I had a blast last night talking with my community group as we explored what it looks like as Christians to serve.
I thought I'd take a minute to talk about our motivation to serve since it was brought up a bunch yesterday. In scripture I see a few reasons why we should serve and thought you'd enjoy seeing them too. This is also addressed in "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life" by Donald Whitney
1. Motivated by obedience.
Deuteronomy 13:4 says "Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him. We cannot neglect to serve because we simply don't want to do we can't serve with the right heart. Our goal is to serve by obedience and believe that God will change our heart in the process.
2. Motivated by gratitude.
1 Samuel 12:24 says "Serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you." In our salvation, when we actually see that God has never done anything greater for anyone, nor could he do anything greater than what he has done for us; it will lead to a gratitude that leads to action. So, it is vital that we slow down and remember what great things God has done for us.
3. Motivated by gladness.
Psalm 100:2 says "Serve the Lord with gladness." If we can change our thinking from serving as something that we HAVE to do, and rather something that we GET to do; then our serving will be a privilege, not a burden. Seek a gladness in your service.
4. Motivated by forgiveness, not guilt.
In Isaiah 6 when God cleanses Isaiah of his sin through atonement; Isaiah's immediate response is "Send me." In this case, service became an act of worship based on the forgiveness that he received. We all should see our service as worship because we have been forgiven of our sin. Because forgiveness was the motivation to serve, there could be no guilt.
Showing posts with label servant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label servant. Show all posts
6 Leadership Lessons I have learned in Church Planting
I was recently asked to share some of the leadership lessons that I have learned in my 14 months as the church planter of Netcast Church. I thought I would share them with you guys.
1. Authority is easy to give away and very hard to take back. Take your time giving away authority to others because once you give it away, it could cause major disunity and problems if you have to take it back.
2. Building teams are vital. Most leaders neglect the importance of team building. Without other strong teams within an organization, the organization will never thrive.
3. Allow other leaders to lead. We want Netcast to be a place where God sends leaders to lead and not leaders to always be led. For the health and benefit of Netcast, it is important that I free people to lead out in their gifts. If there are people who are more gifted than I am in certain areas, than I have to encourage and free them to lead out in their giftedness.
4. Competence, Character, and Chemistry. For me as a leader, it is vital that the people on my team, have these three characteristics. I learned this from a leadership book I read about 5 years ago and it is so true. You can never allow someone with great abilities but little character to be a part of the leadership of a church. In the same way, if someone has great character but can't keep a commitment, than they are unqualified to lead. Lastly, if they have great character and are competent individuals, but lack chemistry with the other people within the organization, than we cannot allow that type of dis-unity. In order for a person to be a leader at Netcast, they have to have personal character, they must be competent and they myst have chemistry with other people in the organization.
5. Encourage diversity in giftedness. Anytime you have all of the same type of people on a team, than you will struggle to get better. Without diversity, you will rarely be able to see an organization with a critical eye. It is important that you have enough diversity among a team that we are continually getting different perspectives on any given issue. The only thing that you need to be careful about with this type of approach, is keeping unity. When people come to the table with different perspectives, it is vital that they all do so with great humility and honor towards others.
6. Wins go out, losses stay in. At Netcast, whenever we get a "win" (encouraging email, someone becomes a christian, etc…) we make sure that we spread that news throughout the entire church. Those are great ways for us to encourage the church. However, when we see a "loss" (discouraging email, harsh critic, etc…) we make sure that stays within the leadership of the church and we deal with it there. This is vital to keeping positive momentum within an organization.
1. Authority is easy to give away and very hard to take back. Take your time giving away authority to others because once you give it away, it could cause major disunity and problems if you have to take it back.
2. Building teams are vital. Most leaders neglect the importance of team building. Without other strong teams within an organization, the organization will never thrive.
3. Allow other leaders to lead. We want Netcast to be a place where God sends leaders to lead and not leaders to always be led. For the health and benefit of Netcast, it is important that I free people to lead out in their gifts. If there are people who are more gifted than I am in certain areas, than I have to encourage and free them to lead out in their giftedness.
4. Competence, Character, and Chemistry. For me as a leader, it is vital that the people on my team, have these three characteristics. I learned this from a leadership book I read about 5 years ago and it is so true. You can never allow someone with great abilities but little character to be a part of the leadership of a church. In the same way, if someone has great character but can't keep a commitment, than they are unqualified to lead. Lastly, if they have great character and are competent individuals, but lack chemistry with the other people within the organization, than we cannot allow that type of dis-unity. In order for a person to be a leader at Netcast, they have to have personal character, they must be competent and they myst have chemistry with other people in the organization.
5. Encourage diversity in giftedness. Anytime you have all of the same type of people on a team, than you will struggle to get better. Without diversity, you will rarely be able to see an organization with a critical eye. It is important that you have enough diversity among a team that we are continually getting different perspectives on any given issue. The only thing that you need to be careful about with this type of approach, is keeping unity. When people come to the table with different perspectives, it is vital that they all do so with great humility and honor towards others.
6. Wins go out, losses stay in. At Netcast, whenever we get a "win" (encouraging email, someone becomes a christian, etc…) we make sure that we spread that news throughout the entire church. Those are great ways for us to encourage the church. However, when we see a "loss" (discouraging email, harsh critic, etc…) we make sure that stays within the leadership of the church and we deal with it there. This is vital to keeping positive momentum within an organization.
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