03/02/2024
SEVEN BURDENS THAT KILL A YOUNG MINISTRY
By Pastor Bimbo Animashaun
DEAR MINISTER, if your ministry is very young, then there are certain "burdens" you shouldn't put your neck under — they can kill your ministry if not properly managed.
At the early stage of ministry, you need a lot of wisdom in laying an enduring and formidable foundation for your work, else that ministry may go into extinction soon.
You will need to thoroughly understand the dynamics of a young ministry viz-a-viz the peculiarity of your own mandate and flow accordingly.
Unfortunately, some ministries that started years ago with pomp and pageantry are no longer in existence, not because it's wrong to celebrate while starting out in ministry but because of certain omissions in understanding the dynamics.
Of course there are more burdens that can kill a young ministry but my intention is just to mention seven of them here.
Be blessed as you read.
(1) THE BURDEN OF VISION MISCOMMUNICATION:
At the beginning stage of ministry, if you don't know how to share the vision such that your people can see a bright future, you may eventually end up to be the only one running that vision.
Vision runners only run with a vision that is clearly written and well communicated and not one that's vaguely written and poorly communicated, and this procedure is in agreement with Scripture:
HABAKKUK 2:2
And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.
Even if you're starting a church for instance in a hut or in your living room, can the vision be well communicated such that people can see a future?
As a follow up to that, your attitude and body language as the visioneer MUST NEVER BETRAY the prospects of the vision you have communicated to the people.
They will not see it. People will not do what you tell them to do; they will only do what they see you do — and this is a fundamental principle in spiritual leadership.
You can't be watching cartoons on Sunday morning, laughing hysterically before church service and your members want to take you serious.
You must not only TALK THE VISION; you must also LIVE THE VISION.
(2) THE BURDEN OF WRONG ALIGNMENT:
If at the beginning of the ministry, the person you call your spiritual father does not believe in your vision and he still comes to commission your ministry, then there's fire on the mountain.
If at the beginning, you have disconnected from the Graces that God has connected you to and you feel you don't need anyone, then you're on your own my Brother.
If at the beginning, you're wrongly aligned in terms of the intricate details of your assignment and you're doing what God didn't send you to do, then you're gonna supply the means to accomplish that assignment BY YOURSELF because THE WORKINGS OF GOD ARE ALWAYS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE PURPOSE OF GOD FOR OUR LIVES (Eph.1:11, Rm.8:28).
(3) THE BURDEN OF COMPARISON:
No two ministries are the same, so stop comparing your ministry with somebody else's ministry.
When we started our ministry for instance, God led me to start printing teaching magazines, start Bible Seminars, start a Bible school, and start organizing Mentorship Conferences.
It was later that God led us to start church and other things like the Radio ministry.
Now, that's how God led us. For some other people, it could be a healing school, camp meeting, or to start church immediately.
Don't compare your ministry with another ministry, for the Bible warns against comparison (2 Cor.10:12).
Remember; our assignments are different from each another.
(4) THE BURDEN OF WRONG STRUCTURES AND STRATEGIES:
STRUCTURE IS EVERYTHING IN MINISTRY. If your ministry structure does not reflect the Grace of God upon your life, then you will become frustrated.
From your ministry registration to the organogram to the leadership/administrative set up, you must get it right.
God once defined structure to me as "SOMETHING PRACTICAL TO SUSTAIN SOMETHING SPIRITUAL."
By STRUCTURE I mean the SYSTEMS and PROCESSES put in place to accomplish the vision.
If the STRUCTURE is wrong, then the ministry may be FRACTURED.
(5) THE BURDEN OF FINANCIAL MISMANAGEMENT:
Know the current financial level of your ministry. Don't eat the future of your ministry today. Learn the art of budgeting early in ministry.
Know the capital expenditure and recurrent expenditure per season based on your financial strength and flow accordingly.
If you're starting out in ministry and your salary as the setman is the sum total of the ministry's capital and recurrent expenditure, then there'll be no money to run the ministry; the only money the ministry will have is to maintain the man of God.
If that's the case, then no prophet needs to tell anyone that the end of that ministry has come.
So, as a minister, while it is right for you to be properly renumerated, it shouldn't however be at the expense of THE FUTURE OF THE MINISTRY.
Also, stop expending resources on things that are not relevant to your calling. Doing that may make you popular but your work will lack a divine reckoning.
(6) THE BURDEN OF PREMATURE HOSTING:
Why do you want to host 20 ministers when your ministry obviously doesn't have the capacity for it?
You see, those ministries you see today that host "uncountable ministers" to their meetings in a year didn't start that way; they grew to that level.
Sometimes it takes time for things to grow in ministry as we stay faithful to our assignments.
Don't bring frontline ministers to your meetings and treat them shabbily just because you too want to make a statement that you're not a small boy in ministry.
You see, IT IS THE GRACE OF GOD THAT LIFTS PEOPLE IN MINISTRY.
So, at the early stage, if it's only one or two people you can bring who will add value to your work, then so be it, and if you have to take some meetings by yourself, please do.
It's better to do that than to invite many guest ministers and treat them with dishonour.
If care is not taken, the burden of premature hosting can kill a young ministry.
(7) THE DANGER OF COMPETITION AND FALSE IMPRESSIONS:
Please dear minister, NEVER COMPETE WITH ANYONE IN MINISTRY; COMPETE WITH YOURSELF ONLY.
And you should not hesitate to cut off from people who are always putting pressure on you to compete or to give false impressions — they will destroy your ministry if care is not taken.
When you invite anyone to speak for you and he says something like this, "So-and-so is doing better than you" or "The size of this your congregation is not even up to 20 percent of our own choir", THAT SHOULD BE THE LAST TIME THAT FELLOW STEPS ON THAT PLATFORM.
You see, you don't need to give any false impression and you don't need to compete with anyone.
We're told to know we know man after the flesh (2 Cor.5:16).
Don't go and rent a crowd (like some politicians do) to impress your spiritual father.
As a matter of fact, any father that needs you to lie, falsify figures and give wrong impressions that you're doing well is a dangerous father.
A TRUE FATHER will identify with your current level BUT WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU AT THAT SAME LEVEL; he will deploy all the Graces and anointings on his life to shoot your work higher and that will be the true test of his fatherly authority, and not telling you to lie, falsify figures and give wrong impressions.
You see, in ministry, it is one thing TO SOUND DEEP but it's a different ball game entirely TO BE DEEP INDEED — discern the difference friend!!!
DEAR MINISTER, it's important you pay keen attention to these truths especially if your ministry is still very young, because the fact remains that those whose ministries have grown through the years u
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