sargent) started being there when I arrived, watched me through one "shift", and together neither of us raised a drop of sweat. I’d rush to do something and meet him in the hall "Already done it, Suh. Gonna do dishes." At least one of us was available to counsel or just be a listener at least 10 minutes a day. Hey, I was grateful just to turn over the living quarters cleanup, and the Sarge is still going strong. When more volunteers added on the smoothness of operation died some. Too many people with too little to do. Now we have one morning shift of 3 trained volunteers and one (Sarge) sleeping overnight in the office, then the founder spends the day there, and I go in when needed. There’s also quite a number of men who realized they didn’t know what "committment" meant. Many have remarked that had they given at their last job like we did around there, they’d probably still be employed. They don’t want to be preached at, already feeling low. They just need some examples of how to approach life better and to get some hope fired up. I teach them one lesson, to give their best wherever they go, and they will be the last to be let go.
I understand how it is. You look around and feel bad over how little others do. Just think "addition", that anything each does goes toward the whole. I don’t go anywhere taking a job-share counter along. I jump in, do what has to be done, then move on.
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February 10th, 2010 at 11:43 am
A church without discipline has no authority and is a dead church. Unfortunately this is one of the problems encountered by ministers who just want a job and don’t want to upset the congregation that hires and fires them. This is especially true when they are nearing retirement age.
References :
His servant