Potential Leaders Who Pull Back

For me it is a great personal disappointment when we are able to identify people who have amazing potential but they simply will not commit to leadership in the work of the church. I get it, not everyone feels led to step up. People have lives to live and other duties to perform, so the work of the church is relegated towards the middle of the list of things they have to do. But still, it’s a disappointment.

The conversations are always the same; “Joe is the perfect person for this ministry, but he’s so committed to lifting weights that he doesn’t have the time”, or, “Sue has the perfect set of skills for this ministry, but she plays Bunco on Tuesday nights.”

Please understand, I am not minimizing people’s vocations or hobbies, but I do think the cause of Christ is important enough to be at the top of our priority list. Church attendance is not something that we “fit in” to our busy schedule; it should be put into our schedule first. And the work of the church (advancing God’s kingdom) should be more important than our hobbies. What we do for the kingdom of God is eternal, nothing else is.

Fifty years from now it is not going to matter what kind of motorcycle you had, whether your child made the All Star team, if your lawn was perfectly manicured, or how much you could bench press. It’s not going to matter if you played Free Bird on your guitar, or how cool your new shoes are. None of this will matter when you are in eternity – and for most of us that’s going to be in fifty years or less. Think about it.