Serve the Servants

Our staff has been busy dreaming and brainstorming about goals for their specific ministry for 2009. As I have put pen to paper, I have spent much time with my wife thinking and praying through what it is we want to accomplish the first 6 months of 2009. One of the big areas I want to invest time, energy, and resources into this next year is volunteer hospitality...serving and honoring those who serve with me.

As leaders, we are to be servants of the teams we lead. However busy we are with programs or urgent tasks, ministering to the team is one thing we cannot afford to neglect. I see the tasks of praying for the teams I lead, spending relaxed time with them, and ministering to them as one of the most important details of my calling as leader of this ministry. Keeping this group united is a key priority (John 17:11) and at times has been the most absorbing challenge that I have faced (Ephesians 4:3).

As leaders, if we want to overcome the lack of commitment from people in our church, we as leaders must first be committed to our people. The example of Jesus giving his life for his friends was going to motivate these friends to give their lives for each other (John 15:12-13). In the same manner, when we as leaders show costly commitment to our people, they then will pay the price for their teammates. While Jesus is presented as the example to follow in the NT, he was also presented as a true example of suffering. My prayer is that we would adopt and maintain a lifestyle of costly servanthood in our relationships with others.