writing about humility in a first person point of view kind of negates the whole point... but, i cant help but share my experiences here in church, and taught me to have a teachable, submissive, yet leading spirit. I grew up in a home where we didnt have a helper for long periods of time, not because we are good in household chores, nor are we responsible, but because of financial strains.
I remember getting our water from a well, and pumping and transporting them gave us workable bodies! Those were only light stuff, but to make the long story short, we know how it is to do manual labor.
We were sent to exclusive schools though, and that was a plus because my parents valued education. These schools taught us also to be "a man for others", and i was encouraged to join Boy Scouts, and competitive sports to inculcate the leadership and competitive minds in us. But out of all these, nobody taught me more than my church. Yes, my home, my school, my organizations were big factors, but my church was really where it went to getting down and dirty.
I started out as a guitarist in church, and then as a bassist, and eventually a worship leader, now worship director. When I started, and up to now, i never neglect or regret having to experience carrying stuff, cleaning, setting up, tearing down, planning, practicing, and being mr. do-it-all. I know there is a leadership principle of delegation, and stretching yourself out too thin makes your quality less. I know that and I practice that.
On the other hand, i found that my leadership has become more effective being more involved with the workers, with my subordinates when I work elbow to elbow with them. I am deeply involved, but i am also a model of faith and respect. My Pastor has the same principles that's why I respect him so much. He wants to serve and to work along side of us, but i understand his position and his work that is why we try to take as much responsibility off his back by doing the work ourselves.
I learned another principle in the movies where the villain has all the henchmen, and eventually, the hero confronts him directly because his legions werent able to stop the hero. So he ends up saying, " if you want things to be done right, you have to do it yourself.." I agree, to an extent, and I experience this so much, that if want things done right, i have to do it myself, or overly supervise everything. Which again is too much of a stretch. The key is training someone to duplicate you, and eventually to replace and out-do you. Your job is to do your job and train someone else to do a better job than you do. Apparently, in the movies, that doesnt happen.
I recall all our years carrying and setting up, transporting and all, and week in and week out, in the 14 years i was in this ministry, I never left that position, though my experience grew, my responsibilities became immense, my position rose, my skills developed, everything else was growing, but i feel that manual, hard labor keeps my head and feet down on the earth. I heard from someone in our team before, that as our positions rose, we shouldnt be doing the hard stuff anymore, but train someone else to do the work for us. I may agree, and that works for paid professionals... but in a volunteer, church setting, that is very difficult to achieve, but not impossible. However, if God doesnt give you co-servants in your church with the same servant heart as you have, it only means God is teaching you to do it yourself, and stop puffing your head up and tell yourself somebody else deserves the dirty work than yourself.
Even though I lead my own music team, have my own music company, and all those "accomplishments" in my pocket, nothing beats the lessons of hard work. And I admit, I still have a lot of learning to do.
No comments:
Post a Comment