Over the past months my pastor, Rick Warren, has challenged us to consider what God might do with us in the next ten years. What would our lives be like if God answered the prayers of our heart?
This got me thinking and praying. What would I like to see God do in and through my life I the coming Decade of Destiny? As I have shared before, I am in between ministries at the moment and seeking God’s direction and will for our next place of ministry, so this question has even more impact on me as a result. Now the great thing is this: The more I have prayed, the more God has answered.
As I look ahead in anticipation of the next ten years of ministry, I find there are eight focal points to the ministry I am seeking from God … these areas, while not exhaustive, are certainly central to the work God has prepared me to do.
I share them with you to encourage you to start asking that question: “What would your life be like if God answered the prayers of your heart?”
As you review these points, I know they will resonate among the hearts of those people with whom God is preparing me to work along side of in the coming years.
Thank you for the opportunity to reveal and reflect them with you today.
As I move forward for God, I know the ministry around me will view …
- Effective Prayer as central – creating / developing / enhancing corporate, small group and individual prayer is central to seeing with God’s eyes and feeling with God’s heart so we can be ‘on mission’ and following God’s will for our lives as a church.
- Passionate Worship as intentional – magnifying God’s name and bringing the whole of our worship time to bear on ‘the Big Idea’ of the day becomes central to our weekend worship efforts. This would include long-range planning so as to include and develop maximum involvement of our church family in our worship times to bring glory to God.
- Joyful Fellowship and Followership opportunities as vital – creating unity breeds joy and pleasure, strength and higher morale when men, women and teens are afforded the planned and intentional settings where they can mix and mingle, reflect and regroup, hope and hear from one another and God through camping, retreats and opportunities that allow us to rub shoulders with one another, work and play together as the family of God.
- Enhancing Spiritual growth as critical – building opportunities for the men, women and teens of our fellowship to grow in their spiritual aptitudes and appetites, interests and inquiries through courses, trips and situations where they are able to ‘work out’ their faith for the very real world we encounter every day.
- Reproducing Discipleship as key – training men, women and teens to become reproducing followers of Christ, able to understand and know what following Jesus is all about, as well as sharing the care and compassion of Jesus with others so that they too, are won to his leadership and love. Being sure to develop these men, women and teens so that once they have lead their friends to Christ, they can disciple them in the faith.
- Developing Leadership as essential – scheduling and developing regular times of formal leadership training, taking men, women and teens on appropriate ministry and leadership development seminars, conferences and activities, all the while understanding that Biblical leadership development is the process of servant leadership.
- Enthusiastic Outreach and Assimilation as the heartbeat of our ministry – seeking to fulfill the Great Commission is one of the greatest opportunities in this life by finding creative and relational ways to bring our people in contact with those who have yet to open their hearts and heads to the love and leadership of Jesus Christ.
- Pastoral Encouragement ministry as important – drawing a team of men, women and teens around the pastors to pray and encourage, support and serve so that the hearts of the pastors are encouraged so as to meet the challenges and callings God has for our people as a whole, thus lifting the whole church to the next level.
That’s the dream of my heart for ministry … this is where God is leading me. As I look at these, I see a blueprint for the way I will conduct myself in ministry in the coming Decade of Destiny.
Let me encourage you to start asking that question: “What would your life be like if God answered the prayers of your heart?”
As you pray and think, I know God will answer your heart as well!
I’d love to hear what God is putting in your heart as you dream and pray!
