Expand Your Capacity

When my youngest son Benjamin was born my wife and I had to figure out how to expand our capacity.  With two boys life went from wild to crazy.  More messes, more food and more love.  As parents you need to expand your capacity because it’s a lot of work.  At the same time it’s a lot of blessings.  The sacrifices, and the sleepless nights are worth it because your capacity to love each other will increase.

Like a family your ministry will grow.  You’ll find yourself growing as a leader as you obtain more experiential wisdom.  If you work in a growing church you will see your numbers grow.  If you stay long enough in the same place you might seem your responsibilities grow.  As a youth minister you need to learn how to expand your capacity because it’s key to strengthen yourself as a leader.  To get started and expand your capacity you need to learn how to:

• Delegate Your Weaknesses: In order to grow as a leader and expand your capacity you need to focus on what you do best.  To do this you need to delegate what you struggle at doing to those who exceed at doing it.  To figure out what can and needs to be delegated make a list of all the things only you can and should do.

• Identify Where To Grow: Expanding your capacity isn’t about doing more, it’s about doing more of the right things.  Stay focused on your vision and values so that as you expand your capacity you head in the right direction.  Your ministry is not meant to be a buffet of options, if it is you’ll ware yourself thin.  Only do what your ministry is designed to do.

• Trust And Let Go: There is a lot of sacrifice that comes as you grow your ministry and evolve as a leader.  To expand your capacity you might need to stop doing tasks that you love.  It may mean saying, “No” to big opportunities in order to make room for even bigger ones.  Trust that God is leading you and trust the people who are helping you grow.

Expand your capacity and increase the ways you can impact the lives of teenagers, their family and the surrounding community.  Look forward, focus on your vision and discover the ways you can grow.  Trust that God wants you to move and see what He does with your new found margin.

Which of the these three actions do you struggle with the most?