Dear friends,
It's our hope and prayer that you succeed in every area of ministry the Lord has called you into irrespective of you geographical location. I believe that certain dynamics of ministry are constant irrespective of your calling and where you. Through this resource page we hope to encourage and share biblical principles with you so can maximize your potential in your community.
KEYS TO BUILDING A SUCCESSSFUL MINISTRY
VISION:
A lot has been said about vision in our generation and so there is the tendency to overlook this simple 6 letter word. Vision has the key to help you know what you are about in ministry and also focus on those things. I have seen many people who said they are called but don't really know what visions they are called to fulfill and therefore wander about from one thing to another, from one ministry to another. It's a great disaster in ministry to have ministers who don't know what they are about. True vision is received in prayer and also takes prayer to fulfill. In prayer are given a glimpse of what God wants to do through us and through constant prayer we work in partnership with God to bring to pass what God want to do. Spend time in prayer to understand for yourself what God want to use your life for. When you know the vision God is calling you to achieve, spend time making that vision clear to people around you. Many times, visionary tend t forget that it will take the involvement of others to fulfill the vision of God. Neglecting to communicate the vision clearly to others around you can cost you a great deal of frustrations and delays. People will run with you when they understand and share the same vsion with you. Take note that I said, when they understand and share the vision with you. Don't be discouraged when other people leave you; it may be because they don't share the same vision with you.
Don't take it personal when people don't share your vision. Remember everyone was created by God for a purpose and that purpose may not necessarily be the same as yours.
STRATEGY
Strategy is one word that is not often used in Christian circles. For every Vision there is a right way and wrong way to achieve it. Choosing the right way and stipulating how we will walk the way to the the fulfillment of the vision is very important. Visions don't just come to pass, they have to be worked. A man once told me, "The Lord wants him to hold Crusades in stadiums and do major conferences all across the country" I asked him how is going to do it, and his reply was the Lord said it and so the Lord will bring it to pass. Well, that is the mistake a lot of people are making in the kingdom business. God never gives a vision without the strategy that will help us accomplish the vision. When God was ready to save the earth from a great flood, He gave Noah a vision of saving humanity and the strategy was to use an ark.
When Jesus wants to reach the world with His saving gospel, His strategy was to have 12, 72, and 120 disciples who will duplicate whatever He was doing. Did His strategy work? Sure.
What is your strategy for fulfilling the Vision the Lord has given. It will take strategy for us to reach the whole of Africa with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
PEOPLE MATTERS
The bottom line of Christian ministry is this PEOPLE.
People matters so much more than anything else in ministry. When you understand this you will be successful in every ministry endeavor. Time and time again we see people focus on the size of the material things in their ministries to determine success but true success in ministry is the number of people we are positively impacting for the Kingdom.
Is your ministry geared towards reaching people and making them feel welcome into the family of Jesus or you are concerned just about the status of ministering to the crowd brings to you. If people matters to you, it begins with the people around you.
When you don't learn to place value on people in general, it become easy for you to overlook great gifting and potentials around you and it's those gifting and potentials that God will use to cause increase in you ministry.
A friend of mine Hans Schuut once told me, "one question to ask yourself before venturing out to do outside ministry is this, will people miss me when I'm gone?" The answer to this question will determine if the people around you matters to you. If they do matter to you then everywhere you go that there are people, they matter and if people matters to you are bound to reach them in love and ministering in love will yield the ultimate result of success in ministry.
To be continued.
Love and blessings
Paul D