Equipping

Today we had our monthly district pastor's meeting. God was teaching/reminding me of 2 things. I'll share the first today and the second tomorrow.

My dad has often reminded me of an important emphasis in pastoral ministry: Equipping the Church. Today that thought was echoed during our meeting. We're reading through Robert Clinton's book The Making of a Leader and I found myself studying through it very selfishly. I was asking myself, 'how does this part apply to me?' I was getting kinda frustrated b/c the part we were studying was so elementary. I was beyond this!

But then I realized everyone else was thinking in terms of developing lay leaders. Only I was 'me' focused. Then I came to a startling realization. In the past year and a half, I've been trying to make sure I was a good minister, trying to do the job, establishing my ability to lead. But I haven't been recognizing and/or developing leaders in our church at all. Oddly, that thought hasn't really crossed my mind. I've tried to disciple people, but leadership is something beyond that.

I hope today will be a day of transition. I want the ME focus to become a WE focus. A couple leaders can only accomplish so much. An army of leaders can accomplish a whole bunch.