Discerning God's Call series: Click | View Series

Radical Insecurity

You can always count on ministry to do at least one thing: provoke radical insecurity.

Nothing provokes insecurity like signing up to follow God's call and doing God's work. Can I really do this? Can God really use me? What if I fail?

A man who is truly called may doubt and struggle with calling at times, but ultimately, he will not be able to walk away from it. His doubts may test his desire for ministry, but they will not destroy his desire to minister. It is important to recognize that doubts and feelings of insecurity are not signs that you haven't been called. People who are genuinely called often go through seasons of doubt and uncertainty. But over time, the sense of calling grows stronger, not weaker.

Ministry or Bust

1 Timothy 3:1 refers to those who "desire the office" of eldership. In fact, this desire could be considered the first qualification of an elder. The man who is truly called to ministry desires it—he does not enter the ministry grudgingly dragging his feet. He enters ministry because he wants to, and feels joy in pursuing his desire to minister. This doesn't mean there isn't appropriate caution because of the high calling of the office, but it means there is an excitement, a joy, and a sense of privilege to be able to serve God in this way.

A true call often comes with an insatiable desire to serve God and his people at all cost. There is a strong sense in the heart that it is ministry or bust.

In a heart call, there is a deep inclination in the soul that says, I must do this or I might die. The called man cannot imagine going into another vocation: he thinks about ministry, dreams about ministry, and cannot shut up about ministry. There is an abiding, relentless desire for the work of ministry that the called man cannot forsake, shake off, or ignore.

Fire in Your Bones

This heart confirmation goes beyond a mere passing whim or initial excitement at the prospect of going into ministry. It is what Spurgeon refers to as "an intense, all-absorbing desire for the work." It is what Newton calls "a warm and earnest desire to be employed in this service…he cannot give it up…the desire to preach is most fervent."

Simply put, the man who is called to ministry desires to be in ministry so strongly that he cannot hold back: it is fire in his bones, like Jeremiah (Jer. 20:7). It is a deep desire to protect and provide for the people of God, like Nehemiah. This heart confirmation is an essential component of the call. However, it is not enough to indicate a genuine call to ministry. A man who is truly called by God also experiences a head confirmation, but more on that in the next post.

Questions to Ask Yourself

As you discern the heart confirmation of God's call in your life, consider the following questions:

• Is God's call in my life internally audible? Do I sense his voice bidding me to serve him vocationally?
• Do I strongly desire pastoral ministry? Is the thought of doing something else with my life unimaginable?
• Do I want to go into ministry in order to make a name for myself, to prove that I am somebody, or to atone for past failures? Am I testing my motives for ministry and asking God to refine my desires and thoughts?
• Do I love people? Do I want to help people? Is my desire to go into ministry mainly about me, or mainly about helping other people by pointing them towards Christ?

To be continued.

Acts 29 Network

A network of churches planting churches for the glory of Jesus. Get more info.

This is a series on 11 Leadership Lessons from 12 Disciples, based on the recent sermon Jesus Calls the Twelve, on Luke 6:12-16.

Lesson #8: Big teams need a smaller team within the team

Mars Hill Church is a big team. Ten campuses, a couple dozen services, forty-something elders and growing. I don't know how many hundreds of deacons, hundreds of community group leaders. There are a lot of big teams that need smaller teams within the teams.

Jesus has the seventy. They're mentioned as a number in the Bible. There are twelve that he's appointing as apostles, and within that team he's got Peter, Andrew, James, and John. Peter's the senior leader, but the inner team of leaders is Peter, Andrew, James, and John. They're listed together. They get special access to Jesus. They get special training from Jesus, and they make certain decisions that others don't get to make. So big teams need teams within the teams.

To be continued.

The Prosperity Gospel

Prosperity theology is a marketing scam. Learn about prosperity theology's dirty little secret.

This is a series on 11 Leadership Lessons from 12 Disciples, based on the recent sermon Jesus Calls the Twelve, on Luke 6:12-16.

Lesson #3: Past results often reveal future performance

Jesus looks out across his ministry, and he picks leaders who are already doing stuff. If you've never done anything, something radical could change, but the odds are tomorrow, you're not going to wake up and start doing a lot. If you're not faithful, you're probably not going to be faithful. There's something to be said for consistency, what Eugene Peterson calls, "long obedience in the same direction."

Some people walk into Mars Hill and say, "Okay, I want to do this." "Okay, have you ever done anything?" "Nope." "Okay, then why in the world would we give you this great opportunity? Shouldn't you first do anything? Humbly serve, find something to do, show us that you can show up two weeks in a row, find your pants, you know, just knock a few things off your to-do list, and then we'll talk about making you a leader." Because people walk, in they're like, "I want to be in charge of something." "All right, you can be in charge of you. We're going to start there, and if you nail that, we'll move on, okay?"

But Jesus doesn't just pick people who have never done anything. Some of these guys have run businesses. They're all following him in ministry. They're serving informally. The ministry's grown, now it's time to officialize the leadership, and he picks those who have already performed, they've already done something. You need to know this at Mars Hill, the best way to rise up in leadership is to be getting things done. Become a member, join a community group, lead a community group, lead a worship team, lead a serving team. Move up through deaconship, move up through eldership. Whatever God has for you, you've got to start by doing something. There are a lot of people who walk in, and they're totally fired up for two weeks, and then it's over, you never see them again. Past performance indicates future performance. We want to see somebody who's been doing something before we unleash them to do something else.

