I have spent a good deal of time in the
church world. My wife, Deidre and I have been in full-time pastoral
ministry since 1998. It started when we moved everything we had from
Elkton, MD, where we were youth pastors, to Port St. Lucie, FL to assume the
pastorate of a church in South Florida. We were young, energetic, and in
some ways, very naive. But what we lacked in experience we made up for in
passion for the vision God had given us.
It didn't take long to realize that
vision was just not enough. We learned this the hard way, over almost ten
years of pastoral ministry in Florida. We watched as pastors across the
country fell into dark places or financial indiscretions, moral issues,
and even things that were just plain illegal. We struggled personally
with the desire to grow a church, and fell into the trap of following the
newest ministry fad. We tried to be all the "successful"
preachers we knew. I would even stand in front of the mirror on Saturday
nights and "practice" the right walk, cadence and timber. None
of this seemed to make any difference. We still struggled in developing a
healthy, growing congregation.
I became a church junky. I read
all the newest trends, could tell you the numbers and the stats of growing
churches. I knew the newest language, culture and trends. I dressed
in my Buckle shirts, Aldo shoes, and cool jeans. We had the look, the
vibe, and the groove... yet we were still struggling. What else could we
possible do? We prayed and fasted - we were told to pray more, so we did.
We went to conferences and listened to every podcast and read every
resource we could find, still nothing...
Then one day it hit me. What we,
and many other pastors, were lacking was not training - I had been to a great
college. It was not passion or spirituality - I spent many nights on my
face crying out to God for direction and help. What I lacked were the
values in ministry that would allow us to grow a successful, solid, and healthy
ministry that would stand the tests of time and storms of life. I was
like a ship being tossed by the winds, one style and strategy followed by
another depending on the crowd I was being influenced by. What I had to
determine was what I was going to build my life and ministry on.
I began to see that there are three
things you can build your ministry or organization on. You may be saying,
yes but the most important is Jesus. I would say you are right -
conceptually. But Jesus is not the foundation, he is the Chief
Cornerstone from which the foundation is built. You still have to go
though the process of building your own foundation. Trust me, I was
not lacking Jesus as my cornerstone. He was the beginning and the end,
the alpha and omega of everything I was. What I was not grasping was what
came after that.
So the three things you can choose to
build on are:
1.
Personality
2.
Vision
3.
Values
The first, Personality, is the most
shallow and volatile of the three. It is so because it is built on the
ability and performance of a person. If the person is doing good, at the
top of his/her game, everything is going good. The moment the person
begins to stumble the entire system begins to unravel.
We have all seen this at one time or
another. We have watched as businesses, churches, ministries and even
politics seemed to rise over night just to fall just as fast. They were
built on the charismatic personality traits of an individual.
The second, Vision, is the place where
most organizations stop. This is where I stopped, and it ultimately
hindered my success. Vision, while deeper and more stable than
personality, is still not the most solid of the three. When you build on
Vision you can come to the end and still not have answers to some very
important questions. What happens when the vision is fulfilled?
What happens when life steps in and the vision is no longer applicable?
Where do you go then? In order to become a healthy organization you
have to move to the third, deepest and most stable of the three possible
foundations - Values.
Values are like the strong support under
a skyscraper. They will keep you rooted and planted, even in the stormy
times. They will give you substance to build on. They are deeper
than personality in that they are not built on performance. They outlast
vision because they never change. Situations, culture, time and space do
not effect them. They are not based on what is cool or trendy, they are
just the right thing to do - always.
So, armed with this new information, we
set out to develop a ministry that had sustainability and would be effective.
We set out to determine who we were, who God was calling us to be, and to
lead from that platform instead of performance, or even inspiration.
We prayed and studied, and then did it again,
until we developed the 10 Core Values that we now live by. They are:
1. The Value of a Soul.
2. The Value of the Local Church.
3. The Value of Excellence.
4. The Value of Innocence.
5. The Value of Relationships.
6. The Value of Balance.
7. The Value of Integrity.
8. The Value of Community.
9. The Value of Generosity.
10. The Value of Faith.
This is who we are and why we are doing what we are doing at Encounter Church. We believe there is more to ministry that just vision and personality, but there are deep rooted values that MUST propel us.
I want to encourage you to not just clip
and paste these. You are welcome to use them, but put in the time necessary to
develop your own set of Values. Then right them down, enlist others to
hold you accountable to them, and watch as God helps you build something great
on this firm foundation.
Remember this tweetable phrase,
"Your personality will open doors for you, your vision will propel you,
but only your values will sustain you!"
God Bless,
JT
For information and messages by James
click on the link below...
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