Tool Shop – Sharpen Your Ministry Tools      “10 minutes with Mark Batterson”

 

Seven Leadership Reminders:

 

1. The bigger we get the more grounded we have to stay. Two words in 1 Corinthians 3:56 are a vital reminder – “only servants.” We have the privilege of planting and watering, but only God gives the increase.

 

2. The bigger we get the more above reproach we need to be. As our leadership expands, there can be an unhealthy and unholy tendency toward the permissible end of the spectrum.. Guard against it. As our influence expands, I think it is vitally important that leaders move toward the beneficial end of the spectrum! (1 Corinthians 10:23)

 

3. The bigger we get the harder it is to maintain unity. Vision is the key to unity. As a church gets larger you not only need more vision, you need to cast that vision more frequently.

 

4. The bigger we get the more complicated things get. As leaders, we have to guard against the Egypt tendency – there will always be people who want to return to the land of familiarity.

 

5. The bigger we get the more we have to guard our hearts. We have to make sure we’re doing ministry out of the overflow of what God is doing in our own lives. We have to make sure that we seeking God day in and day out.

 

6. The bigger we get the better stewards we need to be. Luke 12:48 says, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded.”

 

7. The bigger we get the more we have to remind ourselves of why we’re doing what we’re doing and who we’re doing it for. One of the greatest dangers we face is learning how and forgetting why. We stop doing ministry out of imagination and start doing ministry out of memory. We stop creating the future and start repeating the past. Am I building altars to God or monuments to myself? Saul went from building altars to God in 1 Samuel 14:35 to building monuments to himself in 1 Samuel 15:12. The more insecure we are, the more monuments we’ll try to build.

 

At the end of the day the key to leadership is following in the footsteps of Jesus. Follow in His footsteps and you’ll never get off track!

 

Tailgate Jesus!

 

Mark pastors National Community Church in Washington, DC

www.theaterchurch.com