Yesterday we started the list, today we’ll try to finish it:

4. Look on the outside, miss the heart. How true is this?  So easy to do!  In the article the writer speaks of how mobilisers tend to be looking for high calibre people to focus their immense talents in new specific areas.  I suppose we tend to do this in church world too?  We aim for the obvious people of potential, people with something to offer, etc.  Easily done.  Samuel did it when looking for the next king of Israel.  But God reminded Samuel that He had different priorities.  Works-in-progress.  True of young David.  True of Jesus’ twelve.  True of us.  True of others.

4. Look on the outside, miss the heart. I know I am repeating myself, but I want to add something the article didn’t present.  We easily fire our mobilising efforts on the outside, instead of targeting the heart in our communication.  This is true of all preaching, not just mobilisation efforts.  People do what they love.  If we don’t seek to communicate with the heart, we should plan for superficial or short-lived response.

5. Dishonour those who don’t go. Easy to make response a priority, so that apparent non-response is dishonoured in some way.  I would add, that in our attempts to mobilise ministry in the church, we shouldn’t miss the opportunity to affirm what is being done.  Many churchgoers only hear of the need, but never hear the affirmation of those that do serve so faithfully.

6. Prioritize ministry over family, and even God. Easily done!  When do you hear a preacher telling people in his church they need to prioritise evenings with family, rather than cajoling people to serve every evening the church doors are open?  And what if more church leaders were like a colleague of mine who runs a team of workers with lots of work to get done, but sends them home if they haven’t read their Bible yet that day?

7. Talk about it, but don’t do it. Easy trap to fall into.  Hard balance to find though.  It is important to be involved in ministry beyond the up-front, but it is also important not to be trying to do everything so that what you should be doing isn’t done well.  Balancing this is probably worth another post sometime.

Mobilising folks for ministry, both locally and globally, is an important part of our preaching privilege.  May God grant us wisdom to do this well!

(The list was written by Shane Bennett, click here to go to the article.)