Contemporary leaders are caught in frightening spiritual and social tornadoes now raging through our church and world.  Society cannot flourish without godly church leaders, laity, and clergy.  Something must be done about the hazards choking the hope out of people’s lives and ministries.  Ministers today often feel disenchanted, discouraged, and even outraged.  Fatigue shows in their eyes and worry slows their stride.

The devil has designed a fall for every one of us.  The devil has placed distractions, discouragements, and deceptions all around us.  Just as it was in the days of Malachi, the priests are living loose and the people are shallow in their relationship with God.  A leader can only live this way for so long before he/she loses his/her effectiveness and anointing.

We must have a persistent and pervasive pursuit of God or we lose our anointing.  The devil has our number and he knows our weak points.  When the glory and power of God is not heavy on us, we become vulnerable and we soak in our hurts and pains.

If the devil can’t pull us down, he will push us up.  The devil knows how people like power and how we tend to live in self-sufficient pride.  Let us humble ourselves before God and follow patterns of spirituality, faith, and purity.

About 94% of all pastors feel pressured to have an ideal family.  Because of the pressures and low salaries, many pastors have a variety of problems.  Lay ministers and leaders are often under the same pressures as pastoral staff members.  Lay ministers, like tent making pastors, devote high levels of time to local church ministry and maintain a full time secular job.  These pressures on pastors and lay leaders create problems such as:

• insufficient time
• financial needs
• marital problems
• poor communication
• fatigue
• stress related illness
• few friends
• dislocated from family

Many members are moving.  They are not just moving to a new town but simply moving from one local church to another.  They feel very little loyalty to any denomination or congregation.

Modern life is very hectic.  Lay people are busier than most pastors realize.  The Church has become only another small part of an overloaded schedule.

Expectations in the church are going up while commitments are going down.  Even the most emotionally robust leaders find it a strain to simultaneously cope with whining traditionalists, demanding baby boomers, and lethargic fellow Christians.  As a result, a perpetual juggling act is required to deal with the mushrooming expectations that originate from spouse, children, employer, congregation, denomination, community, or even self.  Consequently, a dehumanizing fatigue of faithfulness becomes a way of life for too many lay leaders and pastors.

This permissive society has trashed absolutes.  The for sures have been traded for maybes.  Little is being done to repair the ethical foundations that are crumbling everywhere.

Whatever the reasons, Biblical absolutes have deteriorated into mere opinions.  The salt is obviously losing its saltiness.

Scandals continue to plummet public trust in ministers.  We should not be surprised that society no longer reveres ministers as shapers of conscience or communicators of values.  Like it or not, millions view ministers as trifling, demagogic, self-seeking, lazy, or even immoral.

As a result, few people seriously listen to what pastors or lay ministers say about anything, especially the meaning of life, faith, morals, or redemption.

A Christian leader’s Christ-quality life is God’s most convincing answer to secular suspicions of spiritual shepherds.

The list of dangers or hazards for the ministry could go on and address issues such as dysfunctional people, defections, infidelity, loneliness, and money.

One thing remains for sure, we must make certain about our calling and about our ministry.  We must keep our eyes on God and our hearts pure.  We must not let the world set our agenda and we must keep a proper perspective on the issues of success and pleasing God.  In order to be a person of trust and integrity, we should do the following:

• Live on a high plane of holiness and keep our life saturated in the Word.
• Do some things extremely well and do not try to do everything.
• Accept the reality of unfinished work. Do what is high priority and keep perfecting our list of priorities.
• Seek always to know what God wants us to be doing.
• Do not allow a minority to determine our perspective or to control our agenda.
• Keep our marriage strong.
• Remember that we are not indestructible.
• Understand that are not immune to failure.  How we handle problems when things go wrong is what matters.
• Maintain a repentant lifestyle.
• Practice self-control and spiritual disciplines.
• Never avoid accountability.
• Do not be afraid of a challenge.  We should attack tough obstacles with faith in God.
• Live a principle centered life.
• Keep God first.
• Get control of our financial debts.
• Keep free from possession fixations.
• De-professionalize our faith and ministry.
• Make our spouse glad to be married to us.
• Guard against perils.
• Understand our personality type and weaknesses.
• Sharpen our people skills.
• Learn how to work with people as teams.
• Recognize our need for power to control.
• Resist the “too busy” syndrome.
• Drop all pretense.
• Review our patterns of ministry and devotions. Then make the right changes.
• Seek to disciple and develop other lay leaders.
• Take time for restoration and relaxation. We need margins (control, boundaries, spiritual reserves, balance) in our life.
• Never let our relationship with God suffer.