To be continued.

Docent Research

Customized research for pastors. High-level exegesis, theological analysis, and cultural research as well as writing assistance. Learn more.

Click through to the Resurgence if you can't see the video.

Mars Hill Pastor James Noriega recently led a training event for chaplains, teaching them how to emphasize the supremacy of Christ and his cross in counseling troops. Even though he is specifically speaking about the military chaplain, these are truths that all believers are called to live out.

Be sure to watch through to the end—you don’t want to miss the reasons why counseling is compromised when the cross of Christ is not at the front door.

Buy Books for Soldiers

Buy books for soldiers. Give to the Mars Hill Military Mission by choosing the "Military" fund. Be generous.

Pastors are called to love, serve, and lead through the opportunities that lay in front of us. With so many paths to choose—and with opposition at every turn—every day becomes a complicated exercise in wisdom and discernment.


Go Ask God


Overwhelmed with the never-ending list of things I could do, I find myself often praying Solomon’s words in 1 Kings 3:8–10:

And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?

And also James 1:5: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives 
generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”


Be Desperate


If a ministry leader—or any Christian, for that matter—doesn’t find themselves in desperate 
need of God’s wisdom and discernment, I’d be really concerned. No human can wade through the opportunities in front of him or her without God’s wisdom. When we try, that’s usually when our proud hearts fall.

What Would Jesus Not Do?

When reading the Gospels I’m stunned at Jesus’ ability to listen to the Holy Spirit and wisely and perfectly say “no” to some needs and “yes” to others.

For instance, in Luke 4:42-44, Jesus clearly understands his call and the need to continue moving and preaching throughout all of Judea. He could have stayed there in Capernaum, set up shop, and spent the rest of his ministry helping and healing those who came to him. But he didn’t. Through wisdom he said “no” despite a long line of needy people pursuing him.

How desperately we need the same attentive heart to the Holy Spirit’s leading and the wisdom to say no when that’s the right answer, even though it may ruffle some feathers.

Jamie Munson is the Lead Pastor of Mars Hill Church. You can connect with him on Facebook and Twitter.

Religion Saves

Pastor Mark answers the top nine most-asked questions in Religion Saves: And Nine Other Misconceptions. Find out more.

One of the most difficult aspects of my work as a pastor is wading through the vast amount of ministry opportunities that seem to be never-ending.

Opportunity Is Everywhere

For church leaders, every day brings a barrage of ideas and decisions related to potential opportunities. They come from everywhere: God, the Bible, church staff, Sunday services, a restful vacation, the congregation, the web, the news, a walk down the street, and on and on.

I’ve found that every opportunity is fraught with some form of opposition.


Opportunity and Opposition


You don’t have to get far into the Bible to see the tension between opportunity and opposition. Our forefather Adam is created and given an enormous opportunity from God: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen. 1:28).

Those with an entrepreneurial bent get pretty excited when reading about an opportunity of such grandiose potential—being the first to inhabit the entire earth. Read a little further, however, and the opposition is readily apparent. In this case Adam and Eve are opposed and tempted by Satan, and they’re also opposed by their sinful desire to be like God, knowing good and evil.

Of course, our first parents do sin, and all future opportunities are forever changed by the curse upon humanity. For the man specifically, his work to “fill the earth and subdue it” is a lot harder now that the earth is at war against him, broken and fallen from its luscious garden state.

You Are Cursed

The same call and the same curse that burdened Adam remain in place for all of us, which means that effectively evaluating opportunities is no easy task.

Three key filters can help separate fruitful opportunity from sinful distraction: wisdom, priorities, and cost. I’ll discuss these biblical principles in future posts.

Jamie Munson is the Lead Pastor of Mars Hill Church. You can connect with him on Facebook and Twitter.

Advance 09 Media

Video, audio, and images from the Advance 09 conference in Raleigh-Durham, NC, June 2009. Find out more.

Change. Every leader wants it. And some are more effective at making it happen. In addition to God's grace, the following process has proven invaluable to me, as I have consciously used it for over a decade. I offer it in hopes of serving those who serve others.

Vision

At this phase, an idea emerges that seems worthwhile but the following questions need to be answered in order to determine its viability. In answering these questions, the input of the staff and deacons, as well as other selected people, will be very helpful to you.

1. What are the measurable outcome goals and do they correlate with the mission objective you are seeking to accomplish?
2. Is this idea best suited for your area of responsibility or should someone else be appointed to lead it since it best fits his or her ministry area?

Plan

At this phase, the idea and its goals are clarified in a detailed written proposal. The proposal could be presented to the staff and elders for approval. Answers to the following questions can provide details for the proposal, specifically details about what implementing the idea would require.

