Everyone who works in ministry can relate to that feeling of, "Is this doing any good?" There has always been a certain measure of this in my ministry, but as my wife and I have embraced praying with people more regularly, that feeling has been amplified. After all, we are praying boldly and asking God to do big things. Oftentimes He does right then and there, especially in the area of spiritual healing. But more often we receive a polite and sincere thanks and go our separate ways, being left with that lingering question, "Did it work?"

Evangelization, LeadershipJim SchusterOctober 4, 2014encouragement, evangelization, ministry, prayer, risk, page 2

The Importance of Process

Imagine you asked me what you need to do to be an elite weightlifter and I responded just by saying, "You need to bench press over 300 pounds." If you were to go out and try bench pressing 300 pounds you would literally get crushed. Getting to that point requires a process, a training regiment where you build up to the desired weight. The answer of "bench press 300 pounds" might give you a target to aim for, but what you really need is a personal trainer to guide you through the process.

In Preaching, Truth Is Not Enough

One of my favorite sources of inspiration is the Fresh Life Church sermon podcast. In addition to the great content itself, Pastor Levi Lusko provides a great example of what the heart of a pastor should look like in his preaching. What I love about Pastor Levi's approach is that he recognized that not everybody will respond to the same message in the same way. In other words, it was not enough for him to simply be speaking truth, he needed to account for the variety of responses that his message might be provoking.

6 Everyday Acts of Bravery

Doing the work of evangelization requires real courage, but not just the kind of courage that is standing up to the culture tide, or proclaiming unpopular truths, or even stepping out of your comfort zone to have the "Jesus Conversation." Yes, these occasional acts of courage are necessary from time to time, but there are also certain everyday acts of bravery that are just as crucial.

The Ministry of Availability

Anyone who is a ministry professional will naturally desire to be a good steward of their time. After all, we're being paid for 40 hours a week, and so we need to make sure that we are actually doing 40 hours of work, right? We feel a need to fill up those hours to justify our salary. But the work of evangelization isn't always something that can be scheduled.

LeadershipJim SchusterJanuary 4, 2014availability, delegation, malcolm gladwell, margin, time management, page 1