3 Years Later

Deep reflection can be something that sets people a part in certain seasons of life. What goals did you have three years ago? Did you achieve them? What obstacles came up when you were striving to accomplish them? Are you still working towards that goal? Do your goals look different now? So many different questions you can start to ask yourself once you enter the rabbit hole. It is often times these lines of questions that I can find myself in at absolute random moments. (Maybe chalk it up to the short attention span). But of the times I find myself asking these questions, I take just a brief moment to sit down and think about the answers.

I consider the work I've done in ministry to be a point of reflection that I embark on more often than other subjects. I ask questions that need to be answered mostly because reflection can help me put things into perspective. As I'm asking myself questions, I start thinking about the people who have served on leadership in the last few years. I think about expectations and how they've changed, about some standards not being met, about me pushing when I should be comforting. The whole "nine yards." 

I think about myself as a leader now and how I have considerably grown over the last 3 years. I think about our church and the growth we have had in terms of leaders and people stepping up to serve. 

Then the questions of "what's next?" comes to mind for 'the awakening.' I consider that the last three years there has been a good measure of stability, but just cause things have been stable doesn't mean they don't need to change or adapt. With the growth of our leaders, our ministry has to grow in its model as well. We can't expect the things that were edifying to them two years ago to continuously be edifying to them now, especially acknowledging that they're getting older, have different responsibilities, and are actually coming of age. 

12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!

13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.

14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Hebrews 5:12-14 NIV

 The shift in my leadership team really does please me. Some people have stepped down, other people have transitioned to a different ministry in church, some have stepped into bigger roles, a lot of things have shifted, it is nice to see the shift amongst the crew now affecting our culture as well. There is a growing sense of ownership. I look back at one of my goals when I first joined staff, and helping this demographic take ownership in ministry and the gifts God has given them was a big one. 

This is just the beginning really. I think there is a lot more to go before I can really say job complete or goal accomplished in this area. But when I started vocational ministry, I couldn't really tell you how I was going to directly accomplish this goal. Heck, a year into vocational ministry I still couldn't tell you. But I knew that investing in people and casting vision was my broad answer to it. It may take more years but I'm okay with that. Because sometimes you just have to trust in what God is doing, more importantly that it is in His timing and not our own.

I share this primarily to encourage anyone reading this to not be frustrated at goals that were set years ago and still have not been accomplished. Maybe they need to be adjusted, or better yet, your approach needs to be adjusted. If we trust that God works all things for His glory and our good, we need to trust that the work we put in is not in vein. That the Lord works according to His timing and not ours. 

Lastly, I would encourage you in this time to surrender the results to God, we work, but the results are all on Him.

"I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase."
            1 Corinthians 3:6-7 NKJV