Whats Star Trek has taught me about Ministry

I went to a local fair and they had an exhibit called Star Trek- It had props, costumes, scripts, sets the whole 9 yards everything you could want to see and more!

Now I am more of a Star Wars guy but I do love me some good Star Trek too! Lately, Amy and I have been working our way through the Star Trek movies (Thank you Netflix)

I started to think about what benefits/skills the Captains would bring to Ministry.

Captain James T. Kirk:

GO with the feeling inside- While Kirk went with his gut reaction, we have the Holy Spirit to guide us, and if we were smart we'd listen to it.

Keep a diverse team- Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Scott and Sulu. This is a team that is made up of people with different strengths and weaknesses. In ministry we often try to do everything on our own, but the fact is we all have weaknesses. We need to find people to work with who can fit within our weak spots and we need to let them shine.

Keep learning: If there was anything Kirk did really well, is he learned from others so he could adapt and be flexible. We need to do this in ministry to keep fresh, otherwise we become stale and less effective.

Captain Jean Luc Picard:

Have your priorities in order: Picard always put his crew or the people he was helping before himself. He also made sure to always complete his prime directive of every mission. There is an order of who we need to take care of: Our families and ourselves then others- if we don't take care of ourselves we will be useless to work with anyone else.

Ask for help: One thing Picard did well was ask for help. When he knew he was beat he would get help. We need to do the same thing in ministry. Sometimes we need to get ideas from other people, sometimes we just need help getting a task done. No matter what you need help with, make sure you ask.

What are some leadership lessons you have learned?

-Kyle

To thine Own self be true- Non-essentials renewed and reposted

"This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."
 Hamlet Act 1: Scene 3 -Shakespeare

Lately I have been reminded that I have a list of values and non-essential items in my life that I need to keep to.

Some of my values are: God, my family, friends, work. In that order, without question.

So what are my non-essentials, well I hope it is obvious. Everything that isn't in my values list.

People who know me well, know that I love media and entertainment. I love movies, blogging, Youtube and the list could go on. If I want to relax these are my usual go to activities. But these things aren't of true importance to me in their own right.

Recently I was writing a blog post and Amy came in and asked me if I would like to come to Garden Works with her. I could have kept on blogging but I chose to head off with her. It was a great choice because we ended up getting ice cream, going to a movie prop store, we had a blast. I could have chosen to stay at home and blog and watch a movie, but instead was rewarded with a better time with Amy.

This got me thinking about my most important value which is God. How often do I put things in front of Him. Way more than I should that is for sure. I often will put spending time with Amy or friends in front of God. While these aren't bad things I am missing out on my #1 Priority.

Just a couple days ago, I was feeling pretty bummed about a bunch of stuff. So I decided I was going to take some time and just focus on relaxing and forgetting what was going on, when this little voice told me I should spend some time with God.

I know I have ignored this voice a lot in my life but I decided to take it up on its advice. "Well alright Mr.Cricket I will read my Bible and pray!"  So I took about a half hour to pray,  read my Bible while listening to Worship music. It was awesome, I felt better and refreshed about things and really felt close with God.

I know these may be small things, but they are important. So take some time, and be true to thine self. Reflect on whats important and instead of moving on right away; figure out a way to engage in each one of those things today or the next couple of days, to show that that is really a value of yours.