MOTIVATING YOURSELF FOR MINISTRY 1 Corinthians 15:56 Leadership Lifter

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "MOTIVATING YOURSELF FOR MINISTRY 1 Corinthians 15:56 Leadership Lifter"

Harriet Lawson
5 years ago
Views:

1 MOTIVATING YOURSELF FOR MINISTRY 1 Corinthians 15:56 Leadership Lifter Rick Warren Tonight I don t want to give you some in-depth Bible study. I want us to look at some real practical things on How to Stay Motivated in the Ministry. Specifically, I m just going to open my heart up to you and share with you how I stay motivated in ministry. I get asked that a lot. I don t try to motivate other people. I only worry about motivating me. If I m motivated it will be contagious. This is true in any area of ministry. Whether you re a Care Caller or Life Networker or Salt and Light, or Sunday School teacher or small group leader whatever. Your duty is not necessarily to motivate others. But if you stay motivated, people will catch your enthusiasm. They will catch your vision. 1 Corinthians 15:58 Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor is not in vain. Circle fully. I have to admit there have been times in my life I have not given myself fully to the work of the Lord. But the goal is that every time you lead a Bible study, every time you participate in your area of ministry whatever it is, that you give yourself fully to that task whether it is ushering, greeting, working at one of the different ministry tables on Sunday morning, whatever give yourself fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor for the Lord is not in vain. In the Good News it says, Since you know that nothing you do in the Lord s service is ever without value. Jesus said If you give a cup of cold water in My name, that counts. So when we stuff bulletins, that matters. When we count offerings, that matters. When they sort blue cards, that matters. Whatever it is, nothing in the Lord s service is ever without value. Think of a ministry task that you ve got to do this week or the next couple of weeks before I give you these suggestions. That will help you out. All of us, because you re here at SALT, have different ministry assignments to do in the next week or the next couple of weeks. Maybe it s prepare a Sunday School lesson, make phone calls to people, recruit people to your small group, rehearse music for Sunday, make preparations for a class, whatever it is, you ve got some ministry task to do. You know it would be a good thing and you know you ll be glad when you did it and you know other people are counting on you, but do you ever find yourself having a hard time just getting motivated to do it? I know I ought to pick up the phone and call everybody in my group, but how do I motivate myself to do that? Tonight I want to share with you eighteen suggestions on how I motivate myself. I, on the average, have to prepare two to three new presentations a week sermons, Bible studies, talks, Leadership Lifters, speaking at other places too. Two to three new different preparations a week. I do that about 48 weeks a year for the rest of my life. The very thought of that sends shivers up my spine. I m just not that creative. And have to continually come up with stuff that is fresh and powerful and practical and witty and useful in people s lives, that s a burden, folks! Frankly, sometimes, I d rather just watch the Rams.

2 Let me share with you how I motivate myself. This isn t anything deep. This is just from my own life. Eighteen things I do to keep myself motivated. 1. PUT MY PLANS ON PAPER That s the first thing you ought to do. Write out what you want to accomplish. Spell it out. Dawson Trotman said, Thoughts disentangle themselves when they pass through the lips and the fingertips. If I can say it and I can write it down, then it s clear. If I haven t written it down, then it s vague. A lot of us go around with anxiety which is this free-floating, vague fear that I m not getting it all accomplished. Just the very fact of putting it down, a lot of times, gives credence and relief to your mind and you re able to focus on it. 2. BREAK BIG TASKS INTO SMALL ENOUGH STEPS SO THAT I HAVE NO EXCUSE FOR NOT STARTING. When I know I ve got something coming up, for instance I know on November 18 th we re going to have a big one-day offering for the building. I ve already written down the specific steps, I ve got to take between now and then to get that done. Write it down. When I m preparing a sermon, I think, What do I have to do? I ve got to collect the verses, study the verses, look for illustrations, think through quotes, organize the presentation. Think through all the steps. Sermons don t just fall out automatically. There are some logical things you have to go through. When we started this church: to start a church, what do you do? I d never done that before. I got a stack of cards, about an inch worth, and started writing down what do I need to do? I need to rent a building, I wrote on one card. I need to get some nursery equipment, I wrote that on a card. I need to print a bulletin. I need to buy the bulletin I m going to print it on. I need to get some stationary. I need to have a logo before I can get the stationary. I ve got to get a contract on a high school building. I ve got to get some offering baskets Write a sermon Some music Somebody to lead the music Rent some nursery workers. Soon I had a stack of things I needed to do. Then I laid them all out on the table. Put them in order. What comes first? About a hundred cards of all the things I had to do to start a church. Afterwards, I went back and wrote a date on each one of them. I backed it up. We would start on Easter Sunday, April 5, The card that said, Preach the sermon, I wrote April 5 th. Then I had to start backing it up from when am I going to plan the sermon. What is the series going to be? Backing it up until I found out I really needed to be here four months earlier than I was. You typically find that. When I got that, I taped them to a big piece of butcher paper. Then I rewrote them and made what s called a perk chart. I made a chart that said this is what I m going to do. I broke it down into steps. Inch by inch, anything is a cinch. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. How do you start a church? One step at a time. Break the tasks down.

