If our recent GSI sermon series has got you dreaming big dreams, Christine's sermon is a must read, BEFORE you quit your job!
Before You Quit Your Job…
- Have any of you – as you’ve been listening to this S.H.A.P.E. series – been feeling like there’s something more for you waiting around the corner – and that if you could just grab onto it, the purpose of your life would become clear?
- As we’ve been exploring these last 6-weeks how God has given you this special combination of spiritual gifts, heart-passions, abilities, personality, and experiences, have any of you gotten this impulse to just up-and-quit your job and say, “God –Here I am! Let’s start over!”
Aunt’s StoryA few years ago, my aunt was at a church conference, listening to a series similar to our S.H.A.P.E. series when she had this amazingly clear vision. She was in the middle of this great time of worship when suddenly, time stood still, and she felt like God was tapping her on the shoulder. What came to her mind was this vision of this retreat center in the Colorado mountains – and women from all over the country, who had been sexually abused, were coming to this beautiful oasis in the mountains to be ministered to and healed. Now, she had led retreats before, but this vision was far bigger than anything she’d imagined before. She felt, in that moment, like God was pointing at her, saying, “This is what I want you to do with your life.” This is what you were made for.
This vision stuck like glue - she couldn’t get it out of her head. As soon as the conference finished, she started calling friends and relatives, telling them about this vision. By Thursday of the next week, she was cruising the internet looking at properties in Colorado – lodges and retreat centers for sale that would match the picture she had in her head. Miraculously, she found this property for sale in a popular ski resort area that had been sitting on the market forever and was selling way below its market value. This had to be a sign from God!
Now, admittedly – buying this thing was a bit over her head. She didn’t know anything about commercial real estate or managing a lodge, but she knew that if she just trusted in God – it would all work out. She visited the property, and it was perfect. The finances she had to pull together to afford it were staggering, but again….if this was God’s idea, he’d be faithful! Before long, she’d been approved for several huge loans and financed the thing. A few weeks after her vision, my aunt was the proud new owner of a retreat center in Colorado.
Well – “God’s vision” got complicated really quickly. First of all, she discovered that the property had been embroiled in all kinds of legal disputes that weren’t clear when she closed on it. Moreover, she didn’t know a thing about running a lodge. She had to start hosting groups immediately to financially stay afloat, and there was so much to learn. How do you recruit and pay a housekeeping staff? How do use and repair commercial-sized ovens and refrigerators? What do you with “Christian” employees who end up stealing from you? How do you deal with clients who bounce their checks and leave you with a false address?
She had wanted to start reaching out to abused women, but now she was so over her head with property management and personnel issues that she was on the brink of financial ruin. Every morning she’d call my mom asking her to pray against the “demonic attacks” she was experiencing, but when people advised her that she had made a wrong move, she was offended. This was God’s dream for her. She had to overcome. 5 years later, on the verge of bankruptcy, my aunt had to sell the lodge at thousands of dollar of loss. Today, she’s still mad at God for giving her giving her this big dream and abandoning her - allowing her to fail.
You know, I hope that as we’ve been going this series, God has started birthing dreams in some of your hearts. I hope that some of you are getting restless and are thinking that maybe God has more in mind for your life than you’re currently experiencing. Some of you have shared that you’ve been woken up in the middle of the night with some ministry idea, and you couldn’t fall asleep after that. That’s all good!
I. God is a Dream-Giver. When you start yielding your life to God, you start dreaming dreams. You start having visions. God starts putting pictures of life – NOT as we know it – into your head – and you start longing to break out of the status quo and start really living! That’s God-stuff.
When the Holy Spirit starts making you restless, the worst thing you can do is to try and suppress it. Don’t try to make it go away by eating chocolate or watching T.V.
If you’re feeling restless, start listening. God’s trying to speak to you. He’s telling you that He bigger plans – better dreams for you. He knows that you’re capable of more than you’re doing. No. It’s not about adding more to your “to do” list. You’re exhausted as it is. But God wants to reorganize a little - to claim a much bigger chunk of your daily planner.
In John 10:10, Jesus says, “I have come that you might have LIFE and have itmore abundantly.” Do you want to live? Truly live?”
