WISE, INTENTIONAL

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

TITUS EMAIL

Volume 3, Number 9 – September, 2009

I really appreciate all the emails I receive back from sending out the Titus Email.  It is a great encouragement to read how this email is helping many of you.  The Youth Ministry portion will be coming in a separate email.  Enjoy.  Mike

TEAM DIVERSITY – USING YOUR TEAM’S GIFTS

In I Samuel 17, Israel and the Philistines came out to battle, yet Israel was afraid.  Goliath came out for forty straight days and mocked both God and the Israelites.  He was a daunting figure.  To say he was muscular is a bit of understating just how strong and powerful he was.  He definitely could be selected to play on my (American) football or rugby team, by being my first selection.  Israel was terrified of Goliath.

The youngest brother, a youth, David, is sent to the battlefield by his father, Jesse, to bring some food to his oldest brothers (v. 12-22) and check to see how they were doing.  That first day he was at the battlefield, David heard the taunts of Goliath and saw the Israelites flee!  David wondered why no one from Israel challenged Goliath, which got his oldest brother, Eliab, very angry at him (v. 29-31).   This only seemed to inspire David even more to go fight Goliath (v. 29-31).

David was brought before Saul and, almost mockingly, Saul told David to go fight the giant, but David should wear Saul’s armor.  It didn’t fit David, nor did David have the strength to handle Saul’s sword (v. 32-39).  Someone else’s equipment did not work for David.  Rather, he knew the gifts and abilities he possessed.  He had fought animals with his slingshot and bare hands (v. 40-44).

We know the rest of the story.  David defeated Goliath with one shot from his slingshot (v. 45-50).  The Israelites routed the Philistines that day because someone possessed courage given to him by God and trusted in the God-given abilities and gifts given him.

When we work together with others and part of our responsibility is to determine the gifts and abilities of our team members, let us give them honest assessment of their giftings.  It is so easy to allow our pride (and ego) to step in and degrade or place less emphasis on another’s abilities.  Often we want to place our giftings and the way we have done things upon others, thinking that we have freed up people to do the work.  That is not empowering others, rather that is enslaving people.

David was enslaved by Saul’s armor, his giftings.  Using Saul’s sword, if David were to succeed, Saul could have said it was his sword that killed Goliath.  Saul had to believe David had no chance to defeat Goliath, especially after the refusal of his armor, the very equipment Saul used to defeat many enemies before.

Giving team members a responsibility and offering resources and training to help them accomplish the task is part of the process of empowering.  The key piece that is needed next is allowing the team member to perform the task using their own gifts and abilities.    They take ownership and want to make their responsibility succeed.

Do I want to help people succeed, or do I want to help people make me succeed (and look good)?  Empowering someone will allow them to reap the rewards and possibly propel them into greater things than what you or I have accomplished.  Are we willing to serve others that way?

ILLUSTRATION

Herman Ostry’s barn floor was under twenty-nine inches of water because of a rising creek. The Bruno, Nebraska, farmer invited a few friends to a barn raising. He needed to move his entire 17,000-pound (over 7,700 kilograms) barn to a new foundation more than 143 feet away. His son Mike devised a lattice work of steel tubing, and nailed, bolted, and welded it on the inside and the outside of the barn. Hundreds of handles were attached. After one practice lift, 344 volunteers slowly walked the barn up a slight incline, each supporting less then fifty pounds. In just three minutes, the barn was on its new foundation. The Body of Christ can accomplish great things when we work together.

                                                                -Joseph F. Mlaker

FEEL TOO MUCH RESPONSIBILITY

CONSIDER THIS…

According to church life pundit George Barna, pastors are expected to master sixteen major tasks as a part of the pastoral vocation-whereas other professionals are expected to master three or four major tasks required for their work. The current and unbiblical definition of the pastoral role-including some sixteen major tasks and responsibilities-results in the self-implosion of the pastor and eventually the church-as some of us can personally testify! God did not created the church to function so that the spiritually fat, unexercised masses complain about all of the work not being done by the exhausted and depleted few! In the Volunteer Revolution, Bill Hybels say’, “I’ve Learned that you can’t possibly build a God-honoring church with a congregation full of consumers.”

This is why one of the most important ways a pastor can be freed up to direct the affairs of the church is to train and equip regular Christians-volunteers like you and me-to do the work of the ministry. According to Ephesians 4:11-12, God gives a whole spiritual arsenal to the church-in addition to just pastors-for the purpose of equipping God’s people (that’s YOU and me) to do the work of the ministry: “It was he [Jesus] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for work of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up”

QUOTES

Few people are successful unless a lot of other people want them to be

                                                                Author Charlie Brower

You can do what I cannot do. I can do what you cannot do. Together we can do great things.                                       Mother Teresa

I use not only all the brains I have, but all I can borrow.

                                                                Woodrow Wilson

“Among the variety of God’s gifts, some are natural abilities and character qualities sanctified, while others correspond to nothing that was previously seen in the person’s life.”          J. I. Packer

“A true leader is not someone who can do the work of ten people, but someone who can organize ten people to do the work”

                                                                Dale Galloway