Enough, already!

Enough time, that is, which has elapsed since my last post. I really do enjoy this; I just get distracted with so many other things. But I'm not going to cut bait, so it's time to fish. Focus! (Squirrel!)

We left off talking about the third level of involvement, Contributor, and going on to the fourth level, Motivator. Now, some people are naturally born as encouragers--it's the way God wired them from the get-go. But this is another viewpoint related to vision for ministry that everyone can fit into. While it centers around encouragement, it is an altruistic experience, one that is not based on encouraging others because of what they can do for you; it is not encouragement for personal gain. Let me explain: any ministry leader ought to be encouraging the people who labor with them. (Aside: I struggled with this statement because I didn't want to say "the people under them"--I believe strongly that the ground is level at the foot of the Cross--or "the people who work for them"--we don't work for each other; we work for the Kingdom and for Jesus. We are co-laborers.) Instead, this level is applied without any thought for personal gain or reward.

Take a look at the comments on my first post. You'll find one there by Aaron Jayne, my stepson. I won't go into the details of our history (we've both changed since then), but, suffice it to say, we weren't always on the same page. Yet he has encouraged me many times to explore my potential as a person, as a Christian, and as a minister to "stretch out the boundaries" of my experience in Christ. It was his encouraging invitation to us in 1996 to come visit him at the Dream Center on our planned trip to Los Angeles that launched us on one of the most exciting times of our lives. He is one of the most positive people I know; when life hands him lemons, he starts building lemonade stands! And yet, this is not his natural gift. It is something he has developed, a level of involvement to which he has risen. He does it in support of other people's visions.

This is the hallmark of the Motivator level. You can't do this and have a glass that's half-empty, or even half-full, for that matter--it has to be overflowing! Only then can you share with others out of your abundance and still have some left over for yourself. By encouraging others, you advance the cause of Christ, and through their successes, you receive encouragement for your own visions. By depositing in other people's accounts in the Kingdom Bank, you earn interest on your own account. And God's interest rate is certainly better than any human financial institution's!

Next time (soon!), we will start to wrap this up by forging on into the fifth and last level of involvement, one to which every Christian should strive to attain: Minister. Till then...squirrel!