Six Habits of Highly Effective People in Ministry - Charles R. Swindoll

it's a privilege again to have our Chancellor dr. Swindall here for those of you who followed his ministry his productivity has been amazing his creativity is off the charts his passion his communication skills are obviously an inspiration to us all but for those of us who are completing or near completing a lifetime of ministry to see what he has done how he has done it and we've given the beneficiaries the most recent contribution is that he has just finished his whole set of New Testament commentaries and the first half of Matthew is out the second half will be out very quickly and that will complete that whole set and I was checking with him this morning hopefully and the not-too-distant future that will be out in electronic form as well but if you need a great set looking on your shelf it's well done looks great content is really really helpful it's a tool that you'll want to use throughout your life of ministry Chuck thank you for being with us braving the weather today thank you for the dedication that it takes to get ready for this would you join me in welcoming our Swindell oh here we are huh good morning yeah I have a privilege to speak three times this semester and I am looking forward to doing that with you today and then on the 20th of next month and then the following April we'll be speaking on the 17th both of those dates are on Fridays then they'll be preview I think we call them preview days when we'll have guests looking at the school considering Dallas seminary as their place of study remember when you were back then thinking about where you were going to go and what it would be like and here you are of all things I want to borrow from Stephen Covey the idea that I'm going to follow these three occasions this month next in the following is I talked about Habits of Highly Effective individuals this month I want to talk about six Habits of Highly Effective People in ministry next month will be the subject of highly of seven Habits of Highly Effective seminary students and then the last will be eight Habits of Highly Effective seminaries so we'll take these three in a row I want to speak to you today but I'm looking to the future when you will no longer be here and you'll be engaged in ministry Ohio on your own yep right now you're surrounded by these who set the stage for you set the table put together the structure guide you as you participate in your studies for ministry but they'll be out of your sight never fully out of your mind because they impact you like a few people will in your life but they'll be in your past all the structure will be behind you and you will then be engaged in carrying out your ministry on your own you have no idea what you'll be doing you think you do and there's everything right about that you're probably wrong but you you you have in mind where the Lord's going to be taking you but he will surprise you again and again and again so are those surprises in mind I I want to talk with you about being effective not successful I think there's a difference more often than not being successful is connected to big numbers to financial profit to public approval large crowds loud applause and a lot of that has gotten mixed up into the things of the ministry and they have really nothing to do with great ministry nothing nothing wrong with success if that's what God plans for you but personally it brings a lot of extra complicating baggage you have to deal with so my desire for you and my words to you today and next month in the following will not be along the line of how to become successful my interest is that you become effective now here's the difference effective is a better goal because it doesn't bring as many temptations that you have to work your way through temptations that haunt you and will trouble you it doesn't feed your ego being effective has nothing to do with your ego it has staying power it's not temporary it reaches into and changes the lives of other people success doesn't necessarily do that it also frees you from comparison and competition which is a very helpful thing because you will fight those two most likely unless you're very unusual furthermore being effective encourages and emphasizes meaningful relationships being successful doesn't when you are effective you are close to people and people want to be close to you often when you're successful they want to hold you at a distance but effective ministers draw people to them and the reason is that you begin to model the ingredients and the qualities that they long for so my desire for you is that you cultivate habits of effectiveness as a minister of the gospel during my years in ministry if I may just give you a little sidebar here I've observed that there are certain perils that are uniquely connected to those in ministry and at the risk of missing some that I probably should name I want to name seven or eight of these perils and I'll just click them off you put them in the backburner and if you wish write them down they can be detrimental to your ministry and even dangerous for you so before I get into the areas of effectiveness let me just declare these perils to watch out for in no particular order these are the things I've observed that that work against an effective ministry authoritarianism I would name on accountability is another pride is always near the surface exclusiveness is another legalism lack of