← City Light Church Las Vegas | Jabin Chavez
City Light Church Las Vegas | Jabin Chavez
The Four Nevers of Ministry | Jabin Chavez Leadership Podcast
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The Four Nevers of Ministry | Jabin Chavez Leader…
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Hey, what's up, leader? We are told to never say never, but on today's podcast, I'm going to talk about some nevers that we need to be committed to in our leadership. Let's jump in. Hey, and welcome to this week's Jabe and Chavez leadership podcast, where every week, just trying to give you a couple of thoughts, a couple of ideas that can help you as you grow and as you get bigger and as you get better. As a leader, I know it's going to affect every area of your life and of your organization. And today I just wrote down some of the nevers of leadership. Some things we should never do, some things we should never give into, some things we should never compromise on. And I think this is going to be powerful and helpful for you. And here's the first one. We will never cater to a small or limited mindset. We will never cater to a small or limited mindset. There will always be people who have small thinking and really big mouths. Very limited thinking, but a very big opinion. And I just think you've got to be so careful that as people come in with their limitations, with their baggage, with their small thinking, that you do not allow them to come into your space, into your world, bringing smallness and bringing limitation. You know, as pastors, it's so amazing that we'll meet people all the time. They walk up to us and they go, hey, at our last church, hey, at our last church, you know, our last church used to, you know, why don't you do this? Because our last church. And, you know, my. My question's always the same, well, why did you leave? If you're so excited about your last church, why did you leave? Sometimes people will actually walk up to you and go, you know, I really feel like you need to do this, this, this, and this. And it'll actually remind you of a ministry in town. And so you'll. You'll tell people, hey, that isn't right for us. But, man, there are some amazing churches in town that actually do that. You should go check out, you know, abc. And they always the same response, oh, I've already been there. I was already going there. Oh, I left there. You just got to be so careful that you do. You do not cater to a small mentality and a limiting mindset because people just don't know. People don't know God's call on your life. People don't understand the fullness of your vision. As much as we try to communicate, as much as we try to write it down as Much as we try to fight for it, people just don't know. People are interpreting your words through their mentality, through their strongholds, through their own ideas. And so be very careful that you don't cater to that, because they can. They can make a ministry that has big possibilities and could in the future make a big impact. They'll make you small. They'll limit you. You know, I've noticed this going from schools, going from a strip mall into the. Into the room we're in now, how people don't celebrate the move. And, and it's not that they're not celebrating bigger, but they. They're not celebrating change. So, so you leave the little strip mall and you go to a school, and we just really miss. And then you leave the school, and now we're in this beautiful miracle building, you know, we just really miss. Really missed the school, you know, really miss. You know, pastors changed, you know, man, you know, I remember how it used to be. And if you're not careful, you will cater to that, and you'll end up limiting the possibility of your ministry. Never cater to smaller, limited mindset. We will never. Number two, we will never create tension around the health and the growth of our church. We will never create tension. This is powerful. Around the health and the growth of our church. I think a lot of times people think to themselves, it's either going to be healthy or it's going to be growing. I will not buy into that tension. I'm just not going to buy into it. I've had. I've had people ask me questions like, at what point are you sacrificing the health of the church for the growth of the church? And I know what they're saying, and I know what they're trying to say, but I'm not giving into that. We're fighting for health, but we're also understanding and committed to the reality that healthy things grow, number one. And number two, there are going to be seasons in your church, if it's healthy, where it will grow, and it will actually be clunky and wonky and even painful as it's growing, because the church is healthy, because the vision is strong, because the culture is strong. There can actually be waves of influx that hit your ministry. And in those moments, you actually have to ride that wave. And it actually is not super comfortable. It's. It's like when you're a kid and you're experiencing growing pains. The answer is not to stop growing. The. The. The answer is, is not to tell your 10 year old son. Well, let's just pray that you stay at five feet. No, he's going to grow, but, but there's going to be some pain in the body as he is in a growth spurt. Our church has experienced growth spurts and every time our church has experienced a growth spurt, it has brought growing pains. But I refuse to create a tension and to go for the sake of health. We're not going to grow. No, no, we're healthy. That means we're growing and that means there's going to be some painful seasons. Now, if you're growing by 10% a year, even 20% a year, that's fine. But if you have some massive growth waves because of buildings or because of just the season of your church, man, there's going to be some pain. The, the prayer is not, Lord, stop it. The prayer is, God, give me wisdom. It's like when Solomon prayed, God, this is too much for me. These people are too great for me. These are your people and this role is too big. So God, grant your servant wisdom and understanding. That's what we're praying for. But we're not praying for the stop of growth. You know, it's like I've seen growing churches that stopped growing. I've seen churches with momentum that stopped having momentum. I've seen churches that filled buildings that can no longer fill buildings. That is not. The prayer is not, Lord, stop it. The Lord has given