In my early years of ministry much of what I did like everyone else starting out was based on trial and error therefore I did not know what was really important in growing a ministry nor how to properly view things. There are a lot of things had known the value of and others had I known how to view them that would have saved me much pain and confusion in my life. In this issue I will list and briefly discuss “10 Things I Wish I Had Known”.
10. I wish I had known….. Hardly anything is a big deal. I was a master at majoring on the minors and allowing little things and problems to draw me away from our purpose of reaching people. I became a problem preacher – (I preached about problems instead of solutions) always addressing issues from the platform instead of one on one or letting it work itself out in time.
9. I wish I had known…. That not everyone who disagrees with me is against me. In my early years of ministry my insecurities would not allow me to see people that disagreed with me any other way than they were out to get me. I realized through the years that just because someone has a different opinion does not necessarily make them against, in reality they may be for me and love me and the church enough to be honest with me. 8. I wish I had known….My church was not for everyone and that it’s okay for people to move on and become a blessing to another church family. In the early years I always took it personal and now I have come to realize that it’s not always about me when they leave. I have since those early yeas of ministry endeavored to make our church the easiest church in town to leave and by doing this it has become an easy place for people to return to if they so choose.
7. I wish I had known…. That people will people regardless of where I go. I can remember as a young pastor thinking when dealing with people that were causing trouble that if I was somewhere else, in another church things would different. To me the grass always looked greener on the other side of the fence and at times I climbed over to realize that grass also looks greener over a septic tank. People are will people so the key to success and happiness is to bloom where God has planted you.
6. I wish I had known…. To have fun on the journey. I was to uptight with myself, family and the people I had been given to lead. I have come to realize through the years what Jesus meant in Matthew 11 when he said my yoke is easy and my burden is light. When we no longer enjoy the ministry we will begin loosing our effectiveness.
5. I wish I had known…. That I was my greatest problem and hindrance in the ministry. I can remember very well blaming people, the devil and even at times God for my problems until one day when I heard a tape by Dr. Kenneth Haggin where he said if you have been pastoring a church for more than three years the dominating problems you are dealing with are no longer leftovers from the former pastor but your own. I was so angered by this that I was very tempted to throw the tape away because I was surrounded by insecure people which meant I was insure. I have found through the years that Bro Haggin was correct, we attract who we are not who we want. I recognized that I had to work on my self-worth to overcome my insecurities so I could develop a team around me that was emotionally whole so we could help the insecure and hurting rather than reproducing my weaknesses in others.
4. I wish I had known…. I am responsible to people but not for people. I thought it was up to me to solve everyone’s problem and to keep people straight so I out of a religious self-righteous zeal became God’s policeman pointing out others faults and weaknesses as if I had none of my own. I soon found I was trying to be people’s savior rather than their pastor and began to wear myself out and began to despise the ministry and my people. Then one day I saw that even Jesus did not take the path I had chosen, he gave people truth and let them decide what they would do with it so I gave it a try and it worked and still does today.
3. I wish I had known…. The value of building a team. In the early years I tired to be everything to everyone and thought I was doing this for the people when in reality I was doing an injustice to the people. My thoughts were I can do it better myself in less time than it would take me to train someone else to do the job. Because of my faulty beliefs my days were filled with things that others could have easily done thus leaving me little time to pray, prepare and be with my family. Building a team is the key to building our ministry in such a way that the ministry itself does not drain the life out of us.
2. I wish I had known….. The value of long term vision. A strong vision will keep the day to day frustrations and set backs from drawing you off track and away from your purpose. It will keep you motivated and will empower you to keep moving forward even when it is against all odds and will keep us and those around fussing over and getting sidetracked with the small and unimportant things such as what color the Sunday School Room should be painted. I have learned by experience that anytime we loose our vision/purpose little things become big things and soon we are spending our time putting out fires rather than advancing the Kingdom of God in the earth. When this begins to happen discouragement sets in and then the next step is questioning our calling and anything we question we begin to doubt.
1. I wish I had known…. God loved me apart from my performance and what I could do for him in ministry. In my early years I thought the more I did for God the more value he would place on me so as a product of this I wore myself out doing good but not the best things. Now I realize there is great freedom in knowing your acceptance has nothing to do with what do or do not do.
As I look at this list I like everyone wish I had known when I was younger what I know now and will no doubt look back at where I am today in the future and wish the same. We are on a journey that demands growth and change so let’s apply the above and move on to other things lest we get stuck where we are.
