Leading And Loving It Sample

Whether you’re a pastor’s wife, the children’s ministry director, the administrative assistant or the founder of a non-profit, we can all become guilty of being effective merely by association. We can be tempted to ride our husbands’ or our ministries’ spiritual coattails. But God wants more for us than that.

If you’re in leadership, you’ve probably been guilty of “effective by association” at some point in your walk with Christ. As believers, we are meant to be profoundly effective, profoundly fruit-bearing in our personal lives, not simply because we’re part of a healthy, growing church. Not because we’re married to a pastor. We must all ask ourselves this question: Have I been living life only effective by association?

We can fall into a trap of depending on our husbands’ faith, our pastor’s guidance, or our ministry leader’s vision. The leadership, vision, and faith of those people is of vital importance, but their faith can’t be your faith. You have to know who YOU are in Christ. Just because you’re under great leadership or married to an amazing pastor, their walk with Christ be your walk with Christ. Their relationship with God cannot replace your relationship with God. Your effectiveness cannot be measured by the effectiveness of your organization, but rather what you are doing to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

We love the way our friend, Holly Furtick, Senior Pastor’s Wife at Elevation Church, described it:

In our line of work, it is easy to fall into the trap of depending on my husband’s faith. His vision, his purpose, and dangerously, his relationship with God. It’s a hard line to balance. He is my husband; we are one. His vision should be my vision, his purpose mine. And he is my spiritual leader, his relationship with God directly affects mine. But his relationship with God cannot replace my own relationship with God. I also cannot ride the spiritual coat tails of our church. It is such a privilege to be a part of a move of God. There’s nothing like hearing the testimonies and seeing the hands raised (yes, I peek). But if I don’t allow God to speak to me each week, change me, seeing God move in others will only last me so long.

Before you get in the truck: Today, do something – anything – that is only about Jesus and you. You and Jesus. That’s It.