If any of you have been seized by a “holy restlessness” these past few weeks – I want to help steer you. I don’t want you to do what my aunt did – to quit your job or buy a lodge in Colorado. But I also don’t want to you to find your SHAPE and just sit on it! You know, my aunt was right on one point. When God gives you a dream – you’ve got to be obedient. You can’t sit there and act like no one’s talking. You can’t say, “Naw…That’s too big for me. I’m not qualified for that. I’ll just humiliate myself and fail.” No. You’ve got to act! Why?
Because every one of you has a ministry that God has uniquely burned into your heart, and you’re the only one that can do it. You have been uniquely equipped with a certain SHAPE and a certain network of relationships that make YOU the only one qualified for the job!
Today - I’ve called my message, “Before You Quit Your Job….” I want to offer you a 3-Step process on how to start ministering in your SHAPE. Now – I can’t guarantee that you won’t fail. Every Bible character failed at some point. But I’d like to get you started on the right track.
II. Before You Quit your Job…
1) …Get with God and Start Listening.
It’s not strange that my aunt got a vision for what God wanted her to do with her life while she was worshipping. When we worship God, we give Him a place to speak into our lives. You can worship in the privacy of your bedroom or surrounded by people at Cedarbrook. Just take time to clear your head, read a Psalm, or listen to worship CD, and see what thoughts come to your mind. If you get distracted, it’s okay. Put that thought or concern on the shelf and refocus on God’s presence. I like to close my eyes and imagine myself walking with Jesus in the woods. What would Jesus say to you? What would he want YOU to know? Cut yourself off from external distractions and listen to God’s voice.
2) …Get Honest Feedback
Proverbs 15:21-22, says “Folly delights the one who lacks judgment, but the one who seeks understanding keeps a straight course. Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.”
This is key. God will always use the community to confirm something he’s placed on your heart. So you need to gather some wise counsel, some advisers, some God-fearing friends who are willing to be brutally honest with you – even if it hurts.
Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” Find some iron sharpeners – some other followers of Jesus – who love you more than they love being liked by you!
You know – I am addicted to American Idol – and you know who makes this show work? It’s this rude judge – Simon Cowell. After people sing, he tears their performances apart, and you just want to hug them and comfort them for having to have listened to his harsh critique.
But Simon makes the show happen because he tries to speak the blunt, honest truth about what he’s hearing. Now – he doesn’t “speak the truth in love,” like Scripture calls us to do - but he dares to say what everyone else is thinking.
These people who can speak the truth – speak it in love - are really hard to find! We live amidst all these people-pleasing Midwesterners who want to be “nice”. We don’t want to hurt people’s feelings. Especially in the church - we don’t want to turn people away from God, so it’s tempting to lie to them and not be honest about what we really see in their lives.
Now – I’m not encouraging you to walk up to someone here and tell them what you really think of them. That’s too easy. I’m asking you to go to someone you love and trust– and to invite them to give you some critical feedback. Let them know what you think you’re hearing from God. Let them in on where you perceive your gifts and strengths lying. Let them know your dreams and thoughts, and then ask them to challenge you in it.
Whenever I preach at Cedarbrook, I spend a lot of time praying and searching Scripture for what God wants me to say in my message, but I also ask Remy to critique my sermons. I’m sick to my stomach when I get his feedback, but if I didn’t voluntarily subject myself to his criticism, I’d never grow. And you’d all be subjected to my ramblings and bored out of your skulls.
3) …Start Ministering in Your Sphere of Influence. Okay – you’ve met with God – you’ve gotten honest feedback. Now, you have to start small and begin ministering in your sphere of influence.
You know – once we figure out our S.H.A.P.E. - our potential and gifts, it can be tempting to do something radical like my aunt did: Move or buy a lodge in Colorado. It’s so much cooler to have a BIG vision - to move to Africa to save the Somali’s. But what you want to do is dream BIG, but start small. Jesus tells a parable in Luke, where the Master commends his servant, saying,
“Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of 10 cities.” (Luke 19:17) If we don’t take time to prove or refine our gifts among the people already in our sphere of influence, God’s not going to broaden our pool of people to serve.
What’s a “sphere of influence?” Your sphere of influence is the circle of people that you already have some influence over in your life – your family, friends, coworkers, classmates, or your small group. These are people, in whose lives you’ve already made relational deposits – people who already know you and trust you.
Now – if you don’t have anyone in your sphere of influence, start there. You need to build up good friendships and a network of people who know you. Join a small group, a softball league, the Optimists club. If no one knows you, you have no ministry.
