Class Response Five: Mark Chester

Yesterday morning we were joined in class by Mark Chester, senior pastor of Gettysburg Foursquare church.

My favorite part of these responses is that they call me to action. We can all think something was 'cool' or even 'gripping' that a speaker said... but, for me, writing it here and making it known what I am confident God did in my heart... it's like keeping myself (in a very simple way) accountable to do something with the word of God.

Mark shared briefly on Matthew 25 and on how he invests his time. He explained that he stays very busy and consistently receives more requests to meet with people than there is really time for in his day. I could really connect with this point. Not because I'm anywhere near as busy as Mark is, I'm sure, just because we all have things pulling on us and really can't spend an unlimited amount of time with an unlimited amount of people.

God started leading me on a really important topic for me to understand in my leadership. I'll start here. I don't mind being busy. I really don't. But I don't want to live burnt out or making the people who should be getting the most of Bonnie feeling like they're getting hardly anything at all. That just breaks my heart thinking about it.

Sometimes as a leader, we think we're the only person the people we lead can come to. I don't think we do this on purpose. But sometimes, good intentions to love and help can go bad when we want to take ownership of everyone's healing and counsel. I'm convinced that it can become a big pride and self-dependency issue. It is so good to be confident of the gifts God has given you... gifts in counsel, in prayer,  in relationships, in ministry... in whatever. But I've got to understand that I'm NOT the only one with gifts that God wants to use.

I'm so thankful that God's given me a counselor's heart and a love for people being healed and cared for... but God is telling me that there's another part of my gifting that I ignore if I get too stuck on that first part: I am gifted at building leaders, too. When God teaches me, I can join with him in teaching others... and then ministry multiplies. I don't get burnt out because I don't act like everyone's growth depends on me.

I know this post might sound exceptionally prideful... but I think that's the point. I love that God uses me. I am so undeserving and He is so good. But I want to be used now to raise other people up to a place of confidence in counseling, mentoring, loving, blessing, and just praying for people. We don't have to live feeling burnt out. I think what God's teaching me here is this: If I'm feeling burnt out, burdened, and losing focus on what ministry is really about... it's probably because I'm trying to do it all myself. I'm responsible for me and when I've been with God, I have a much greater sensitivity to what I'm supposed to handle and how I'm supposed to handle it.

And the most beautiful part about that? I'm never going to be alone. God is always my helper.