Ensuring Fruitfulness in Ministry — No Matter Where You Are (Part 1) – Welcome to Designs for Sharpening Leadership

by George Keralis, DMin

Whether you’re a young preacher just getting your feet wet in ministry, or you’ve been involved for quite some time leading people, or you’re close to retirement, all of us want to know how we can be the most effective for our Savior. We want to bear fruit effectively for His glory.

Over the next few weeks I’ll share a series of tips to help you improve your fruitfulness as a leader in the body of Christ. Whether you are the senior minister, associate minister of some type, elder, deacon or teacher, these tips apply to you. Some may apply to you right now. Others may come along in the future. In any case, please take what you need and practice it. Be fruitful.

Tip #1: Pray like everything depends on it … because it does. Find and enlist trustworthy people to pray with you and for you as you engage in this spiritual battle. As they pray for you, stay connected with them about your needs and the blessings that God sends your way.

Remember the constant calls by Paul for prayer on his behalf as he preached to communities and gathered believers into new congregations (Romans 15:30-31; 2 Corinthians 1:11; Ephesians 6:18-20; Colossians 4:2-4; 1 Thessalonians 5:25; 2 Thessalonians 3:1).

As you move through the day, you may talk to God at any time that you wish. You don’t have to make an appointment. You don’t have to wait in line. You don’t have to travel to a coffee shop to visit with Him. You don’t need to get down on your knees or prostrate yourself before Him. Just talk to Him wherever you find yourself and in whatever circumstances you find yourself (Romans 12:12; Philippians 4:6; 1 Thessalonians 5:17). Jesus’ parable of the persistent widow (Luke 18:1-8) teaches us to assail the throne of God until our prayers are answered. Everything depends on prayer. Practice it, don’t just talk about it.

Tip #2: Regularly take time to be alone with God. This may sound redundant. Didn’t I just say to pray like everything depends on it? Being alone with God is more than just praying. Being along with God means that you shut everything else out. You have your Bible, or a notebook and pencil. You might bring along a devotional book. This is your time to be alone with God, to communicate together without others present, without outside distractions.

Jesus taught His disciples by His example. When He finished feeding the 5,000 Jesus sent the crowds and disciples away. Alone, He went to the mountain to pray (Matthew 14:25). Before choosing the Twelve for their important mission to the world, He went off to a mountain to pray, to hear from His Father (Luke 6:12). After teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum, Jesus went to the home of Peter, where He healed Peter’s mother-in-law. That evening Jesus spent His time healing the sick and demon possessed. It was as though the whole city turned out to experience the healing touch of the Master (Mark 1:21-34). After an exhausting day, Jesus was up early the next day finding a quiet place to be alone in prayer with His Father (Mark 1:35). According to Luke 5:16, Jesus “often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.” Why? Because He could be alone with God. Even at the end, we see Jesus leaving His disciples alone in the Garden of Gethsemane while He goes a bit further to be by Himself. There, He talks to the Father, begging for guidance and submitting His will to that of the Father (Luke 22:39-42). Regularly, shut out the world to take time to be alone with God. Just you and God.

Tip #3: Take time away from your work as a leader to be alone with your family. I cannot tell you the number of times we left town as a family and my cell phone buzzed. Like a dutiful pastor, I answered it. Visiting my daughter three years ago, who happens to be a pastor’s wife, I received a phone call while “on vacation.” She firmly reminded me that I was on vacation with my family: wife, daughter, son-in-law, four grandchildren. For the time being, I needed to focus my attention on them. Others can wait.

What message do we send to our children when we constantly busy ourselves with other people’s problems so much that we neglect the needs of our family? Do we tell our family members to take a back seat to the needs of the people in the congregation? A phone call isn’t simply a phone call. We tend to become preoccupied with the events we left at the church. Stop answering the phone. Let it ring or turn it off.

As leaders, we must learn to construct barriers that protect our time with our family. If we want our children to know Jesus as their personal Savior, their first avenue to Jesus will be through us. Don’t let them down. There should never be a choice between the church and your family. Remember, your family is a part of the church. They need your attention.