But once you’ve determined your sphere of influence, you need to start ministering in it.
Martin Luther said that you are the “Priesthood of all Believers.” He was saying that it’s not the priest or the pastor’s job to do the ministry of the church. It’s your job. There’s good reason for this. You are uniquely equipped and qualified to minister to your circle of friends. If Remy or I tried to hang out with your friends, I’d guarantee you that they’d look at us strangely – and would maybe even run away.
What was your clique in high school? I hate to drag up painful memories - but many of us had a clique that we hung out with. Maybe you were a jock or a Goth (a modern form of a hippy or beatnik), or maybe you were a theater/arts person, a “brain-iac”, or the SHOP guy. Thank God these cliques don’t follow us our whole lives – but that group you “clicked” with - you’re naturally gifted to reach those people!
Maybe this is obvious - but I think there’s this mentality in the church that in order to go into ‘ministry”, you have to go to church school, act religious, and get on a church staff. You have to become this prototypical “church guy” – like Remy or Rick Warren, who wears these conservative, preppy clothes – and put on those Mr. Roger’s sweaters like Remy wears with the leather elbow pads.
This would be a disaster at Cedarbrook. Not only would it ruin fashion here (sorry Remy), but it would mean that we’d only succeed in reaching one “clique” of people – people who relate to Remy! Who’s the most effective at reaching out to bikers? Bikers are! Who’s the most effective at reaching out to alcoholics? Recovering alcoholics! Who’s the most effective at reaching out to studious nerds that don’t get out enough? People like me!!!!!
What’s your ministry clique? Who has God equipped you to minister to? Back in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Greg and I lived in this crazy inner-city neighborhood where we were one of the few employed people on the block. We had this neighbor named Jim. He was a war vet, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Jim struggled with depression and a little paranoia. You’d often see him, with his long, grey hair, sitting on his porch with a beer – ready to hang out with anyone needing to talk.
Everyone on the block called him “Reverend Jim” or “The Rev” because Jim had this heart of gold – and despite his mental health issues and limited resources, Jim was one of the most compassionate, loving people we’d ever met. He always had druggies and homeless kids and seriously messed up people staying at his house, and he’d mentor them and love them and try to give them a new start.
Jim would always defer to me and say, “Here comes the real reverend around here.” But I’d say, “No way, Jim! I may have a degree, but you’re the real pastor around here. No one here comes to me for help. They’re all polite and weird around me. You’re so approachable, and people trust you. You minister to more people on this block than I ever will!”
What made Jim such a great “reverend”? Was it his Biblical knowledge? His mature Christian faith, or his ability to articulate the Gospel? No! Jim was effective because he took seriously his role in loving and ministering to the people God had placed in his sphere of influence. Your sphere of influence is the place where you minister most effectively.
Your next step is to plant yourself there, like a tree among them, and see what fruits people naturally start plucking from you. I mean, if you love children, volunteer for children’s ministry, and see what gifts the kids start plucking from you. Try teaching and notice: Are the kids engaging with you? Do you feel energized? It’s confirmed. You’re a teacher! Or when you teach, are the kids are crafting origami animals out of their worksheets? Try again! Try out being an organizational assistant or a small group shepherd. Experiment! You may be surprised.
Now – if there’s not one ministry at Cedarbrook that turns your crank, we need you to start a new one. The diversity of ministries we offer at Cedarbrook should be as diverse as the people sitting in these chairs.
- If you’re a banker, start offering to help the people you know make wise financial decisions.
- If you fix cars, start offering to help single moms or others in need fix their cars!
- If you’re a musician, offer a free class for people wanting to learn the basics of guitar.
- If you’re addicted to the show, “24”, see if there are other addicts who’ll watch it with you and take a half hour to pray with each other afterwards.
Don’t wait to be offered a staff position at church to share your gifts! Don’t wait for me to come up with a ministry to fit your SHAPE. It’s a free market here. Offer your supply, and see if there’s demand. Find your natural, God-given sphere of influence and start influencing them!
Sally Johnson loved dogs. She owned several, and she had become remarkably skilled at training them. Sally’s dogs were perfectly behaved! Sally taught them to sit, stay, heel and lie down. She knew how to make them gentle around children and calm while indoors. She was a regular “dog whisperer”, and everyone in her neighborhood knew it!