My 5 Proverbs for Life, Ministry, and Seminary

1) YOUR MINISTRY IS ONLY AS HEALTHY AS YOU ARE

This is something I heard about 2 years ago in a Wesleyan Mental Health cohort taught by Carla Working and Vanessa York (LCMHCS). While talking to us about pouring into others, York said this line. Right when I heard it, I was taken aback for a few reasons. 

First was that I wish I would’ve been told this when I was first starting in ministry! There were seasons when I have to admit that even though my ministry was doing well, it came at the expense of my soul. I wasn’t taking care of myself and focusing my attention on ministry instead of my soul care. Second, I would hide the fact that I wasn’t doing well by pointing to the success happening in ministry. Attendance was growing, leaders were engages, salvations and baptisms were happening, and I was trying to just ride off the high of those to keep me going. News flash: That doesn’t work! Because what happens when ministry isn’t going well? What do you hold onto then? Finally, I had the realization that no one else is going to intentionally take care of my soul if I don’t allow it to happen. While I did have people who cared about me in these seasons, I was very good at faking it or pointing to ministry success to cover up my dry spiritual life.

Yes, a leader has commitments to the church, but the greatest commitment they have is first to God. You are only able to pour out what is being poured into you. I’ve had to learn that my priority can’t just be ministry. It MUST be prayer, Scripture, and Sabbath. To hold myself accountable to this, I have a prayer partner that I meet with weekly. I’ve given him permission to speak what needs to be said into my life and it is one of the most important relationships that I have. If you want to be in ministry for the longrun, focus on your walk with God and let everything else be shaped by that.

2) A FOCUSED 40 IS BETTER THAN A SLOPPY 60

When I was first getting started at Wesley Seminary, former Interim President Wayne Schmidt shared this wisdom with our class. We all had work and life, but now seminary classes as well. Our lives were about to get a lot more chaotic. This was a reminder that time management matters! When it comes to work, get everything done and do what needs to be done at work. Prioritize your priorities! But how do I know what to make a priority? This is where I found The New One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard to be a great resource! In the book, he mentions how we need to have our One Minute Goals. These are goals that are written on a piece of paper. Not front and back. Just one side. 250 words or less. Something that you’d be able to clearly identify and communicate. When you have your one minute goals, you know what you need to focus on.

Too many times, I wore exhaustion as a badge of honor. I felt more important when I was more busy. I would brag to people about my schedule, not realizing that it was something that was actually setting me on the path towards destruction. I couldn’t tell people no. I was overcommitting and overwhelmed. Also, I was burning myself out and saying it was for God’s glory. Honestly? It wasn’t (but we will get to that later). Knowing my job description and my goals helped me get done what needed to get done, then have more time for everything else.

While this is helpful for about 80% of the year, there are those weeks in ministry where there is just more than 40 hours of obligation. This is not meant to be an excuse by any means, but there is a reality that things pop up. We can’t schedule when a family experiences the loss of a loved one and we are asked to officiate the funeral service. We can’t plan in advanced a hospital visit when someone gets in a car accident. Emergences don’t observe our sabbath if there is a crisis in your community. When these weeks do come up, it forces me to step back and see if there is something else that I have to say no to. There were weeks when I would have to accept a late grade or a 0 on a seminary assignment. As long as that didn’t happen every week…

3) YOU DON’T RISE TO THE LEVEL OF YOUR GOALS, YOU FALL TO THE LEVEL OF YOUR SYSTEMS

Atomic Habits by James Clear should be a required read for everyone going into high school. This gives people 4 years to put things in place by the time they graduate. Wow, I wish I would’ve known this when I was younger! For far too long in my life I was a big dreamer and a bad planner. I’d live off of intentions and procrastination. Let me acknowledge that just knowing this quote wouldn’t have helped me fix all my issues, but it would’ve challenged me in the way I responded to them! 

During my time in ministry, I learned the importance of both setting the goal and figuring out the steps to make it happen. If my goal was to get an A in the class, that needed to start with me setting the rule of not turning in late assignments, and then going a step further and practically structuring my week so that I had enough time to complete my assignments to turn them in before the deadline. Writing down “Recruit More Leaders” was a great intention, but wouldn’t have happened without first creating a leader recruitment pipeline to track people from conversation to class rotation with everything in between. One minute goals are great, but still need structure to help make them happen.

The danger in this is that we must be aware to not over-system Holy Spirit. When we have these things in place, we need to be open handed with them. What happens when God brings an unexpected encounter our way? If someone drops by our office and says they want to follow Jesus and wants you to lead them to Christ, will you send them a Calendarly link to schedule a meeting for next week? Some of the best ministry moments happen when God interrupts our plans. The goal of systems should help ministry and life function better with full expectation that life still happens. Our systems do not replace God! Having systems in place should help us make more room to see where God is leading.

4) WHO WILL GET THE GLORY – ME OR GOD?

As a natural extrovert, I tend to be the center of attention. I’m loud, passionate, and love talking to everyone. However, I also realize that there have been times when these same qualities have been more of a danger than a blessing. There are times when someone has come up to me on a Sunday and say that if I ever left, they would follow me. PSA: PLEASE DON’T FOLLOW ME! Most times in my life, I don’t even know where I’m going! 

In moments like this, I think about Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 11:1, “You should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.” How often do we look up to Paul today in the church?? Even Paul knew that people were paying attention to him. And what does he say? Nothing that acknowledges gifts, knowledge, and abilities. He just tells the people that people should only try to reflect his desire to reflect God in his life. 

Asking myself this question before every sermon I teach helps me focus on who people see when I stand in front of them and teach. Asking it when I’m trying to plan something for Young Adults helps me focus on what God is trying to tell them, not what I just want to say. Even asking myself this about seminary. Am I doing this for the ability to do ministry better or just for the letters I can tag on to my name. Ministry is NOT about building my platform. It MUST be all about building His kingdom.

5) BE YOUR HONEST, AUTHENTIC SELF AND ALLOW HOLY SPIRIT TO FILL IN THE CRACKS

I’ve always admired the beauty of Kintsugi. This is the Japanese practice of taking broken things and using gold in the cracks to restore it. Instead of just throwing out what is broken, artists were able to use the brokenness for beauty. Sound familiar??

Think back to Genesis 3 with the fall of humanity. At this point in history, God wasn’t too far into the existence of time yet. He could’ve easily just scrapped creation and started over. But this is not what he does. In brokenness, God starts writing redemption into the story and allowing beauty to find its way back into the narrative. How many more times throughout Scripture does God use broken people in His plan? Moses, Rahab, David, Saul/Paul, should I keep going?

God doesn’t demand me to restore myself. I’m not called to be the perfect pastor! Actually, one of the greatest lessons I’ve learned in seminary is that I just need to be my authentic self and allow God to use that as an offering. On the days when I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing in ministry and don’t have the words for an assignment, He gives vision and direction for both. All I need to do is bring the cracks and broken pieces to Him. When I willingly surrender to Him, He is able to do far more than I could even ask or imagine. Holy Spirit can move freely through my vulnerability and receive the glory for what I can’t do on my own. Like in Kintsugi, my testimony is full of gold linings when God was able to bring restoration and redemption to what I once thought was unsalvageable. 

If I could leave you with just one thing, let it be this: God wants to do amazing things with your life. He knows the broken pieces of your life and still loves you. Instead of hiding your faults and failures, bring them to Him and allow Holy Spirit to shape you into His beautiful masterpiece for His glory.