I have experienced this recently and it really hurts. You have someone close to you that helps fulfill the vision that God has given you and they leave you. I'm talking about someone that you have trusted, given ownership to, and given access to.
When this happens we have a few choices:
- Get hurt; blame them; and protect ourselves from this happening again
- Allow the moral of the team to decline and the hope of the future to be lost
- Think that God is done using you
- Trust God even through difficult times
- Expand the team around you, don't depend on a small few to accomplish the ministry
- Expand the vision for the ministry, each person is a part of the picture
No matter what you do people will bolt on you. No matter if you are T.D. Jakes or you can sing like Bono, or you can lead worship like Chris Tomlin, people will leave. Each time a person leaves, God is in the picture doing someone we don't understand. Every time I have been through a time of subtraction, God has multiplied something inside of me. I choose to grow through these times. I could complain and feel down for myself, or I could grow into the leader God is wanting me to be.
How do you handle this?
3 comments:
Tim,
This is one of the hardest things about ministry to me. You invest time, energy, and all of yourself in someone and they leave you. It's hard and it hurts. The best thing that I have found to do is concentrate on the ones you have left and God will help you to "rebound". We have to put our hearts on the line to help people and to win them for Christ. When you lead worship this week and someone finds Christ, or finds a new revelation in him- then you can raise your hands and praise God and say, "It was all worth it, every heartache, every tear...it was worth it!" Keep up the good work! You are awesome!
Holly
Ya got two options...
1.) Don't invest in people. Instead write books, record CD's, and come up with growth strategies that hide the fact that people need someone to fight in the trenches of life with them...
2.) Pour your life into people, at any cost, knowing there will be a cost. Jesus did some jaw-dropping stuff in his day. Maybe the most profound was him pouring his life into a dude who kissed him away for some bling.
If what you're doing doesn't hurt, your heart's not in it. Smarter people then me keep telling me when it hurts, respond in the opposite spirit of how you feel. Celebrate this dude leaving, make a big deal about it, proving to everyone that the ministry wasn't built by one, can't be destroyed by one, and God has a plan beyond one.
Well I thought I might give a word of encouragement..but wow what wisdom, insight and maturity in both of the responses already posted! But I think Joe got right to the meat of the matter: it happened to Jesus..its going to happen to us...and like Holly said and continue to pour into those who remain...dad's big summary: people are people..places change, names changes but people same....especially so in these last days!
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