ARE YOU AWARE OF MINISTRY PLATEAU?

This is December 2015, another year has gone by and I believe that many of us are thankful to God but others are looking back and saying there are many things I have not done this year, maybe I will do them next year?  All in all we thank God that he has given us a beautiful year 2015.
As many of you may be aware, for the last two years I have been doing graduate studies with Fuller Theological Seminary.  I have finished a bigger part of my studies and remaining with 5 electives. What a year!

During my studies, I was impressed by the study on Christian leaders who finished well, meaning that they reached the end of their journey with a positive legacy.  These are the people whose lives we study on and we desire to emulate them.

The writer of the book we used for this class is a gentleman by the names of Robert Clinton who wrote a very powerful chapter on finishing well; he however also gave some major warning to all of us leaders that we may be careful or else we may be among the causalities who never finish well.

The word that came to me during the study is Plateau.  It is usually not people what think about of those that fail, the big sin they committed, and the pride that failed them.

I would like to explain the word “Plateau” or plateauing as what happens in the life of a minister, where after a successful ministry, the minister’s life levels off, he/she is no longer progressing but he/she is also not decreasing.  It happens to many of us when in our minds we think we have achieved or we struggled so much and we feel that it is now time to rest.

I have been pondering about this and realized that as ministers we can grow weary and tired and fail to seek for times of refreshment.  The scripture that comes to my mind is Paul’s letter to the Philippians chapter 3:12-16.  At the end of his ministry life Paul was seeking for more strength and to get more renewal and refreshments.

All this reminds me of where God took me from and I don’t take things for granted.  God has blessed our ministry in Gaba and recently the church built me a beautiful office but my window faces Gaba market and every now and then, wind from the fish smoking place blows into my window.  Many times it disturbs me because it smells badly but a few months ago the Lord reminded me that all of Gaba used to smell like that and it used to be a very poor village.  Even that little reminder keeps me thankful and reminds me of where God took me from, and the many people living in such an environment are the very ones that God needs me to serve.