Sep 3

Written by: jimwideman
9/3/2009 12:25 AM 

Let's stop for a moment and take a realistic look at the ministry. My Mom once told me, "Things are never as bad as you think they are and you're never as wonderful as you think you are, either ." At my very first ministry opportunity (it was not a full-time position by the way), I learned right away that if I was going to make it in ministry, I would have to learn to look at challenging situations realistically. It didn't take me long to learn that when someone told me half the church was upset with me for something 1 had done, I needed to find out for myself the accuracy of their statements. Most of the time "half the church" translated to "three people " This meant there were 197 in the church who were not mad at me.

In other words, compare apples to apples. In doing this, you may just find out that you don't have things as rough as you think. I remember another time shortly after accepting a new position that I became very frustrated because my last church seemed so much more organized than the first one. Then my wife reminded me what it was like at my old church after the same amount of time and I saw that rather than being behind, I was really ahead. Looking at things realistically will keep you from falling into the traps of the devil. You see there's really no such thing as a part-time Christian leader. What that really means is that you work for the Lord full time but you have to depend on something other than the ministry to make a living. More to come....

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