But find the courage they did.
I sometimes ache for more paradigm breakers. That is, for people who do things a little differently and are willing to break open the mold, change up the style, walk a little differently, and show us all new ways that it can be done. For example, men that come out of a business background and don't have enough Bible school and church leadership training, but do have a burning desire to please the Lord in doing their calling. Better yet? Women who refuse to be held back form their calling because they are women. In fact these women won't even discuss gender as a challenging thing because they cannot afford to give the issue air.
Love that.
They simply follow God's call and the commend to "go and make disciples". Yes I am aware that these kinds of leaders rarely make it. Maybe only 1 or 2 out of ten actually get their vision done. The rest burn out, drop out, get discouraged, or whatever. The downside is that some of these get bitter that things didn't work, I hate it when that happens. But for those 1-2 out of ten that make it, it often seems like they help all of us by showing us that it can be done differently than we thought. To all of them I say; you may or may not make it. But it is so cool that you are doing your best to follow Jesus no matter what.
I hate that some of them get bitter because of a perceived failure too. Is there a way we can help them see what's inside of them to help their expectations be a little more realistic? Otherwise, the only expectations they can have is what they have seen other people do. But, they aren't other people. They are exactly who God mad them to be. I just emailed you some more thoughts on this.
ReplyDeleteJason, the process of evaluation, assessment, and deep training has reduced failures from 8 of out ten to much less- I think it's like 3 out of 10 these days or maybe lower. I think there is much potential to make it better. Your situation is such an example, of God turning difficulty into good. I think training has produced the need for networking, coaching, and partnership, at levels that is reducing sheer loss.
ReplyDeleteHey Gerry, just found your blog and began reading it. This post in particular addresses an issue that is very common in our church world. What is my purpose? What am I wired to do? Where is my sweet spot? All too often those of us within the Assemblies of God fell into the mode that we had to start off as a youth pastor, pay our dues over some years, then transition into an Associate role, pay some more dues and then find THE church that God wanted you to be at and begin to pastor it. For some that has worked but for most of us there is a desire to be different in what we do or at least how we go about it. As you mentioned in response to Jason, the process of evaluation, assessment, and training has become much better than what it was and I suspect it will keep getting better. Nothing hurts a team more than having people playing out of position. For me personally I was never mentored in ministry in the sense of working with a pastor who took the time to take me under his wing and show me the ropes. I went to school "late" when I began that journey when I was 24 and started in full time ministry when I was 29. From 29 until now, 42, I have learned what I have learned on my own by watching, reading, and discerning. I never knew anything about the coaching process until last year. When I began that coaching journey it was a HUGE blessing to me because it focused on my STRENGTHS and not on my weaknesses. Those strengths I already had some knowledge of but the coaching process defined it for me to where I know what my passion is and where I would seem to fit. For example, I know that I am not wired to pastor a small, traditional, country church and I'm not wired to pastor an inner city church. 85% of those who attend Bible college give up in ministry. I'm convinced that some of that is a "weeding out" process of people who just got into the wrong mode of ministry. For others though there has been a real bitterness and disappointment in a variety of areas and they just chose to quit and do something else. I want to be ME and not someone else. Good post and response, thanks for sharing
ReplyDelete