What’s Your Ministry Why?
It’s been a great week hasn’t it. We’ve jumped back into John’s gospel in church. We’ve started all our Kids and Youth programs again. Our Mandarin and Everyday English ministry have launched for the year. 925 people have got started in Growth Groups. What is there not to love about the last week! But there is more to come!
By the end of the next week, all our 2025 serving teams will be up and running and there will be 100s of people exercising the gifts and skills God has given them for the benefit of the church and for the glory of God. So this is a great week, before you get stuck into the weeks of serving, to work on your why.
Back in 2009, Simon Sinek gave one of the most watched TED talks of all time - if you want to look it up, it’s called ‘What’s the Why?’. He questions why certain leaders and some global corporations throughout history have been so successful when largely, all leaders and all businesses have had access to the same information, ideas and concepts. He asks, “why is it that a select few have managed to stand out from the herd?”
His answer is the Golden Circle and the centre of the circle is knowing your why; that is, knowing the reason you do what you do, knowing how it benefits others, knowing how it contributes to the whole and knowing the purpose and importance of the thing you do. The neuroscience behind this is that humans respond best when messages communicate with those parts of their brain that control emotions, behaviour, and decision-making. In the end, humans tend to be compelled by their reasons for doing something, and benefit from that intrinsic motivation.
Now church is not a business, and while there is much we can learn from business and organisational psychology, there is much we want to leave behind too! On this though, I think there is something here for us to ponder. When we know the why of our serving roles it is likely we will feel more inclined to, glad to and thankful to, serve in those roles.
Now, I am not saying, recite some Christian platitude on your way to church to play guitar, serve a coffee or teach a kid about Jesus. This is not about everyone being able to recite “we are building 3000 wholehearted disciples of Jesus!” I am not saying we all need the same why. Rather, my suggestion here is simply that we may all benefit from knowing more deeply the reason, the purpose and the importance of our own specific serving tasks. We may find greater joy and thankfulness when we know the why, when we know how it contributes to the whole. God has created us in a way that knowing the why makes a difference.
Why do you set up chairs before Mornings?
Why do you bring food for lunch after Late Mornings?
Why do you turn up at 4pm to do Senior High?
Why do you lead singing at Nights?
Why do you help people learn English?
We could go on and on couldn’t we.
Of course, the why should not be individually curated. The why should be known and understood by your whole team. There ought to be a reason you are doing together what you are doing. To that end, you might ask your team leader, why am I doing this? It would be a great question to ponder at your next team meeting. If the answer is not clear, ask the person who leads your team leader. Hopefully clarity will be found somewhere there. And then, I wonder what would happen if you prayed for your purpose or reason rather than just the task you’re doing together. I wonder what would happen if we thought more about the outcomes and less about the actions? Innovation could emerge? Disruption could happen? Things might change for the better.
So, as you get stuck into serving this week, ask yourself, why do we do this thing. Lift your eyes to the horizon and give thanks to God for the opportunity to work for his people and for his glory.