4 3. DECIDE HOW I WANT TO START Ask yourself what needs to be done first. Let s say you re a lay pastor and you think, I really ought to have more contact with the people in my group. I need to call them. Break it down: Make a list of all the people I want to call and invite to the group. Collect the phone numbers, put them together. Pick up the phone. Break it down into steps. 4. ESTABLISH CHECK POINTS TO CHECK MY PROGRESS This is what I was mean about setting some deadlines, write a date on each of the tasks. 5. KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN I CAN T AND I DON T WANT TO. Be honest with yourself. I can t do that Yes, you can. Just be honest: you don t want to. Sometimes you ve got to get tough. It wasn t Robert Schuller who first said, There s no gain without pain. It was Ben Franklin. In Poor Richard s Almanac. There is no gain without pain. It takes time and effort and sometimes you just have to get tough with yourself and say, I m going to do this whether I feel like it or not. Most of the people who succeed in the world, most of what s done in the world is done by people who don t feel like doing what they re doing. Secret of success in one sentence: Successful people have developed the habit of doing things unsuccessful people don t feel like doing. Because we re in a very feeling society that says, Live for comfort. 6. REMIND MYSELF OF THE BENEFITS OF COMPLETING THE JOB Reinforcement. A lot of times I do this when I m preparing a message. I ve had a real long week and it s tough and my mind jut isn t there and I remind myself, How am I going to feel after I finish this? How am I going to feel? What s it going to accomplish? What s the payoff? What s the reward? Jesus did this. The Bible says in Hebrews, that Jesus endured the cross because He looked to the joy beyond it. He looked beyond the cross and saw the result of it. Many times, much of what we do in ministry is pretty much mundane. There s no thrill in it. There s no thrill in setting up and taking down. But you do it because of the results. 7. I DO A SMALL PART OF IT RIGHT NOW. In other words, Get started. Do a small part of it right now. Don t stall. I play a game with myself all the time that I call The Five-Minute Game. When I have a big topic or task I need to do, I just say, I don t want to do this, but I ll give it five minutes. I set down and after I get going in it, it s not that big of deal. Once you ve got the rocket off

5 the launch pad, it gets so much easier. How many projects do you still have setting around your house and one day you did it and you think, Why did I wait six months for that? That took me at the most, 25 minutes. But it was setting there all that time. Give it five minutes. I ve written three books. Books are overwhelming. I say, I ll give it five minutes. Every book that I ve ever written, I sat down and took a blank sheet of paper, stuck it in the typewriter, rolled it through and wrote, My next Book, by Rick Warren, pulled it out and set it down. Sometimes that s all I ve done. I get up and walk away but I ve started on it. Take it a bite at a time and give it five minutes. 8. BE OPTIMISTIC. I have found this to be so important in accomplishing large amounts of activities and projects and programs. Optimism creates energy. The person who says, "I can and the person who says, I can t are both right. I can t tell you how many times I ve come into church pastors get tired too and pastors don t always have real good days. I ve come into church saying and knowing, There s no way I m going to make it through this. But I walk in saying, This is a snap! In Christ. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles, run and not be weary, walk and not faint. Optimism. Tell yourself, I can do this. Remind yourself of Philippians 4: ESTABLISH AN ACTION ENVIONMENT. For those of you who have to do some kind of weekly preparation for your ministry, like you re a Sunday School teacher and you re preparing a lesson or any others who have a weekly preparation, you need to create a study area in your house where you have your tools together. You don t just try to set down at the breakfast table. You need an environment where you can focus at the task at hand. I have my own study area both at home and church. Kay has her own study area too, so we don t fight over them any more. We have two desks in one room. I clear everything off the desk when I m going to study because I don t want to focus on anything else. Some of you do have desks and you re using your desks as file cabinets. You re doing it because I don t want to forget it. That s the problem. You don t forget it. You set down to have your quiet time and all of a sudden you look over and say, I ve got to make those phone calls. I ve got to do that recipe.. I ve got to finish that. You re cluttered. Success comes from focusing on one thing at a time. Concentration. Clear off your desk. Out of sight, out of mind. You say, I ll forget it. Then what you need to do is make a To Do list and look at that every once in a while. But put your files in your desk, create a tickler file stuff you need to look at every day. Every day you pull it out and look through it then put it back in there. But don t use your desk as a filing cabinet. It diffuses your concentration and you can t really focus on the task at hand.

