Video Transcript: Personal Qualifications
So how about wrapping up the next three sessions, going to the qualifications of an office bearers in the Bible, and applying that to MinistryBiz? Yeah, these are all really good things. So let's go to it, qualifications. Here we are in I Timothy 3. Here's a trustworthy saying, if someone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. So the whole thing starts with leadership is good. Doing things is good managing a ministrybiz, or in the sense of church, making things happen is a good thing. Maybe we need to say why are we talking about leadership here with the ministrybiz. Why is why is the ministrybiz connected to this whole thing of Overseer and being a leader? Good question. I think you should elaborate on it. Well, you know, if you're going to start something, it's always, that's what leaders do. Leaders start things. And if you're going to get people to either buy, or, you know, experience, whatever it is that you're trying to do to them, you need followers. And there's no way you can be get followers unless you're a leader. And we thought, Well, the Bible puts out all these little qualifications of what it takes to be a leader. Why won't these same things apply to someone starting a ministrybiz? Interesting that word is that word is that word for Bishop? Overseer, translated by some, you know, an elder, whatever. But in the history of the church, I know this word. This was the word of a network happened. In Christian leaders, the network makers, who actually like Polycarp was a network man, they call the Metropolitan bishops and stuff like that. But they had the qualities. And they were Bivocational. Who was Polycarp? Polycarp, was one of the early founders of Christianity after the Apostle Paul and Peter, that first generation passed away. The apostle John, in fact, Polycarp was baptized by the apostle John. And then he went on, but there were many who were in that category. This was written was written for that next generation or make a difference people in Christianity though, why do you think the he had to make a statement? Like it's a noble task, and he wasn't wise? Why is he saying that this is a noble task. It's that curious doing thing that we started out on, look, Christianity to be reproducible. I feel one of the big threats of the Christian movement was not that first generation knew Jesus. It was the next generation, getting those leaders going in. This was written late in the Apostle Paul's ministry. II Timothy is his last book, this is the second to last book, and he's now into the next generation of leaders. Repetition, repeatability, reproducibility, all these things are happening in the movement of Christianity. And if someone has that impetus, that's a noble task. Okay? Could it also be that people weren't stepping up? I mean, we see that in church, where it's just easier to let someone else let someone else start something. And then you just follow along, but nothing happens unless someone steps up. So I guess if you're taking this class, you're probably one that wants to step up. I mean, I don't know why you'd be taking this class if you don't. So congratulations, you're part of those few who actually seek a noble task. Now it's interesting in businesses like McDonald's and Chick-fil-A when they do like people for franchisers, they have
qualifications. And here the Bible for qualifications for the leaders that are going to make a difference, right. Alright, let's go next. Okay. Now, the overseer must be above reproach, so the first qualification is to be above reproach. What does that mean? What that means is that there's not a bad report. So a good report in the report among the people you know, that know you? Right? And if you've had some bad reports in the back in the past, you made amends. You care about your reputation, right? So maybe that's what some of you need to do is to go back and fix some of them. Yes. Right. I mean, before you launch into some enterprise that requires the support of everyone, you know, maybe you need to heal some of those wounds. And what what a more powerful witness than to go back and tell people you're sorry, and be that new person, that people maybe can believe in. Right? All right. Now the overseer must be above reproach the husband of but one wife. Interesting. Well, yes, it means not into polygamy, for Christianity is holding to the biblical definition of marriage in the ministry, that applies pretty much there. It also, I believe, is talking about really, that you are faithful, that you can be trusted. And, and again, I know some of you have gone through divorce, from now on, right? That you are trustworthy people, right? Because if you can't be trusted with this kind of a relationship, then how can people trust that you're going to say what you're going to do? You know, I've met many incredible businessmen, many ministry, business people, they don't know that term, but the ones that are faithful in this relationship, have a leg up? Absolutely. Because you have a partner that you have that can pick you up when you're feeling down, and even to if your spouse recommends you that powerful we talked about that before. Temporate, temporate, what does it even mean? Temporate? What it means is moderation. That you're not gone off on this section so much. Like often in moderation, for example of what moderation and what Okay, so let's say in food, it's like, okay, so you're gonna be exposed, let's say of a coffee shop, this There's me a lot of carbs food over there. And I remember my first test in moderation was when I was hired a fast food, A&W, back in the 1970s, I was 14 years old, and they allowed you to have food and all the root beer was telling you all the root beer you want to drink, and. How long did it take you to figure out that temperance might be a good way to go? It took me about six months. I thought you were gonna say two weeks, I'm sorry to say that it took ,me six months. But at a certain point, you hit a wall. But all of life is that way where, you know, people, you know, alcohol is a very good example, a lot of people struggle with addiction, whether it's alcohol or whatever, in the path of moderation. It's not that somebody would have a glass of wine at dinner or whatever. But if that wine becomes everything that you're about as to the problem, but this can be in various ways, so many can in clothing. The fashion is such a strong thing, that you spend money so much on this, that you missed out on spending the money on what it takes to actually do a ministry. So why might this be important when you're studying in ministrybiz? Well, you only have a
limited budget, you have to be very careful about spending the money wisely. Or even, let's say you start the ministrybiz, and then you OD on all the hours that you put into it. And you ignore everything else, right? So again, you can you can, you can put a lot of effort or energy into one thing, but then you're doing it at the expense of something else. And you can do that for a short period of time. Like, there's seasons Yeah. Getting something off the ground. There's seasons of unbalanced in your life. But if it becomes a pattern, then a lot of times people crash and burn so if you crash and burn, then the business is over. Yeah. Right. You're the golden goose. And if you killed the golden goose it's done, you're so self control . But self control means that you are able to manage your own passions, able to manage your own like if you don't feel like going door to door. You have the self discipline self control, to actually go counter intuitive to what you feel you're doing right because right now, we're talking about this and especially if you take one of the courses that are specific to the coffeebiz The ministrybiz, or the Bible ministrybiz, or the life coaching. Especially when you take those, you're going to get really excited about it. And you're going to have all these huge thoughts about it. But then when you actually start doing it, you're going to have these days where it's just nothing but work. And it's the same work that you did the day before. And, and you'll everything in you will be saying, is this what I really want to do, and they have the self control, to follow through with your dream and your vision, you know, that takes some control, for you to be at CLI. And you're doing it freely, not because someone is going in debt to do this. And that's you to do it that way. You already have a measure of self control. So just to just to finish these classes to get this session, you had to have the self control to actually get here. So congratulations. But self control in terms of relationships, you know, all these businesses are about relationships. So making sure the boundaries are good between your family, your spouse, other people's spouses coming, right? I mean, there's a lot of temptation in a world that's very relational, especially when you're doing a relational kind of thing. And you're working hard and someone else is working on. That person working on with you is not your spouse. boundaries can be broken and you have downtime, but you have a lot of hard time and it's very true. So we'll leave it there. And in the next session, we'll continue with some of these helpful qualifications of leadership .