self-awareness and self-control envy and sensuality during my years of active ministry since leaving the seminary back in 1963 I've not only observed these things in the lives of others I've I've confronted them on occasion and even there are times in my own life when they rear their ugly heads it's easy to become to borrow from Martin Luther a bore in God's vineyard and rather than serving the vineyard and and being a source of encouragement I you can you can hurt people and you can even be engaged in a ministry that becomes toxic if you're not careful if you're not a good student of of yourself Paul frequently mentions knowing yourself and paying attention to things and you're in your life and and I'll be talking more and more about that my emphasis today however is on you our future and your life when you leave this place and you begin to operate on your own I think you you hear that list and if you're like I would have been when I was a student here you think that I'm never gonna do any of that I'm never going to be involved in any of that that's not gonna be a problem for me and I hope you're right I do but first Timothy 4 and verse 7 is reminder enough regarding your ministry when you're through here that you're to discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness you're on your own nobody will call you to prayer nobody will notice for a while if you don't pray your study will be a study you determine the books you read build will be the ones you choose the way you conduct yourself will be without the oversight of a professor or a mentor unless you're like a few of us who continue to seek out mentors realizing the need for them in our lives discipline yourself for the purpose of ministry and I hope these things I mentioned will encourage that so that the habits you form will help you become more and more effective let me begin with a couple of broad brush strokes that Paul doesn't specify in his letters and I'm limiting my comments to Paul's words to Timothy but they are two things that he modeled beautifully the first habit I want to mention is a genuine love for an interest in people I urge you to cultivate that what stands out to anyone reading Paul's letters is how many close friends and colleagues he maintained through his life often naming people once so were unfamiliar with them we we don't know the role they played in his life or he played in theirs but Paul was affectionate that we often think of him as a is not being that it occurred to me he's the one that said greet one another with a holy kiss he was a man who who who had a deep love for and wrote the great treatise on it in first Corinthians 13 isn't uncommon for him to end his letters with a list of names of people that are unfamiliar to us look at the very last letter e wrote and just kind of work your way through that forth in the end of the fourth chapter he begins by urging Timothy to come soon and to bring the cloak and the manuscript and the other things he requests he mentions Dimas who is forsaken embodiments close to him and we know very little about Dimas we know really nothing besides what he mentions here he talks about Luke being with him verse 11 we know a little of Luke not a whole lot we know what he wrote but he personally as a physician traveled with Paul he says pick up mark and bring him with you that would be John mark he mentions verse 12 tick ekeus and and then he talks about one who was a thorn in his side Alexander the coppersmith and then you'll see at verse 19 greet Prisca and Aquila a couple that he had left at Ephesus to continue the ministry the household of ona sephorus that name looks like a misprint we know very little about Onis if Aris a great statement about him and F us in the Ephesian letter arrest us in verse 20 trough him us in verse 20 whom he left sick at mellitus uvulas he mentions in verse 21 Putin's Lynas Claudia and all the Brethren here's a list of people that you and I know very little about he he had a place in his heart for people I want to urge you because some of you need this urging I you're you're connected to your studies you're not real friendly I noticed that when I speak to you you often just walk right on straight ahead that's okay but it won't be okay a ministry that's one of the first things your congregation will notice about you I I know you're happy but some of your faces don't haven't found that out and so you you don't smile and you don't see it real real need to smile yeah your congregation will notice that and they'll notice you don't look friendly you don't seem friendly believe me that will affect their response to your ministry you come across as studious and there's everything good about that but you can also mix with it a warmth and an affection that goes over really well with with people and it will help you if you will cultivate that care about their heartaches listen to them when they speak to you look them in the eye and don't look around them when they're talking to you drill into them so that they feel like they're the only one in the church at the moment they're talking to you make a habit of that cultivate that learn good eye contact have a good strong handshake mean it when you ask how people are learn their names it's not uncommon for pastors to be at a church for quite some time but not know the names of the flock a most important thing to an individual believe it or not is his or her name learn it make sure you're pronouncing it correctly