God trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle -- Psalm 144:1Accept the reality that God will be working a lot more in us than he will, through us for long phases of our lives. Being faithful with much and being entrusted with much comes providing we don't stay at the level of only having God working in us. We get stuck here because we don't learn the lessons God aims to teach us when he teaches them to us.
He is my steadfast love and my fortress -- Psalm 144:2Seasons of leadership development:
1. Formation of core convictions.
Why is this important?
- As people come into the church we will serve them best when we lead them with clear convictions. When we're persuaded about things in our soul we don't need to argue or get emotional with people about them.
- Because our culture is losing its Christian convictions and needs Christians who hold to authentic Christianity.
- Because more and more are not showing the level of conviction and evangelical clarity as they ought to.
When we are persuaded God can use us. We become an effective tool in God's hand.
Billy Graham had a friend Charles Templeton. Charles Templeton was cleverer, sharper and more able. Templeton yielded to liberalism and eventually lost his faith. Graham wrestled with this and the sadness of his (more brilliant than he) friend's demise. It was against that backdrop that he made the statement on a walk once : 'God I will trust this book and what you say.' He came out with clear and strong convictions as a result.
Doubt pretends to work on our reason when actually it's working on our emotions.
Find core disciplines that help form the core convictions. Do not just live by emergencies, develop consistencies.
A lot of real growth is formed behind your back.
The times when God is building deep foundations in you are also the moments that are characterised by costly decisions and crisis points.
We can't live on the encounters with God of others, we need to encounter God for ourselves, personally and powerfully.
2. Silence from God.
The Bible talks a lot about the wilderness and the way these seasons form us and develop us as leaders. To handle that: maintain your post. Keep doing the thing God has said. Carry on faithfully and trust that he is mightily at work.
We need to be able to walk through seasons where we're getting on and doing what God has said even if we're not enjoying it anymore.
As a generation we have a dreadful weakness for not being able to stay the course. This comes when we associate the activity of God with adrenaline.
Learn to be a good reminder of yourself. Have some way of calling things to mind.
Who is that coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? -- Song of Songs 8:5
As believers we too often become tempted to look for crisis encounters with God and believe that we can live on them. The two ways we grow as Christians:
- Crisis
- Process
We need both. If one is stronger than the other, God might, for a while put a patch over one of them (like correcting a lazy eye).
3. Obscurity
Seasons in our lives where we feel like everyone else apart for us are being used. It hurts more for some than it does for others. For some their sense of self-importance is more closely linked to public profile.
Bible figures who have to go through this: Joseph, David, Jesus (Isaiah 53)
An important principle to understand is that you are always under the spotlight in heaven. There is never obscurity before God. God uses obscurity to purify our hearts from an idolatry of public ministry.
Keep your eye on the main thing. If the main thing is acclaim, you're quite useless when you've got it. There's a big difference between wanting to be President and actually doing President.
Your ways are not hidden from the Lord, you are hidden with Christ in God. God's gifts to us are thoughtful and carefully chosen. They're not like pyjamas from a distant relative who sends you the same thing every year without giving it much thought.
Joel was given a prophetic word in the early nineties from a prophet who said: you and I will meet again in 7 years time at which time you will be at the heart of a festival of thousands of young people. It looked improbable even 6 years later as he was still employed as a school teacher. 6.5 years later Dave Devenish sat him down and asked him to leave his job and start New Day. 7 years from the prophecy Joel bumped into the prophet at an event that neither of them knew the other was going to be at.
4. Singleness & Marriage
You are called to be single or married. If you're single, you are called to be single - right now.
What if marriage doesn't work? It is supposed to be a challenge. Marriage is two sinners living together, it isn't going to work in the way Hollywood presents it to work.
5. Sexual Purity
Jesus said: the pure will see God. What an incentive for pure living.
Bible lists sexual selfishness and impurity and says 'because of these things the wrath of God is coming.'
A church leader of many years fell sexually 3/4 years ago. Overtime his family was restored to him and his marriage is on the road to recovery. Joel sat with him and asked the question: What happened? The answer: Discouragement is dangerous. Keep searching for joy and delighting in God and seek pleasure in him.
6. Decision Making
Remember your core convictions. What do you know already? God's commands in scripture come first. If you're living a sexually immoral lifestyle, it's no good asking God which job to take when you're clearly disobeying a command of scripture.
God gives you a compass, not a map. He tells you the way to go and says 'get there'. We want an ordinance survey map, he doesn't give us that. Paul gets told by God 'I'm sending you to the gentiles.' Which is everywhere in the world! He then has to work out the more specific details in that.
Remember guidance comes in various ways. God speaks to different people in particular and specific ways.
The deity has dignified humanity. Using your God-given faculties is still a viable and valuable way that God speaks to you.
Be honest about what you think God has said and what you think we should do.
7. Key Ministry Relationships
The relationships you have in ministry are very varied. To be fruitful we need to work out our different status's and stages with our relationships. Am I a father, a mentor, a brother, a follower, a son...?
Understand gift alignment. Be yourself, who you are and where/how you fit.
Have a sober assessment of yourself. We can get very drunk about ourselves and how special we are or we can be blind to our gift and value. We need to talk about it. We need to ask people honestly.
Team when it works is wonderful. To get to that place is vital but it doesn't come over night.
Excel at giving honour to one another. If the lion doesn't do that, no one will.
8. Correction
Show grace and humility when corrected and others will trust you.
Some of the issue is that we don't receive correction, some of the issue is that we receive too much - we listen to too many people, we listen to everyone's opinion. We need wisdom to know who to listen to.
Story of Dave Holden. At the Down's Bible week as a young man in his 20s three separate people told him on the morning he was to speak that he had 'pride in his life.' It robbed him of confidence and courage. Terry Virgo, noticing something was wrong asked him. Dave told him and Terry replied 'if there was pride in your life I would not have asked you to speak. I've asked you to speak, now speak!' Choose who you listen to.
9. Opposition
Jesus said: woe to you when all men speak well of you.
and yet...
The worst things people can say about you are still not as bad as the truth. David Pawson went to God complaining to God about some things that people had said about him and felt God reply 'it's not as bad as the truth.' Martin Luther similarly. When the devil would tell him how bad he was or what sin there was in his life, he'd reply 'you've missed out some of the worst.'
10. Relationship disappointment
Learn how to be loyal. Joel told the story of a time he found a letter in his dad's office who had said some really horrible things to him. Joel & Terry were praying together and Terry started praying blessings on the man who'd written the letter. Praying that he (Terry) would have the grace to be a rock upon which the man could vent all of his sadness and heartache without needing to respond.
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