Just Show Up
Being trustworthy means showing up, ready and available, season after season. Showing up is a crucial part of faithfulness—and sometimes the hardest part.
A successful industrialist once addressed a large body of executives. Speaking on the topic “Following the Leader,” he emphasized two difficulties leaders often struggle with. First, leaders struggle with getting people to think—to really think. Second, leaders struggle with getting people to establish and maintain priorities. We all wrestle with doing things in order of importance. One of the reasons for this struggle is that we often don’t know what deserves our immediate attention. For ministry our first priority is clear: prayer.
Being trustworthy means showing up, ready and available, season after season. Showing up is a crucial part of faithfulness—and sometimes the hardest part.
For as long as I have been in the ministry I have asked the Lord for a balance between a tender heart and a tough hide. It isn't an easy balance. In fact, the latter is more difficult to cultivate than the former.
Chuck Swindoll explains how a healthy ministry focuses on the person of Jesus Christ—admonishing, teaching, preaching, and warning all people to walk in the truth and mature in their relationship with the Lord.
Thanksgiving is a holiday with deep, biblical roots. It’s a day for those who belong to Christ Jesus to look up, around, and within as we use three magnificent words that can completely change our perspective: “Thank You, Lord!”
The Spirit-filled saint is a song-filled saint. And your melody is broadcast right into heaven—live—where God’s antenna is always receptive, where the soothing strains of your song are always appreciated.
Paul’s relationship with Timothy goes back to Paul’s earliest days as a missionary. Paul and Barnabas visited Timothy’s hometown of Lystra on Paul’s first journey around AD 47.
Give further thought to this. Ask God to open your lips and honour your words...but be careful! Once your missile hits the target, you’ll become totally dissatisfied with your former life as an earthbound, secret-service saint.
Slice it any way you wish, ignorance is not bliss. Dress it in whatever garb you please, ignorance is not attractive. Neither is it the mark of humility nor the path to spirituality. It certainly is not the companion of wisdom.
By providing us seven habits of highly effective seminaries, Chuck Swindoll wants each student who is considering seminary as well as each student currently enrolled in seminary to uphold and grow in this balancing act required for a thriving ministry.
Love. This simple, four-letter verb forms our ministry impulse. Chuck urges all ministers to return to the basics that they might abide and walk with a sincere love for others.