Growing Pains

It's been a while since I experienced growing pains.
Now it's more like aging pains.

But Connections is young and growing.
We've had 3 babies in the past 4 weeks!
But I'm thinking more about our organization.

My growing pain is moving the church toward greater independence.
Part of me likes to hold a lot of stuff close.
But I need to cut the apron strings in a lot of areas.
It doesn't mean I don't care.
It means I care enough to let it go.
To let it grow.
To trust the Ministry Leader.
To trust that if I've trained, equipped and empowered somebody, they can handle it.

When I think about how Jesus completely trusted the disciples to carry on his mission it blows my mind.
They deserted him, how could he trust them?
But he trained them, commissioned them, and put his faith in them to take the good news to the ends of the world.
And they did it.
We're doing it.

And if Jesus modeled it, I can do it too.

This is what I'm aiming at:
Even if we don't have staff at Connections, each ministry area will be identified with a person other than myself.

• Music
• Media
• First Impressions
• Family
• Connection Groups
• Administration
• Community Service
• Missions
• and more.

Hopefully we will be able to identify and present people as leaders in all these areas, and more, as truly "owning" their ministry area.

So what are your growing pains, and what are you doing to work through them?