THE POWER OF HUMILITY

Philippians 2:l tells us: "And being found in appearance as a a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross!  THEREFORE God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth..."

James tells us if we humble ourselves we will be exalted.

St. Benedict has given us a reminder of what humility looks like by sharing with us his "Ladder of Humility".

Step 1  Fear of God and mindfulness of Him.

Step 2  Doing God's will (not our own or other people's).

Step 3  Willing to subject ourselves to directions of others.

Step 4  Patience to accept the difficulty of others.

Step 5  Radical honesty to others about our weaknesses.

Step 6   Deeply aware of being chief of all sinners.

Step 7  Speaking less.

Step 8  Transformation into the love of God.

May we find ourselves on this powerful journey to new heights of humility.

WHAT ABOUT "SHE"?

One of the loneliest places in the church is being a pastor's wife.  Most pastor wives find themselves usually living in the shadows of their husbands.   Many pastor wives are struggling for their own identity and the role they should play in the local church.  The glass house is often haunted for many pastor wives.
These factors, among others, can cause a pastor's wife to feel isolated, scrutinized, and minimized.

So what role do healthy pastor's play in the life of their wife?  Here are some tips that might help alleviate some of the pressure they feel.

1.  Make sure that they feel more important than your ministry.
     - Plan a date night once a week.
    -  Limit your nights out to no more than 3 a week.
    -  Have a set aside time once a week to have a marriage summit where both of you need to engage in
        honest communication.
    -  Give her your best not your leftovers.

2.  Give her the freedom to explore her own gifts and abilities as it relates to the church.
    -   Protect her from unrealistic expectations and demands of her time and talents
    -   Let her know that being a mom and supportive wife is the best gift she can give to your ministry.

3.  Encourage her to find relationships with other pastor's wives where she can be transparent and
     feel safe in sharing her concerns.

4.  Try not to bring the church home with you.  This is a struggle for all of us, but we have to learn to shut
     it off once in a while.  Remember your identity is not in the church it is in Christ.

5.  Make sure you know exactly how she feels about being a pastor's wife.  Those feelings may change
     from one day to the next.  So give her the freedom to fully express her heart, and thank her for her
     support.

Monitoring your Leadership Guage

In Daniel Henderson's book called "Defying Gravity", he gives us 9 different gauges in our lives to monitor if we intend to stay healthy as a leader.   If we monitor these gauges regularly we can prevent some serious mishaps in our leadership.  They are as follows:

1. If we monitor applied truth, we will prevent false doctrine, superficial teaching, and apostasy.

2. If we monitor spiritual intimacy, we will prevent a lack of passion, spiritual power, and carnality.

3. If we monitor personal integrity, we will prevent hypocrisy, compartmentalization, and a poor
    example.

4. If we monitor Biblical identity, we will prevent insecurity, drivenness, compromise, and over reacting.

5. If we monitor genuine accountability, we will prevent secret sin, blind spots, and isolation.

6. I we monitor eternal significance, we will prevent discouragement, comparison, and loss of reward.

7. If we monitor healthy family life, we will prevent surface relationships, pride, and moral infidelity.

8.  If we monitor indispensable pain, we will prevent pride, bitterness, and resentment.

9. If we monitor a captivating call, we will prevent giving up, wrong decisions, and subjectivity.

Which gauges are not on your radar?