In Mark chapter six, Jesus returns to His hometown. At this point, Jesus has gained notoriety and a large following. However, He doesn't receive a hero's welcome back home...in fact, His friends and family seem to ignore Him.
Imagine...you answer the call to ministry, begin to exercise your gifts and calling, witness miracles, signs and wonders only to find that your family and friends cannot see past their familiarity with you.
When you step up to lead, it will draw out the best and the worst in people. You cannot control negative reactions from others but you can choose to respond positively. This is an important lesson that I have learned over the years. The difference between a REACTION and a RESPONSE will either make you or break you.
With a reaction, ordinarily, you act in haste and usually end up regretting your actions. However, with a response, you give yourself more time to consider how you want to react. One of the worst things a leader can do is REACT when negativity comes their way. It is better to let the dust settle and the water recede before you end up saying something that you will regret later.
Even when you attempt to do your very best, with the purest of motives, you will face assumicide from those around you who choose to become offended.
Some people "hate ya" because they "aint ya!"
Don't become discouraged when the people you expect to celebrate you merely tolerate you. This is the reality of leadership. Jesus' own family and friends saw Him as nothing more than "the carpenters son" in spite of His wisdom, miracles and healings.
The choice is now yours. You can remain in your comfort zone and keep trying to please everyone around you who has accepted the status quo or you can press beyond the limitations and restrictions of mediocrity and charge ahead to your destiny.
When you decide to press forward, do not be shocked when you're now labeled, ridiculed and scoffed. It comes with the territory. Anyone who has ever done anything noteworthy for the Kingdom of God has done so at the RISK of their reputation.
Their ceiling will become your platform when you begin to climb.
Ask yourself..."what do I want to be...a 30, 60 or 100 fold Christian?" The choice is yours. You have the same seed in you that I have in me. The difference for some people is that they choose to plant their seed in better soil than others. That's why they yield a better harvest.
Where are you being planted? You have the seed of God's Word in you. Make a responsive choice to plant that seed in the fertile soil of productive ministry rather the infertile soil of dysfunction and barrenness.
To do this, it will require a CHANGE. Change is inevitable. If you don't embrace change, you'll be bypassed and become irrelevant and obsolete. That's why I love Jesus' leadership example. He was a WORLD CHANGER. Everywhere He went, He brought about a change. And guess who usually got upset at His changes? You guessed it...the religious.
On that note, any church that refuses to change will become a place of the past. Everything they say will sound like "yesterday, yesterday, yesterday." It will become a place of territorialism, it will be performance driven and it will justify being EXCLUSIVE rather than INCLUSIVE. And anyone who questions "the system" will be labeled a trouble maker, rebellious and a heretic.
Aren't you glad that God delivered you out of that mess?
Friends, go ahead and do what God has called you to do.
- Take the risk.
- Live the dream.
- Get under the arms of a visionary leader and step out of your comfort zone.
- Refuse mediocrity.
- Refuse exclusion.
- Refuse mind games.
- Refuse silent treatment.
- Refuse mood swings.
- Refuse lack of vision and strategy.
- Refuse excuses.
- Refuse discrimination.
- Refuse prejudice.
- Require vision.
- Require planning.
- Require personal responsibility.
- Require a support system.
- Require new ideas.
- Require restructuring.
- Require commitment.
- Require humility.
- Require self-sacrifice.
- Require non-defensive learning.
- Require sound decisions.
- Require time.
- Require energy.
- Require persistence.
- Require prayer.
- Require rewards.