that also is helpful let them see the cracks in your life I don't don't be afraid to be vulnerable with your congregation with those that you're ministering to or those you're teaching tell them how much you love them and use that word express gratitude for them I do that regularly with our elders there's there are a few elder meetings we have where I don't before we're breaking up where I don't pause and say let me just look around the room and tell you man how much you mean to me and how much I need you and that's true of the congregation as well I will say to a congregation on occasion you the joy you bring me and cannot be put into words and I'm not blowing smoke on them I really mean that I can't imagine my life without a flock of people we have a family in our church who just recently have had a real good experience their son has just signed on with Yale he graduated number one scholar in the high schools and he's an all-american football player in high school and will go and play ball for Yale he's in for some surprises I think when he plays ball for Yale but that's another subject he's played for machete and made all everything and now they're signing with Yale and it means a lot to the family so I just added to my day sending a little text to the to the son whose name is Mitchell and to his daddy who happens to be a part of our staff and I congratulated them on this milestone that they were experiencing together his daddy told me later he had the fetus paused and read the text to his family I mentioned that not to make me look good because more often than not I would forget to do that but when I remembered to do it it is amazing what it meant to the family it's just amazing it means more than you realize and that was more than I expected I just thought made sure would go boy that's nice preacher said congratulations that's good I mean they they stopped and and and actually read what I wrote and and listened to it and I was thrilled to be a part of their yeah the day of celebration enter into the grief of your friends weep with those who weep let it out tell them you care but don't say it unless you mean it pray with your wife about that family going through a really tough time let the people impact your life you'll be a better person for it and you'll endear yourself to them for a lifetime care about other people please I'll even be strong enough to say if you don't really enjoy people search your heart as to whether you should really be in ministry you need to touch the lives of other people they want to know that they matter believe me when they know they matter they will listen as well as you're listening right now because you've entered into their world you got the point second habit let your passion show through and run free I'm still in first Timothy 4 here and and I look at the opening words of verses 11 to 16 just run down there with me will you just look at the word just to look at the opening volley of each one prescribed and teach verse 11 let no one look down on your youthfulness show yourself an example those who believe give attention to public reading don't neglect spiritual gift within you take pains with these things be absorbed in them take close attention to them it's like he's building to a climax he is he's writing to Timothy you apparently was a little shy a little reluctant rather sickly he's saying to Timothy step up walk into this a ministry that God's given you with with passion and with zeal enthusiasm and when you when you do that you will become contagious people love to be around individuals who are enthusiastic about life and they don't lose their enthusiasm as the years stack up several things will help you in in building this passion and letting it run free a positive outlook on your opportunity whatever it may be that God opens up for you a good sense of humor always helps it doesn't mean that you tell a lot of jokes that's not necessarily a good sense of humor I sense of humor I really just kind of comes out at times and people chuckle along with you or they enjoy the fact that you don't take yourself all that seriously pump up the volume by the way don't mumble some of you are really I'm not gonna say that not that wouldn't be helpful but you need to cultivate some skills of speaking so that folks can hear you and understand as you articulate your words I I learned one thing sitting to the right of my father at our dining room table it was to speak up and he would look at me as a speak out son and after I got over the shock I would speak up and and I've certainly learned that lesson when the cynthy would bring our babies home from to begin life in our home they'd spend their first week jumping when I'd speak to them because I'm using go come on like this and that they finally learn that's just dead that's just the way he is you know keep your prayer life vital and and active don't let the evening news shape your attitude if it's getting too used shut it off there very little on the evening news that's worth watching and the other night Cynthia and I decided just to shut it down I'm so sick of those people arguing with each other and and and yelling at each other and unforgiving and and all that I don't need more of that I fight enough of that in my own nature I don't need it lived out for me on the television I my passion is affected when I watch people who are passion let's accept when they're attacking others learn by the way to to show gratitude us I spoke