Pass on what you have learned

As Saddleback Church’s ministry team, we have the incredible and humbling opportunity to teach what we have learned (through successes as well as those not so brilliant ideas) to other pastors and church leaders. Our team recently hosted 35 church leaders from all around the country who desire to fully grasp their roles as leaders of S.H.A.P.E. or ministry, in general, at their churches. We are calling this group of servants the CORE, because they are a vital part of the community that is devoted to making sure that every member of a church knows that he or she is God’s masterpiece, created to carry out a purpose for him.

Over the course of two days packed with teaching material, resources, think tanks, roundtable discussions, and question and answer times, it was obvious that these amazing men and women are devoted to becoming more effective leaders in order to better serve their own church members and volunteers. It was also clear that they had a wealth of experience, tips, and information to teach as our team came to realize by everything that we learned from these pastors, staff members, and volunteers themselves. To see these church leaders embracing the responsibilities that God has put them in charge of with grateful and teachable hearts was truly inspiring.

One observation our team noticed was the way in which the men and women offered and accepted advice and any help that they could willingly give and receive from one another. Throughout the conference, there was a pervasive feeling of being on one “team,” being a part of the core of what God is challenging us as ministry leaders to do for the benefit of all the church members that were represented.

If I can leave you with any tip, it would be to take every opportunity to learn and gather as much information as you can; to have a teachable heart and mind because God longs to use his church body for the purpose of helping one another fulfill his plans. At this recent conference, our team saw a group of teachable, willing, passionate church leaders striving to gather whatever they could use to go back to their churches and bless their members who are ready to serve. We saw a glimpse of the core of a community of servants.