What Does Ministry Look Like?
I’m a planner. You know that, right? That’s why God married me to an executor (a doer). Perfect match. I’ve always been able to look at the finished/future product and reverse engineer it into a set of steps – a “blueprint” if you will. For example, while running a friend’s company and working for him as a home theater installer, I also planned my own wedding, all the way down to an automated seating chart in Microsoft Excel. It’s part of my DNA.
Wouldn’t it be just like God to spot me leaning on my own understanding and kick my crutch out from under me? What I mean is, is this: when we formally “launched” the ministry, I had a plan. In fact, I had lots of plans. I even had plans to make more plans. I had plans to find and publish statistics, show returns on donor investments, deliverables for our board, prayer and praise reports, and so on, and so on. I went to seminars on best practices, scheduled planning time, and got my wife’s accountability on executing those plans. Then, with white knuckles wrapped around the plans, we set out to execute them.
That’s when God kicked my crutch. “Lean on me, not your understanding…”
When God gives a vague calling to a specific person, it can be confounding. Yet, it can also be quite liberating. In our situation, God called us to teach, exhort, and encourage people to become fully dependent on Him. Praise God that He wanted us to do it by example, as well, even if we wanted to fight Him on it. Today, we stand grateful that our only choice for obedient living is to “commit our plans to the Lord” as long as we understand “commit” to mean “tell God your plans and when He’s done laughing, be prepared to watch Him unfold something inordinately more awesome in front of your eyes.
“Aarron, the title of the article is ‘Update’, can we have an update, already?”
With ruthless reliance and dependence on God as the backdrop, take a look at a few recent updates on all things Seasons of Life.
Updates:
The Way Forward – Recap and Upcoming
Speak Life: She Got the Car, Her Mom Got a Future
Where Does it Hurt?