on that a moment ago and your passion will begin to run free run free so cultivate a love for other people and an interest in them let your passions show through and run free now we're ready for chapter six he sort of does a list of things for us here in this sixth chapter I'm gonna give you four words that will be the sort of a headings I may not use them but they'll be the headings for my four final habits I want to mention flee follow fight and fasten those are not original with me I borrowed them from Kent Hughes in his book on the pastoral letters flee follow fight and fasten those are sort of the guidelines that you could trace through Chapter six the first Timothy beginning verse three it's almost to the end so here's habit number three flee from all that characterises phony leader you prefer one use that word run from all the characterizes the phony anything that smacks of phony have nothing to do with verse 11 he talks about that flee from the thing from these things you man of God and these things you've got to look back up through three through ten to see the context flee from these things and you'll go back to verse three if anyone advocates a different doctrine and he starts in there with one of the characteristics of a phony leader he teaches what is false his doctrine is weak if not altogether in error stay away from that keep your doctrine sharp by staying in the study the another one he mentions verse four he is conceited characteristic of phony leaders is conceit they understand nothing says the Apostle another characteristic is in verse four at the end they are divisive look at how he puts it their interest is in controversial questions and disputes about words and out of which arise envy and strife and abusive language and evil suspicions all of that is divisive and it will stir up a congregation a body of people the people you are teaching whatever may be your your audience a stay away from divisive nough stand of course I mentions at the at the end of verse five they think that godliness is a means to gain of having in mind making money greed is what he's referring to look at verse nine those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare many foolish and harmful desires which plunge man to ruin and destruction for the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil some longing for he have wandered away from the faith and and and pierced themselves through with many griefs again you you read that list you think I'm not gonna get like that that's not gonna be me I studied at Dallas seminary I never saw profs that were greedy or divisive or conceded or taught anything but the but the right kind of truth I'm not gonna go there yeah but you're not on your own when you're on your own let me visit with you in 10 or 15 years see how you're doing without the structure around you you see you leave all of this when you walk away from here you're in the minority instantly and you will be for the rest of your life as the minister of the gospel is everything good about that but it's all so easy in the minority to want to fall in with the group and I said what I said about people so you wouldn't think I'm encouraging exclusiveness but choose carefully who you run with your pursuits are to be godly pursuits here you're surrounded by those who know you and hold you accountable then that won't be true unless you invite that want to know the truth you'll need your run for the rest of your life you'll need to run away from things the rest of your life in fact especially chapter 2 of second Timothy look at it 2:22 I'll give you another flee to consider flee from youthful lusts you've already been warned again and again about moral failing and you are convinced you'll never fall you have no way of being convinced of that you're going to be tempted as soon as you leave this place and even before you leave and it's not just a lust for sex all kinds of lust lust for power and control you are effective in your ministry and before long you'll be tempted to take control of things and to lust for attention and admiration there's a along with that you'll you'll become well-known quite likely in the community because ministers who are effective become known in the in the community and they are in demand on occasion people will ask you to speak at places and and you'll get used to the applause and you'll get used to large honorarium and you'll be doing it for the honor area if you're not careful and you'll fall into the trap of loving the money that's in it you may write a book that's successful and the publisher will do his or her job and they'll sell that book and it'll bring in an income that supplements your you're a smaller income you're making where you're sir being in before long you're worth an amount of money you're thinking right now is the shooted that's not a bad idea to be worth a little more than I'm worth right now and there's nothing wrong with making money there's nothing wrong God never attacks the rich just because they're rich he attacks what happens to you when you get rich and very few can maintain a balance very few remain generous when they get rich getting rich makes no-one generous if you're not generous when you're poor and and when you are generous it and then you gain a little income you can't wait to give more of it away but the temptation will be to get more and yeah I'll just be crass about it you'll think about it I'd like to do that wedding wonder what I'd