Gratitude for what we have keeps us from chafing about what we don’t have.  Contentment encourages us to make the most of what we have and to try even harder.

Some people, even leaders, are perpetually, habitually discontent.  Contentment boosts credibility.  Remember people are slow to follow a complainer.

Change must not come from frustration or impulsive discontent.  Change needs to be thought out, prayed through, and must flow from a contented personal spirit that is ready for change, growth, and new challenges.

We must understand what God has called us to do and why.  Our practices and priorities must be consistent with our vision.

The involvement of laity in ministry is probably the result of unclear purposes and confusing goals.  Many laity become decreasingly interested in what goes on in churches.  The problem is a lack of vision and united commitment to purposes that are bigger than we are.

We must never let our struggle for success, achievement, or power blind us to the things in life that should really matter most.  Feelings of futility can come from giving too much of oneself for too long to what does not really matter.  Some leaders’ stress problems come from being too active (busy) to be effective.

We need a purpose statement for our life that can bring everything into focus and help us gain control.

God is our resource and our sufficiency.  We need to live our lives out of faith, power, and victory.  There is no limit to what God can and will do for us.

Scarcity thinking describes many leaders.  They seem to suppose that only so much good can happen or that so much success can be achieved.  We need to know and believe that God wants to bless us and that there is no limit to what He can do.

Imagination and innovation are in short supply everywhere, especially in the church.  Sometimes we need to break out of old ways of thinking and doing.  We need to seek God for demanding cures and apply them to ourselves first.  All break-out leaders, like Luther, Wesley, and others, merged personal faith, the needs of the hour, and the power of the Gospel.

We need to be proactive leaders who take initiative to find solutions, to make things happen, and to glorify God.

The Serenity Prayer asks that, “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Ministry usually gets bigger when it gets better.  As leaders, we need to always seek to improve the quality of our ministry.  Improvements in one area create improvements in other areas.  When quantity does not result from quality ministry leadership, we should evaluate the quality.  We do not have to choose between quality and quantity.  We focus first on quality and then expect the quantity to follow as more people become aware of and interested in what our church has to offer.

Leaders need to communicate in a language that people can understand and identify with. Sometimes our way of communication keeps people away from God and confuses them.      Plain speech, eternal truth, and logic on fire from the Holy Spirit release the Gospel’s authentic life-changing power.  People do not want double-talk, they want life-changing words from the Lord.

God intends ministry for people.  We must love people even though they often surprise and disappoint us.  They are the reason Christ came.  Leaders’ success is directly related to how much they cherish people.  Leaders must not allow bitterness to develop.  We must evaluate everything we do on the basis of how well it will minister to the average person.

Some leaders give up too soon.  Success often comes from a long process of doing the right thing for the right reason long enough.  We talk about perseverance but we do not always practice it with any degree of passion.  Passionate perseverance rekindles motivation, so ministry is a joy instead of just work, a delight instead of a drag, and an ecstacy instead of an obligation.

In order to do this step, we must keep God in focus and fix our eyes on Jesus.  Remember it is God, not just people, who leaders should seek to please.  God is always satisfied with our best effort.

No leader will ever have the freedom, support, or time needed to achieve all he/she desires.  Knowing that God is pleased with us and knowing that we have made a difference in people’s lives should give us great joy.

Leadership must be earned not bestowed upon.  And remember, no one follows those who do not lead.

The most impressive and magnetic characteristic of the effective leader is a single-minded devotion to lead people into the deeper depths of Christ likeness.

Strong, capable people stand in the wings of churches waiting to follow the example of competent lay leaders who dare to partner with God and with the pastor to see the vision become a reality.

Teach, preach, and communicate in every way possible those powerful truths of God’s Word which have changed you and can change your world.  Leaders need to learn to be masters at communication, modeling, and motivating people.

Ministry can seem like madness unless you love it and know that God has called us to spiritual leadership.  God trusts you and He has set you apart as a lay leader and servant.  God is your source and strength, never give up.

In this lecture, we have been asked to look at the importance of affirming the call of God that upon your life.  This study talked about the need for leadership in these changing times.  No church will ever achieve excellence without mature and capable lay leaders, as well as godly pastors.

In too many churches today tensions run high, leaders burnout and drop out.  Laity are suffering from disillusionment, members are leaving, priorities are confused, and the needs of people go unmet.  The primary cause is inadequate leadership on the part of pastors and laity.

We must understand and address our own crises and then refocus toward the astounding opportunities around us for ministry.

Never in human history has the church been more needed than now!  We desperately need lay leaders with a deep personal faith in God and commitment to Christian service andleadership.