From Sunday Highlights to Sunday Lessons
I’ve decided to change my “Sunday Highlights” posts to “Sunday Lessons”. While some of my Sunday Highlights include lessons I’m learning as a leader, I rarely have time to fully dive into them. The new format will focus on one leadership lesson I’m learning every week or highlighting one of our leaders in action. Occasionally my lesson could come from the message in which case I might include more quotes from the message, but I won’t share those as regularly. You can always listen or watch Cross Point messages online though.
Here’s this week’s lesson:
Occasionally you’ve heard me whine about not feeling very needed on Sundays. My role is such that I roam from campus to campus and occasionally fill in for a campus pastor. We’re currently in a season where all of our key leaders are in place and I often find myself waking up on Sunday morning with no place I “have” to be. I can choose where I want to serve for the morning. This sounds wonderful, but frankly it’s left me feeling very lost and unneeded. Something that can rock even the toughest of leaders.
I’m realizing however that my perspective on this has been very selfish. I’ve been approaching Sundays with an attitude of “where am I needed?”, in other words “who needs me?”, “who can’t do without me?”. That’s a whole lot of “ME”! Feels kind of gross to write it that way, but it’s true.
What would it look like if I changed my perspective to “who can I best encourage or support today?” What if my focus on Sundays was to find ways to champion and encourage? What if I shifted my thought process from “what can I do?” to “what can I give?” I’d love my presence on a campus to be something that our team looks forward to, not because they need me but because they feel loved and encouraged for what they do.
I’m learning that leadership is less about what I do and so much more about what I give.
What I do on Sundays is give:
- give encouragement
- give support
- give love
- give guidance
- give vision
- give a helping hand
What would you add to this list? How are you learning to give as a leader?
Jenni
Thanks for leading and demonstrating this for all of us who are on your team! Love serving with you!
Thank you so much Zach! I’m so thankful you guys are a part of this team!
Wow! Thanks for this post. Never thought of it quite this way.
Jenni – great post!! I’ve enjoyed following your blog and the transparency you show it sharing your life and ministry as it really is. You make a subtle but extremely important point that can look the same on the outside – but one is all about ‘me’ and the other other is about how God can work through me to bless others. I was embarrassed but thankful about a year ago when a colleague in ministry saw me running in the hallway at church and later said “You know, you don’t have to be everywhere at once. We sometimes get caught up thinking things won’t happen if not for us, and that really doesn’t honor God.” Ouch! Harsh, but true. I’ve switched my focus more to what you talk about here, and arrive at church not looking to be needed, but with a prayerful heart and excited for whatever the Spirit may bring. It’s made a big difference in my own heart attitude as well as in the lives of the people I get to talk to and encourage (now that I’m not running thru the hallways anymore) — Larry
Larry, thank you for sharing your story. I relate so much!
Powerful Larry!
Love this! … and you are one of the best “givers” I know!! 🙂
Jenni… You may remember me and you may not. I visited Crosspoint to interview Pete about multi-site ministry as a part of an extensive research project on organizational culture and structure as it applies to the multi-site church. Pete introduced us so but you were headed to another meeting so we didn’t get to chat about your perspective. I have consulted with a couple of churches who are struggling with certain aspects of their multi-site ministry since finishing my research. After saying all of that, I just want to encourage you.
From my experience with MS churches, Crosspoint is one of the most successful. One of the things that I saw at Crosspoint (that many other MS’s don’t place enough importance on) is the need for there to be one staff that is portrayed as such. Sure, each site has a number of staff and volunteers that are specifically responsible for the ministry happening through that campus. However, those staff cannot live out their roles separate from the other sites (because that begin to become their own church). I suggest churches who struggle with living and portraying the “one church : multiple locations” concept to give some staff the responsibility of intentionally supporting other campuses on a regular basis (Sunday mornings being key). Your ability to be at any campus on any given Sunday morning may very well be a vital aspect of Crosspoint multi-site ministry.
Blessings!
Tiffanie, thank you for sharing your observations and encouragement. And yes, I remember meeting… although too brief!