Sharing The Burden Of Ministry With Lay Leaders

SHARING THE BURDEN OF MINISTRY WITH LAY LEADERS
By Bishop Dag Heward-Mills

And the Lord said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee. And I will come down and talk with thee there; and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee and will put it upon them; and they shall BEAR THE BURDEN of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone - Numbers 11:16 - 17

One of the most difficult tasks in life is to lead people. The

Bible teaches us that Moses delivered the Israelite from bondage,

yet he had a difficult time handling them. The job that Moses did is the job that all pastors have to do. God graciously gave Moses spectacular and sensational miracles. These signs and wonders helped to establish his authority over God’s flock. In spite of this, the burden of leading the people was very heavy on Moses. The Bible calls it a burden

– and that is what it is!

People Have Problems

If you have a pastor’s heart and love people, you can no longer disassociate yourself from their problems. Their problems will become your problems and the burdens will mount. When God wants to use you to minister to a large number of people, He will expect you to share the burden of His divine call upon your life. Failure to share this burden will simply mean that you may collapse or come to a standstill in ministry. There are many standstill churches around. They grow to a point but could grow no further. The reason being they fail to share the burden of ministry.

A balanced church is one that has people of all sorts within it; young, the old, educated and uneducated, rich and poor, and male and female. Every pastor will fall into one of these categories.

It must be your goal to incorporate all sections of the church to help in the development and growth of the ministry.

In other words, all sorts must be drafted in to the share the burden. You will find that the category of people who you have written off, as far as ministry is concerned, would be able to contribute greatly to the ministry.

I notice that most churches exclude the educated and rich from involvement in ministry. Usually, the rich are only expected to contribute money to the church. Similarly, the educated are just expected to improve the cosmetic image of the church.

However, I have found both of these groups of people to be very productive and useful. I have many medical doctors, specialists, lecturers, architects, and engineers, all who are serving as lay pastors. These lay pastors are sharing the burden of ministry alongside me.

The ministry can not be borne by one person. It is simply impossible.

From today, if you want to have a greater ministry than what you currently have, learn to share the burden.

Sometimes people do not share the burden because they want to take all of the glory for themselves. They want people to feel that they are the only ones with the supernatural gift.

They want people to show appreciation to themselves alone. Others are afraid of rebellion in the camp. How common is the story of associate pastors rebelling. Many senior pastors fear their assistants will outshine them one day. Fears not, only believe!

The work is so great that you will never ever be able to do it all. There is too much space in the sky for two birds to collide.