6 10. AVOID PLACES OR SITUATIONS THAT MIGHT TEMPT ME TO BE SIDETRACKED FROM COMPLETING MY TASK. That s different for different people. In my home, a real sidetrack, is the table in the kitchen, the dining eating area. Inevitably, on that table is a magazine. Inevitably, from there, looking out through the French doors I can see all of Laguna Niguel. A beautiful view. I m studying in my study at home. I spend about sixteen hours of study per message. I spend hours a week just in study. I m setting there and I ve studied for two or three hours and need a stretch break. If I walk out, one thing I don t walk out toward is the kitchen. There s food, a view and a magazine there. If I happen to be there, it s too great a temptation. Understand to avoid places or situations that distract you. That s why I don t do any of my sermon study at the office. The walls are real thin there and I can hear everybody having a good time outside and I m a party animal. I want to have fun! I don t want to be sitting studying. I want to be out there with people. So I have to study at home to keep myself from having a great time with all these people I love at the office. And they appreciate it too! Then they get their work done. 11. KNOW MY ENERGY PATTERNS AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF PEAK TIMES. Some of you are morning people. Some of you are night people. Have you learned that at some points in the day, you are brighter than at other times? You re more alert, you have more energy. There are times when you re habitually at your best. The only people who are at their best all the time are mediocre people. Nobody s at their best all the time. You need to know, when is my body clock geared toward maximum performance and don t waste maximum performance on secondary tasks. If your peak time is in the morning, don t read your mail at Save those kinds of tasks for times like at the end of the day, or if you re not good in the morning, read it then. When you are good, make that your time for your ministry time and your preparation. 12. USE THE STIMULATION OF GOOD NEWS TO DO EXTRA WORK. I do this all the time. Somebody will tell me something great that happened and it s like God shoots another shot of adrenaline in me. All of a sudden, I ve got a little extra bounce in my step. I try to channel that into ministry. 13. RECOGNIZE WHEN INDECISION IS CAUSING INERTIA. A lot of procrastination is not really procrastination, it s indecision. I can t decide. I can t decide what do I do next, or whatever. A lot of pastors have to deal with this. For a lot of pastors, their weekly struggle is, What am I going to preach on this next week? Sometimes they ll spend two or three days just worrying about What am I going to preach on? That s one of the reasons I preach in series. I only have to make that decision six or seven times a year. For the next six weeks, we re going to talk about culture. The decision is made. Now I don t have to spend all my energy on what am I going to talk about. Now I spend it on, What does God say about it? Try to lengthen

7 those decision-making periods out. Identify your choices and choose one. Don t let it set around. 14. USE VISIBLE REMINDERS I like to use Post-It Notes to remind me of things I ve got to do. I collect antiprocrastination slogans. I thought I d read a few of them to you: Tomorrow is too late. Do the worst first. Doing gets it done. Tomorrow is never. Make the day count. Doing beats stewing. In just two days, tomorrow will be yesterday. Do it anyway. Get the Now habit. Get a round tuit. Be a doer not a dawdler. Why wait? If not today, when? You don t find the time, you make time. Make it happen. If you have to do it, do it now. Do it or ditch it. Only turkeys procrastinate Lead-time is the gift only I can give myself. Beginning is half done. Move ahead or move aside Winners don t wait Choose this day to use this day. 15. GIVE MYSELF THE RIGHT TO MAKE MISTAKES. I give myself the right to make mistakes on any project that I m doing. Don t demand perfection. Perfectionism produces procrastination. Perfectionism paralyzes us. We say, If I can t do it well, I just won t do it. If it's not perfect, it s not worth doing. No, if it s worth doing, do it -- whether you do it perfectly or not. There are very few things in this world that are perfect. 16. I DON T SET GOALS I DON T EXPECT TO REACH Because there s no motivation in them.

8 17. ENLIST A PARTNER. If you ve got a big task to do, always get a partner. Get somebody else to help you out in your ministry. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes, Two are better than one and a threefold cord is not easily broken. If you ve got a big task and it s up to you, you ll probably procrastinate. But if you ve got somebody else and can say, We re going to meet and get this thing going, you re more likely to get it done. 18. READ BOOKS THAT INCREASE YOUR SKILLS. If I find myself having a hard time being motivated in some area of ministry that I m called to do, I just get a book on it. If you have a hard time recruiting people to your ministry, go get a book on recruitment and read it. If you re having a hard time delegating responsibility, get a book. If you re having a hard time speaking in a Bible study, get a book on public communication. Do those things that sharpen your skills, Ecclesiastes 10:10 teaches us to do. This is nothing profound, but these are things I do to keep myself motivated. Maybe they ll help you a bit. [end of tape]

MOTIVATING YOURSELF FOR MINISTRY 1 Corinthians 15:56 Leadership Lifter Rick Warren

MOTIVATING YOURSELF FOR MINISTRY 1 Corinthians 15:56 Leadership Lifter Rick Warren 1 Corinthians 15:56 Rick Warren Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor is not in vain. 1 Cor. 15:58 (GN) Since you know that nothing you do in the Lord s service