me the wisdom, wisdom, Lord, to lead it. And I'm, I am not going to create a tension around health and growth. I'm. I'm expecting both. I'm fighting for both. And I'm going to pray for the wisdom for both. Number three. We will never believe that work is a burden. Work is not a burden. Work is a gift from God. Before God gave Adam a wife, he gave him a job. And before sin entered the world, God gave him a job. By the way, if Adam would have been doing the very thing God called him to do, he would have never sinned. If he would have been busy being fruitful, multiplying, subduing and taking authority over all the creeping things of the earth is what God told him to do. He would have kicked Satan out of the garden. Work is not a burden. Work is a blessing. And we will never believe that work is a burden. Be very careful in your language. Even around, even around things like Sabbath and even around things like vacation, even around things like rest. We need all those things. All those things are a blessing and a gift. But so is work. Sabbath and vacation and rest is not a blessing from work. It's a necessity because of the blessing of work. Because I'm blessed to work and because I enjoy working. Because I love working, because work is a gift from God. I will make need the blessing of Sabbath and vacation and rest. But work is not a burden. Yeah, I'm just going to take some personal time. Yeah, I'm just like, what is happening. Work is a blessing from the Lord. God blesses the work of your hands. Not your hands, the work of your hands. And we will never believe the lie that work is a burden. Number number four. We will never stop going small. As things get bigger, we got to get smaller. As the organization grows, we've got to become more relational. As things increase, we have to decrease. You got to go small. Small groups, small moments of connection, intimate settings. You know, our church is so big, but you know what you can do at our church every Wednesday, you can go to our prayer meeting. It's at noon. It's like 80 people. You get to be around all of our staff. It's a, it's a micro setting. It's the, in one sense, the smallest thing we do, but it's, it's a point of connection. Our church is really big. Now, I could move that from Wednesday at noon to Wednesday at 7 and it jumps to 800 people. But we can't do it that right now. I'm not, I'm not taking another evening away right now from our team. So we do it at noon. Those who can, come, come. Those who can't, can't. Here's my point. It's small. Get in a small group, join a serve team. Get, get plugged in small. And as your organization is growing, you actually have to fight for small experiences, or what maybe we would call micro experiences, intimate experiences for the men, for the women, for the youth, for the young adults, for the, for your serve team. You know, we have, we have serve teams of upwards of, like our kids teams, upwards of 500 people. How do I take this giant big surf team, make it small? Our, our hosts and our greeters are hundreds of people. Our safety team's a hundred guys and, and women, men and women. How do we, how do we take these teams and make them small? We have, I think, 1300 people on our surf team. How do we take those then? How do we create micro experiences, small experiences for them? We will never stop going small in the midst of big. Create ways to go small. Never forget this. Something that I do is after every service, I'm out in that lobby shaking hands. It, it just gives the people a moment of connection. Even if they don't say hi to me. Even if at some points it's so funny on Sundays, people don't even wave at me. I'm like, hi, welcome to church. You know, just keep walking. Even if it, sometimes it, it creates kind of weird moments. Like I had a moment this week where I walked out and a guy came up to me, goes, hey, I brought my friend. He came to church. I said, oh man, welcome to church. So glad to meet you. And he goes, I just have to tell you. And I'm like getting ready for this big compliment. He goes, I didn't understand the word you said today. It went all over my head. I went, wow, so, so good, so good to have you. I'm, I'm so sorry, you know? Yeah, I'm so sorry. It's giving you my best. Yeah, it's just, just like an awkward moment. But, but my point is there's just something about being out there. Don't let some weird mo. You know, every once in a while God come up to me. You know, you said this about money and I just can't believe, you know, I get probably one. Not even always like bad or, or, or a true confrontation, but I would say I probably get one awkward moment a month. Sometimes it's like a full on conversation about money or about the, the tithe or something sometimes like that weird guy that, you know, I didn't understand a word you said or, but, but probably. But you know, if you think about, I'm doing five services a weekend, let's just say times four. So, so 20 times a month, I'm out there shaking hands. I might get one time a month that something kind of just kind of funky happens. One out of 20, not bad. And then I get hundreds of incredible interactions. What's. I'm going small. We will never stop going small. Not everything needs to be big. Not everything needs to be loud. Not everything needs to be over the top in an event. Some things need to be small. And as the church gets bigger, you got to go small. What, what, what happened in, in Book of Acts, Chapter 2. Thousands of people saved. Thousands of people being impacted. Thousands of people connecting to God and they're sharing meals. They're basically having small groups. They're having prayer meetings. They're con, they're connecting, they're, they're, they're dedicated, the Bible says to fellowship. Devoted to fellowship. So in the midst of how big it got and it got big quick. In the midst of that, it stayed small. And we will never stop going small. Those are four nevers that you need to embrace in your ministry. I love you and I'm excited about your future. Hey, if you're a senior pastor, I've got pastors roundtable happening November 2 and 3 right here in Vegas. Gonna be incredible. Hope that you'll join me. It's going to be a powerful time. And if you want to come, you need a dm. Me. Dm? Direct message me at my Instagram page at Jabyn Chavez. Send us a DM and we will send you the link so that you can register. Going to be awesome. I love you. We'll see you next week.