Therefore GO and MAKE DISCIPLES of all nations.
Matthew 28:19
An excerpt from John Maxwell:
All the training in the world will provide only limited success if you don't turn your people loose to do the job. The way to do that is to give them responsibility, authority, and accountability.
For some people, responsibility is the easiest to give. But what is difficult for some leaders is allowing their people to keep the responsibility after it's been given. Poor managers want to control every detail of their people's work. When that happens, the potential leaders who work for them become frustrated and don't develop. Rather than desiring more responsibility, they become indifferent or avoid responsibility all together.
With responsibility must go authority. Winston Churchill said in an address, "I am your servant. You have the right to dismiss me when you please. What you have no right to do is ask me to bear responsibility without the power of action."
Once responsibility and authority have been given to people, they become empowered to make things happen. But we also have to be sure that they are making the right things happen. That's where accountability comes into the picture.
Do you struggle in giving responsibility, authority, or accountability to others?
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Pastor Tiffany's Response:
One thing that I love about God calling me to Freedom to be a pastor is that I get to serve with an amazing team- the Pastoral Staff. I love that we get to help Pastor Shane carry the vision that God has placed on Freedom and that he trusts us to help build it.
I also love that I get to serve alongside incredible people and lead you all.
I also enjoy the culture of Freedom and how we are always constantly changing and striving to become better and do what it takes to reach ONE MORE.
I love that we have the mindset that "The Goal is more important than the Role." We all have a very vital role to play to help us carry out the vision of Freedom.
I love that we don't function as many other churches do, or as many people think that we should--where the pastor does everything, has a hand in everything, and should make all the decisions. Or that the pastor should be the one to make house calls, hospital visits, be at all the things they are invited to, and I could keep going but I'll stop myself there.
I love that this is a safe place to fail, to succeed, to walk into the unknown without knowing what's coming, and to raise people up. I love that we're not meant to do ministry on our own. That's not what being a leader is.. it's about raising others up and giving things away. It's about trusting others.. equipping, empowering and encouraging them to step into more of what God has for them.
It's a personal passion of mine to help others discover and live out their potential by inspiring them to seek it every day.
I take my calling as a pastor very seriously... Ephesians 4:11-12 says:
"And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ" Ephesians 4:11-12
It's my job as a pastor of Freedom to equip others to do the work of the ministry. To provide vision and oversight and to do only what I can do. Then we will be able to build up the body together, effectively and efficiently.
Roles change. Responsibilities change. They always have at Freedom and they always will.
I. LOVE. THAT!
I love that, for seasons at a time, things are given away and team members are trusted to carry out the vision.
Let's chat Greenhouse specific real quick.
It would be real easy for us to function as many other churches out there who buy curriculum and read the bold words and go by the book to lead in the classroom.
Wow. What an injustice that would be for YOU and for the kids.
God has made it very clear that I am supposed to pull out your God-given talent and for you to be stretched and grow as a leader by developing the time that we get to spend with the kids.
This is why I give the vision of the series and what each week should be about but allow and TRUST you to come up with how that time is spent and how we can reach these kids in the most beneficial way.
Childcare--- WE ARE FAR FROM IT! Do you agree?
We are a (say it aloud with me) SAFE and FUN place for KIDS to DISCOVER GOD.
What a mantle for us to carry.. a weight to carry.. such an important thing.
--if we aren't
safe, then they won't come back.
--if we aren't fun
and relational, they won't come back.
--if we don't do
our best to help the kids get one step closer to God, they shouldn't come back.
We only have one or two hours a week to reach the kids that God brings in our doors. That's not a lot of time to pour into them the TRUTH and things that go against the culture of the world. That's not a lot of time for us to be a godly influence and provide a place where they can be comfortable and free to be themselves where we don't know what their week has looked like.
We don't know if they were just fighting with their parents or beaten or told they are mistakes. We don't know if they are bullied. We don't know if they have been neglected or emotionally abused at home. We don't know if they truly know what love is. We don't know if they are hearing about the Word and Truth any other time than what we have with them.
And what's sad and scary and makes me angry--- the new norm for people to attend church is once a month. ONCE. A. MONTH.
And I am sad to say that this statistic is very true for many who come to Freedom.
So there's many kids who we don't get the opportunity to see each week, or twice a month even.
We have a problem that needs a solution because there's urgency there.
What's one problem that our ministry was created to solve?
How about when we are trying to reach the kids with no godly male figure in their lives--let alone a male figure? That's our problem.
What's the solution? US. We need more males in the Greenhouse to be that for these kids.
Why? What's the urgency? We don't know if they will come back next week--or ever.
We have one chance to reach these kids. To give them and show them Truth.
Wow.. What an incredible thing that we get to do by serving in the Greenhouse at Freedom.
And what's so cool, is that YOU ARE THE ONES DOING IT! By me allowing myself to get out of the way and allowing and trusting others to lead and take responsibility, to fail and succeed, it's raising others up and is carrying out the vision.
INCREDIBLE.
So know this.
I'm not meant to do it all. I'm meant to be in tune with God and where we're going and to find the right people to help us get there. That's you.
I am trusting you.
Lead well team. We're in this together. We have an amazing opportunity to reach ONE MORE or we have the responsibility of letting opportunities pass us by and missing out on all God has for us and this ministry.
We can do this.
All for ONE MORE.
I love you guys,
-Pastor Tiffany
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