make if I did their wedding put a check on that in your life let's just agree to do that and stop taking money for funerals it always bothered me that people would take money for doing a funeral you lay it somebody to rest that family's grieving I give them that check back is everything beautiful about that furthermore it's good for you for your battle with possessions you don't need that you're not that desperate but you're the one that has to put a check on it don't want to be looking over your shoulder and before long you'll find yourself if you're a successful writer writing the book for what you're going to get out of it and your publisher will even encourage that I don't know how many times Cynthia and I've said again and again and again and again to every put we're not in it for that forgive me for yelling but I I'm passionate about that and they just don't get it because they're around it all the time and the reward people get in America for good work and whatever's money its money Amy and he warns us about money here he warns us and again I want to make it clear there's nothing wrong with making money what's wrong is what happens to you when you get more than you need and and your heart isn't right and you change don't tell me you won't change I've seen it over and over and over and over even with people in ministry talking straight to you about habits that you form that will help you and if you don't form the habits you'll get sucked into it so run run run fast by the way it's a good little thing to remember you you can't lust while you're running I learned that in the Marine Corps boy they brought all these beautiful women to the island to service the Marines like we're animals well some of them were and and here were all these gorgeous women they brought on them 5000 at one time prostitutes and I said to my guy that let our Bible study I said you know I I get off I get off the jitney and I've got a little ways to walk between where I get off the bus and when we get to the Bible setting and you know it's tempting walking along there I'm a married man my wife's 8,000 miles away and he said I'm gonna give you a tip Ron and I'm not kidding you when I started running I didn't notice anybody was attractive at that point man I was my desire is to get up the hill and make it to the Bible study and and it worked so keep running keep running habit number four model true contentment wherever God calls you model true contentment we see this at the beginning of verse six godliness actually is a means of great gain when it's accompanied by contentment that a great wide genre that is thought writes Paul's words for content word for contentment is the regular term used by the Stoics for contentment it means self-sufficient which is altogether independent of circumstances I like the way that reads contentment does not depend on external things thus he writes in Philippians for I've learned to be content whether I am abounding or without enough food whether I have plenty or I'm in want Philippians 4:11 2:13 one of the greatest benefits of learning contentment don't miss this it puts the brakes on covetousness you will envy less when you are contented just settle in your where God's called you let me give you a tip there will always be a larger church there there will always be a bigger salary there will always be better weather there will always be greater prestige there will always be more benefits and you'll tell yourself there will always be nicer people in the congregation if I go there here's a very important principle the grass is not only not greener it's not even edible on the other side of the fence invariably you may have better weather but you'll run into people that were worse than what you left or you'll find yourself in a situation that he's got trials that you didn't have earlier so no matter where you are settle in stay there unless God clearly is leading you to move stay hang in there find contentment in it be known as one who gave it long haul by the way he comes to the end of verse 11 look at this and I want you to miss something here verse 11 flee from these things man of God pursue righteousness God in His faith love perseverance and gentleness those two last words easy to run past them perseverance and gentleness includes patients with difficult petty and troubled people you'll be around them all your life they where else are they gonna go think about it they don't hang around a Civic Center they don't have the money to go to big ballgames Church is free and there's somebody that acts like they care about them so they show up and and you're the one that's the deal with them Hendricks used to say wherever there's light there's bugs and and you will encounter the bugs you'll need perseverance and gentleness stay contented quick little review cultivate the love and interest in people let your passions show through and run free flee from all that characterizes phony leaders model true contentment wherever God calls you God will give you the grace to endure have it number five here we go stand firm during days of conflict they can be agonizing and I uh when he writes fight the good fight of faith it isn't the word fight it's a gonna I go Ned's am I there's agony in this word it's difficult to tell whether Paul had in mind combat in warfare which has its own agony or physical agony when you work out you know Jim or when you are in competition in athletic contests either one fits it's the