By George Yates
Organizational health strategist and coach
Having the right people in positions of leadership is crucial to getting started right and continuing on a quality course of ministry.
The right person for a particular position might not be the one with the highest qualifications or education and experience for the position. Organizations, churches and businesses are littered with people in positions with no passion or drive for accomplishing required tasks. Someone with passion will overcome inexperience with his/her drive to accomplish required tasks.
Having the right people in leadership positions begins with proper recruitment. Here are two tips to consider when recruiting for any position: 1) Do not recruit in the hall. 2) Look for the who, people with capacity for the role needed.
Filling a position
Steps to follow when your organization has a position to be filled:
- Pray for your eyes to be open to seeing as God sees so that you will realize when the Holy Spirit nudges you toward a person, not because you know the person has accepted before, but because this person has the capacity to undertake the responsibility of the position and spiritual warfare that may follow.
- Contact the person asking for a meeting, not in the hallway, preferably in his/her home or at a restaurant for coffee.
- Pray before the meeting. Pray for the proper wording to use during the meeting. Pray for an open heart for both you and the other person.
During the meeting be cordial and remember his time is valuable. Begin with casual conversation. After a few minutes, move into the reason for the meeting. Choose your wording carefully. Statements like, “God told me …” will kill the interview immediately and the likelihood of receiving a positive response.
Instead phrase your wording similar to, “I (We) have been praying about the right person to assist with our ____ ministry. After several weeks, we believe you have the right qualities to serve in this capacity. Would you agree to pray with me about accepting this as an act of service (to God) for our church?” Notice I did not use the terms position, job or responsibility in this initial approach. Those terms carry a negative allusion to a burdensome task.
From this point you can begin to answer any questions the candidate might have and explain the responsibilities. Set a time for follow-up, about a week.
This format works and honors God more than the way many are recruited in the church.
God’s grace is sufficient
Second Corinthians 12:9–10 says, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
There was a time when I thought I had to muster up patience on my own, that if I just tried hard enough, I’d stop lashing out at my family. But every day, I’d fail.
Then one day, I realized: I wasn’t meant to do this alone. So I started a new habit — every time I lost my patience, I immediately confessed, repented and asked for forgiveness from those whom I hurt and let Jesus cover my sins. And slowly, things changed.
God was working it out, I just had to be still and let the work Jesus did on the cross be sufficient for my sins. Understanding, all the while, that the Lord was working it out — He was sanctifying me.
@transformedhomemakers-society
via Instagram
“In the area of loving others, Lola is a great role model for us all,” said Cathy Bozeman, a member of Harmony Baptist Church in Andalusia, of 98-year-old Lola Owens. The church honored Owens on Aug. 17 as part of its homecoming celebration. Owens gave her life to Christ in 1938 (87 years ago) and has been a member ever since. Over the years, Owens has served in a variety of ways — as a Sunday School teacher for preschool all the way to adults, a Vacation Bible School volunteer, church clerk, deacon’s wife, choir member and more.
“Whether we like it or not, people will form a first impression about the church based on what they first see,” said Mark MacDonald, church communication expert. “If the foyer is old and cluttered, that’s what they’ll first think about the church. That assessment may be inaccurate, but that’s irrelevant when people form first impressions.”
“The fact that I am a woman does not make me a different kind of Christian, but the fact that I am a Christian makes me a different kind of woman.”
The late Elisabeth Elliot
missionary, author, speaker
“We don’t ask what their bank account is. We simply look at the need and the damages. We ask, ‘Is this an opportunity for us to get in and help them?’ We believe that rich or poor doesn’t matter. We are there to share the love of Christ, and if He opens a door for us, we are going to walk through it,” said Robin Petticrew, who has been leading rebuild efforts in East Flat Rock with North Carolina Baptists on Mission since the first of the year with her husband, Cal.
“God’s going to guide me to where he wants me in life, but as of right now, I’m just going to be obedient,” said Cooper Roy, a Missouri man who survived a horrific car crash last September. He’s been sharing his miraculous story ever since. “If God kept me alive through the hospital, the least I can do is glorify His name when opportunities come up. I’ve been grateful that I get to boast about the Lord that way, because I don’t deserve it.”
In the ancient church in Corinth, the most problem-ridden church in the New Testament, Paul wrote to correct their theology and practice.
Paul said the “natural” man is one who does not have the Spirit of God. This person could be actively engaged in war with God or might be seeking God, though in the wrong way. Humanity sometimes seeks God by trying to do good things, believing eternal judgment is a balance scale with good works outweighing bad works. But Scripture is clear that good works do not earn salvation (Titus 3:5).
In each life there is a control center or “throne.” The natural man can be understood as a person with self on the throne of life.
But the Corinthians, whom Paul called “brothers and sisters,” were believers who did unspiritual things. He called them “carnal” or “worldly” and “babies in Christ” (1 Cor. 3:1). These can be understood as believers with Christ in their lives, but who have returned self to the throne.
The “spiritual” man can then be identified as the person who rightly enthrones Christ and subjugates self in humble service to Him.
Michael J. Brooks
Siluria Baptist Church, Alabaster
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