1. What is your biblical/theological justification for this ministry?
2. How long will this take to implement and what is the timeline for the phases necessary to implement it?
3. Who will be responsible for it and how many hours will it require of them to launch and also oversee the ministry?
4. How much will it cost, both to launch and maintain?
5. How many volunteers will be needed and whom do you have in mind?
6. What facilities will it require?
7. What promotions will it require?
8. What type of people are you anticipating will attend and/or participate?
9. How will this require time and energy of the elders and deacons?
10. How might this compete with and/or negatively impact other ministries?
11. How can people pray for this ministry?

Implement

The idea has been justified, planned, and approved; it now needs to be launched as a reality. The plan needs to be executed and at this phase, the hard work begins in an effort to build momentum and make the idea a reality.

Manage

At this phase, the idea has become a new reality but shortly thereafter the ministry will likely lose momentum as the work becomes routine, the systems that were planned need to be upgraded for efficiency, and faithful people need to ensure the ministry continues forward and that the devoted people serving do not grow weary or lose heart.

Review

At the six-month and one-year marks of each ministry (as well as other designated times), the leader of that ministry must ensure that accurate and meaningful reviews are conducted to answer the following questions and determine if the ministry should continue, be changed, or cease.

1. Have you met your objectives?
2. Why or why not?
3. Should this ministry continue?
4. How can you improve?
5. What changes must be made?

Resurgence Literature

Re:Lit is a ministry of Resurgence. There you will find a growing line of books to help guide the resurgence of the new reformed. Find out more.

Leadership Is Lonely series: Click | View Series

Leadership is lonely. Anyone who disagrees is likely not a leader.

By definition, a leader is out ahead of his or her team, seeing, experiencing, and learning things before everyone else. On one hand, this causes great excitement and enthusiasm because the opportunity to learn and pioneer is incredibly invigorating. On the other hand, however, the distance between a leader and his or her team is incredibly lonely, even to the point of becoming debilitating.

The more successful a leader becomes, the more extreme the joys and sorrows of leadership become. In extreme cases, the results are akin to being bipolar, with intense mood swings when stress and pressure turn the cracks in our character into fault lines.

For those who are leaders, the question is, what should we do when we find ourselves out ahead of our team? Recently, God has convicted me of sin in my own life and leadership. Specifically, he has graciously revealed to me ways in which I have patterns of sinful response to the feeling of loneliness that accompanies leadership. I am sharing this in hopes of helping other leaders and the people they lead.

For leaders and those who love them and can help them see their own sin, especially their spouse, the following self-assessment statements may prove helpful in diagnosing sinful responses to the loneliness of leadership:

1. I feel that God has abandoned me to an impossible task and have begun to question his goodness.
2. I become annoyed by my team because they do not understand me or the difficulties I face as their leader.
3. I wish someone would just tell me what to do, give me permission to not do so much, and sort out the complexity of my life.
4. I am annoyed by others because I believe they are stupid, lazy, slowing me down, and simply unwilling and/or unable to keep up with me and all the work I have to do.
5. I question if anyone really loves me and secretly think that almost everyone is simply using me.

Does this sound familiar? Many leaders, in an effort to appear more spiritual than they are, think these things in their mind and feel them in their heart even if they don’t say them with their mouth. Is there hope? Yes, and we’ll explore that in the next blog post.

To be continued.

Mars Hill Global

Serving the church and spreading the gospel. Help support this effort by giving to the Global Fund. More info at MarsHillGlobal.com.

Spiritual Gifts Series: Click | View Series

We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently... (Romans 12:6-8 NIV)

Spiritual Gift of Leadership Defined

The spiritual gift of leadership is found in people who have a clear, significant vision from God and are able to communicate it publicly or privately in such a way that they influence others to pursue that vision.

People with the Gift of Leadership

These people tend to gravitate toward the "point position" in a ministry. Others tend to have trust and confidence in their abilities. They best serve others by leading them. They tend to operate with a strong sense of destiny.

Leadership in Scripture

Jesus was such a gifted leader that in His day thousands followed Him and today billions follow Him as the greatest leader who has ever lived. Other examples abound, including Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Daniel, Josiah, Paul, Peter, and James.

Do You Have This Gift?

• Do others have confidence in your ability to lead?
• Do you enjoy being the "final voice" or the one with the overall responsibility for the direction and success of a group or organization?
• When a difficult situation arises, do others look to you for input and leadership?
• Do you usually take leadership in a group where none exists?
• Do you find leadership enjoyable rather than frustrating and difficult?
• Do others look to you to make the major decisions for a group or organization?

Recommended Reading on Church Leadership

Total Church:

Tim Chester and Steve Timmis make the case for reinforcing and strengthening churches with particular emphasis on the gospel and community. Find out more.

This week at Mars Hill Church, Mark Driscoll preached on Humble Pastors. In this clip he explains how to find out if you're a humble pastor.

The King and the Maiden

You can watch the full sermon below. If you don't have time to watch the whole thing, be sure to at least watch the first few minutes to see the intro video, "The King and the Maiden." The Mars Hill Preaching & Theology team did an incredible job putting this one together.

Click here to watch the sermon on the Mars Hill Media Site.

Pastor Mark:

Get the latest content from Mark Driscoll, the
preaching pastor at Mars Hill Church. See More.