
I’m in the middle of this incredible coaching opportunity for creative leaders at work, but I’m finding it leaking into most of my life. Probably because what I do at work isn’t that different from what I do on my own time. Unlike the years where I worked at a bank and then came home to blog or create, I spend most of my days paid to do online, creative communication and then I come home and do the same.
I pretty much feel like I’m working 18 hours a day.
But the creative leadership coaching has been teaching me to think outside the box, ask for help, and become more confident in asking people to stop stealing my ministry.
That seems harsh right? I mean, most of the time people are all just trying to help out. You seem busy, so they decide to go ahead and write the email, create the graphic, send the communication, or {insert thing you normally do that someone else is now doing.} Maybe those don’t seem like big things, but imagine a different scenario, in a different area of ministry. The example given during coaching was children’s ministry. If you aren’t in charge of the children’s ministry at your church, you wouldn’t show up on a Sunday morning, set up a tent in the parking lot, and invite all the kids to come hang out with you instead of in their regular classrooms. I trust that the ministries and leaders in place around me are not only competent, but trustworthy, skilled, trained, and capable of doing exactly the work God has given them.
When we step around someone’s role, assume responsibility that isn’t ours, or try to hold on to control of something that someone else is managing, we get all up in their ministry and fail to give them the space to do the work God has given THEM to do.
So what do we do? I know I don’t want to be the grumpy old woman yelling at people from my front porch to “Get off my ministry!” We’re meant to do this together, to work with one another so we can do even more for God’s kingdom. But that means we need to be aware of the work God has given us, trust that the people around us will do their work well, and stop trying to do the little, questioning, “suggestions” that make others feel inadequate – or like they need to defend themselves.
Spend time this week with God, asking Him to reveal no only the work that He has for you in this season, but also where you might be unintentionally stepping on someone else’s ministry. Journal or pray through why it’s hard to trust that others will do their jobs well, and why you think you need to have a say in it. And then – in the same way you would back away if you found yourself trespassing on someone else’s land – take a step back.
How can you guard your words and your actions to make sure you’re walking WITH others in ministry, instead of walking ON someone else’s ministry?