Keeping a Ministry Heart with a Busy Job

1. Get a balance of having a mind for THINGS and a heart for PEOPLE
   • If you don’t have a mind for detail, you will live in a maze of confusion. (And most people will not want to live with you there very long!)
     • Get organized
     • Stay on schedule
     • Learn time management
     • Do everything in a first-class way
     • “God’s business is the biggest business in all the world!” – Dr. Jack Hyles
   • The ministry includes handling a lot of duties and things; leaving them undone or not doing them well will make your ministry fail.
   • The ministry is all about people.
   • If you do not have a heart to work with people, quit the ministry and start a company making things.
2. Make the THINGS you work at for the PEOPLE you love
   • Always make the duties you do for the people’s growth, not for your own sense of accomplishment.
   • “I will not use my people to build my work, but rather I will use my work to build my people” – Dr. Jack Hyles
   • The ministry is about serving – not serving yourself or things but serving the Lord and the people.
   • If you love the Lord, serving Him is no problem. If you love people, serving them will be no issue either.
   • The deeper you love the people, the harder you will work to do more things for them.
3. Keep the PEOPLE more important than the THINGS
   • Never get “too busy” with doing things to help people.
   • Things will wait, people will not.
   • I can start on the things before people get up or finish them once they are in bed.
   • I can only change things for a day, but I can influence people for eternity.
   • If I consume all my time doing things, the people will feel neglected.
   • A thing may clamor for my attention, but it won’t feel hurt if I don’t get to it.
4. Get PEOPLE to help you do the THINGS
   • Serving more people requires me to do more things.
   • At some point, I will have to make a choice between effectively taking care of things or taking care of people.
   • The answer is to get the people to help you do the things so you can in return reach more people.
   • Having people help you with things is a win-win: they grow by serving and you get a better chance to influence them individually.
   • The greatest influence is done one person at a time, not in groups.
   • We are to manage things, but we are to mentor people.
   • When you begin to train them to do what only you were doing, you can now begin to multiply yourself.
5. Don’t let the PEOPLE or the THINGS ever keep you from God
   • You will never be a better manager of things or leader of people than you are a follower of God.
   • I will never be more effective on my feet than I was first earnest on my knees.
   • When you allow things or people to pull you away from time with God, you are no longer qualified to help them.
   • Your time with God should not be moved around to fit your busy schedule; your busy schedule must be moved around to facilitate your time with God.
   • The best way to protect your relationship with God is to begin it every day before most people are awake!
   • Remember that walking with God is not a morning-only event – it is getting Him involved in your life all throughout the day.
   • Luke 10:38
     Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.10:39, And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.

     10:40,  But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.

     10:41,  And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:

     10:42,  But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

   • It does me no good to rush off to accomplish things or meet people’s needs until I have first gotten the wisdom of God and the power of God to do it.
   • Your earnest effort in serving will become frustrating without faithfully practicing the priority of sitting.
   • When your heart is no longer in serving, the problem is not the people – IT IS YOU!

Mathew 6:21, For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Ephesians 6:6, …as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;