Much love to my peeps

I gotta say that i owe a lot to my peeps for sticking with me over the years. for a guy like me that gets into ministry and has no business doing so, it takes tons to keep me in the game. you may be in a similar situation. what i mean is that most of us who choose to live a life with JC do not really deserve his grace. 

“My grace is sufficient for you, for power  is perfected in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:9)

and i guess that is why it is called grace - because we do not deserve it. but then there is another category within this one; it is the one that calls others to give their life to one of ministry in a vocational way. and these are the peeps who inspire me. i know what it means to do ministry and yearn to put into the lives of others. and one of the hard things that comes along with this passion is the need to find a group to pour into you. i speak a lot about having a mentor or mentors - and that is very important. however, you also need to have those who are doing ministry along side of you who can speak into your life.

"let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance..."

Pr. 1:5

i remember the first time that i read this when i was in high school. my associate pastor at the time told me that i was going to have to look to other young men my age to give me encouragement in my walk. then he pointed me to the book of Proverbs and to my astonishment, there it was right in the beginning of the book. i realized that i needed to find others who were better than me to help me in my life. then i read a couple of years later a book by John C. Maxwell. he says in one of my favorite chapters of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, "Seek for yourself inner circle people who will help you improve" (134). And now that is what i do. i want to find the peeps that are good at the things in ministry where i am not good. 

and what i realized very quickly in my first job as a youth guy, there are only a select few things that i am really good at. the rest of the stuff i need to give away to others who can do a better job. and i know that in your ministry you are thinking that if you do not do stuff then it is not going to get done right. and to that i say baloney. it will get done, maybe not exactly the way you would like it, but it will get done. and if you spend time on the stuff where you are not good, then your ministry will ultimately suffer because you will not have the energy to do the stuff you ARE good at to the best of your ability.

this is what my inner circle of men and women do. they are good at seeing stuff that i am not good at. they have gifts and talents that i could only dream of. i can name five peeps off the top of my head that have authority in my life because they know what i do and do not need to hear. they are the ones who know my strengths and weaknesses and make my ministry better. so the question i would pose is what are you good at - and i mean really good. find those things and stick to them. everything else, find someone who is better than you and let them excel. your ministry will thank you for it and you will continue to grow in relationship with God and your ability to do ministry.