opposite of passivity you agonize through days of conflict so I'm deliberately staying away from fight because there's too much fighting in most of us anyway the ministry includes days when you must agonize through the conflict if it's worth you're contending for it contend without becoming contentious we don't need more contentious people in ministry face the struggles head-on don't back away from them if you must deal with them struggle through them guard against developing a narrow-minded defensive fight back kind of ministry it's a principle worth standing for stand and agonize through it but don't look for a fight you can disagree without becoming disagreeable it's always been one of my goals you can hold your convictions without insulting those who don't agree with you to me it's a sign of an intelligent ministry mr. deal with opponents and you will always have them just last Sunday had a man come to the front and opposed several things I had make comments about and he has every right to hold in that opinion he's wrong but he's has every right to hold of those and you know when he left me he wasn't mad at me and I wasn't mad at him I'm I'm determined to treat him with respect he's gonna be there next week looking for something else it's okay it's easy to create your own agony this is a good agony every generation it seems as a calling they must stand for this one included that's a good agony think clearly stand your ground state your position disagree with opponents when you must then get over it unlike the politicians get over it get over it don't hold it back in some life because they disagreed with you don't blackballed them you know what you may live long enough to realize they were more right than you thought they were when you discover that's true be man or woman enough to go back and say you know what I found that what you've come in at all just more right than I was thank you for pointing it out so that's the fifth habit to stand firm during days of conflict they can be agonizing finally fifth six develop a stick-to-it attitude when it comes to your calling develop a stick to it attitude determined to stay at your calling regardless be relentless consistently seize it for the long haul Paul says as much as that when he talks about it I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things in Christ Jesus who testified the good confession that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus hang on to it you've been ordained into this it isn't a temporary ordination hanging right there in my study not only what I received when I graduated from the seminary but my ordination is right in front of where I study dated and the ordination council eight men who checked out every detail they could for two and a half hours I was the only one in that ordination exam and I committed myself to a lifetime of ministry and I promised them if you will endorse me I will stay at it for the rest of my life sitting in this thing called ministry and they believe me it's a it's it's possible to possess something but not embrace it so stay engaged in the full spectrum of ministry grab it for all it's worth grab the reins and ride that thing to the end best-selling author Annie Dillard heard of a man who after accidentally shooting an eagle in the sky thinking it to be a hawk examined it he found that the dry skull of a weasel was fixed to the neck by the jaws of this weasel evidently months earlier when the Eagle had swooped down and pounced on the easel on the one the weasel the animal turned and bit into it with determination held on even though torn and eviscerated the weasel had refused to let go and ultimately became an airborne skull boys that a vivid image or what Dillard while reflecting on it an unusual scene offers these words my quote her I think it would be well and proper and obedient to grasp your one necessity and not let it go I love that sees it she writes sees it even until your eyes burn out and your bones on hands and scatter close quote from her book teaching your stone to talk that's the ministry sees it don't play with it you're in this thing wherever God calls you for however long you're alive we're joining the ranks of ministry you're joining an eternal body of essentials something never to be treated half-heartedly when you seized the reins and stay fastened to it rotting it for all it's worth to the end you will know the joy of truly following Christ and taking up your cross and dying for him Amy Carmichael put it like this give me the love that leads the way the faith that nothing can dismay the hope no disappointments tire the passion that will burn like fire let me not sink to be a clod I love that line let me not sink to be a clod make me thy fuel flame of God lord of we we love you and and we we fight the flesh we struggle with stuff we can preach this but living it is such a big job and following through to the end is our assignment may we have the tenacity of that weasel to buy into this thing called ministry maybe we do it with our whole heart holding nothing back and may become for us a lifestyle not something we perform or act out enable us to really be this with our whole heart and soul and mind and strength in Jesus name everybody said you

Channel: Dallas Theological Seminary

Views: 35,354

Rating: 4.8091874 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: 5swVzEW7si8

Length: 55min 48sec (3348 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 12 2020