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Grip-Grasp-Gifts: Keys to life-changing leadership by John Jackson |
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 Responding to God's calling is an antidote to constantly trying to ‘prove yourself.'John Jackson, author of PastorPreneur and founding pastor of Carson Valley Christian Center in Minden, Nev. |
Lasting life change is what spiritual leadership is all about. Many pastors want to be involved in life change, yet feel frustrated at knowing how to establish a church ministry climate where leadership and evangelistic passion can flourish. These last seven years, I've had the privilege to lead such a place. God has taught us some key principles that have helped develop my own leadership in these matters and may help you as well. After publishing PastorPreneur, many pastors and Christian business people alike have asked me, "What does it take to think like a pastorpreneur?" Here are the three steps necessary to think like a pastorpreneur:
1) Grip God's calling on your life. This is a key step where you drill down deep and ask the fundamental life question (which I think you ask at many times in your life), "God, what did you make me to do? What is the purpose of my life and how should I use my life to bring glory to you?"
2) Grasp the needs of your community. This is really the "missionary" question. Robert Schuller says, "Find a need and meet it, find a hurt and heal it ... if you do, you will never lack opportunity to impact people's lives for God." What are the needs and opportunities for impact that exist in your community? How can you reach people for the glory of God?
3) Mobilize the gifts of your team. This is the team leadership question. What are the resources you have to meet the needs of the community? What creative strategies can you unleash to pull from your team their highest and best for the sake of impacting others for God?
As a pastor, this thinking process should be bathed in prayer, shared with key leaders and become a fundamental part of your heart preparation for pastorpreneur ministry.
Let's unpack each of those three principles and practices:
Grip God's calling on your life
Gripping God's calling on your life is the most important part of the process. Here are some essential thoughts to help you grip God's calling on your life:
1. Following God's promise means you are partnering with the God of the universe to fulfill his purposes. As Rick Warren says in the first line of The Purpose Driven Life, "It is not about you." Gripping God's calling means you start by recognizing that you are submitting your life to the care and calling of the creator of the universe!
2) Author Os Guinness says that the calling of God is not just for pastors. "Calling," wrote Guinness, "is the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion and dynamism lived out as a response to his summons and service." (Os Guinness, The Call, (Word Publishing, Nashville, 1998, p. 4).
3) Responding to God's calling is an antidote to constantly trying to "prove yourself." Calling anchors your soul to God's character, the passions he implanted in your soul, and the context of your local community
Once God's calling is clear in your mind and your heart, you will then be able to cultivate the gifts he has specifically entrusted to you and your team, so you can accomplish his purposes in your local context. Grip his calling on your life and you will become gripped by it!
| Mobilizing Members for Ministry |
| Learn how to help your church members discover their God-given S.H.A.P.E. and then EMPOWER them for ministry within the church. This one day seminar will be coming to Toronto, Ft. Lauderdale, Manchester, and Austin during the next couple of months. Click here for more information, including times.
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After you have gripped God's calling on your life, the next step to thinking like a pastorpreneur is to grasp the needs of your community. Since Jesus called us to, "Love God with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves" (Matt. 22:39), and he told us that our neighbors are those in need, how should we then live?
Here are some exciting challenges to help develop your grasp on the needs of your community:
- Robert Schuller says, "Find a need and fill it, find a hurt and heal it ... and you'll never lack for ministry opportunity." He's right. I've not found a community yet, in more than 25 years of pastoral, denominational, and church planting ministry that was closed to a church that reached out to help people.
- Bill Hybels says that it is a tragedy that the average McDonalds owner knows more about our communities than we, the pastors, do – and all they want to do is sell a burger and fries. He's right, and I'm convicted about that every time I think about it.
- You can go to "Anytown, USA," attend chamber of commerce meetings, community forums, school gatherings, and ask three simple questions: 1) What do you think is the greatest need in our community?; 2) If you were to go to a church, what would you suggest that church focus on in order to meet the needs in our community?; 3) What one factor might make you consider attending church? When we did this in our community seven years ago, we got huge attention from people who were shocked that we were even asking those questions.
- According to George Barna, about two-thirds of the unchurched people in the United States call themselves Christians! But, when drilling deeper, their worldview is not at all consistent with Scripture. How can you reach your community and understand what they believe?
- Meeting needs in the name of Christ opens the door to community impact. Christian business leaders and entrepreneurial pastors can transform a community with the power of God through need-meeting and innovative impact strategies.
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When we see the needs of the people in our community, our hearts should break. Not just because of the needs but the realization that so many are seeking to have those needs met outside a relationship with Christ. John Jackson |
When we see the needs of the people in our community, our hearts should break. Not just because of the needs but the realization that so many are seeking to have those needs met outside a relationship with Christ. We in the church know that the only complete answer to the questions of life is a vital union with Jesus Christ. Pastorpreneurs learn to think like Christ by seeing the needs of people as an opportunity to extend love and grace and open doors to conversation with neighbors who don't yet know God in a personal way.
Mobilize the spiritual gifts (and natural abilities) of your team
Pastorpreneurs are constantly looking to mobilize, leverage, and maximize the gifts and abilities of God's people for Kingdom impact. They realize God's calling and their community's needs require that they identify and utilize the unique ways God wired their congregation. Many pastorpreneurs learn to think "outside the box" to do this.
In our own local community, the expressed needs of people relate to wholesome activities for children/youth and a way to connect faith and recreation. Though our church has only been around for six years, we are seeing the start of some exciting things, including:
- A martial arts program where 50 percent of the participants don't attend our church. The ministry leader had wanted to launch such a program for 10 years but couldn't find the right setting.
- A dance ministry led by a woman who had her life transformed by God's grace and now uses her skills to the glory of God.
- A sports ministry led by a former pro football player who is just now starting to see tremendous synergy in our local community by connecting children/youth and families in positive recreational environments.
- A recovery ministry that has become an "Umbrella of Safety" for people in our community.
- A marketing ministry that creatively communicates the life changing message of God's love using contemporary media.
These are just five of more than 30 ministries that exist in our 7-year-old church. None of these ministries would or perhaps even should exist in our church except that God entrusted specific gifts and abilities to his people, and they want in the game! One of the greatest joys of a pastorpreneur is to discover how God shaped you, help others identify their S.H.A.P.E., and then mobilize and release people for Kingdom impact!
How many gifts and abilities are laying around unopened in your life or in the lives of those you lead?
Your life was made to make a difference. God wants your leadership to facilitate lasting life change for his kingdom glory. Think different, behave different, and watch the God of Heaven and Earth use you for his purposes here on Earth!
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