Receive, Retain, and Give

My life verse is found in 2 Timothy 2:1-4 2 “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

One of the things that I enjoy in ministry, is being able to invest in others, the things that I have learned in both life experience and ministry.
The most frustrating time in my ministry has been when I was not intentionally doing that.

Right now I am mentoring two men who recently came into my life. One being the youth leader of our church and the other being the associate pastor of the Vietnamese congregation who uses our church facility. We are currently working through John Maxwell’s 21 irrefutable laws of leadership.

I believe every pastor or christian should intentionally be mentoring and investing into the lives of faithful men the things they have learned. There should be a constant Paul and a Timothy experience in our lives. We should receive, retain and give and if not we are going to die.

Let me illustrate these three characteristics with the following example.
The Jordan River, throughout its length, has three notable characteristics: it receives water, it retains water and it gives water.
Because it has both an inlet and an outlet, the water contains oxygen which supports fish and life. When these fish enters into the Dead Sea, they die for a lack of oxygen and float to the surface where they are carried away by birds. This happens because the Dead Sea, in contrast to the Jordan River, has only two of the first characteristics:

Although it receives water and retains it, it does not give water and therefore has no life … hence it receives its name: the Dead Sea.
Many believers receive the wonderful truths of God’s Word and learn valuable life lessons along their journey, yet they do not take the time and effort to pass this on to other able men. A true believer or leader learns, retains and gives. Like John Maxwell says in the Law of Reproduction … “it takes a leader to raise a leader.”

10% of leaders are leaders because of Natural Gifting, 5% as a result of crisis and 85% become leaders as result of the influence and impact of another leader on their lives!
Looking back over the 25 years of my life as an ordained minister, I thank the Lord for the Steven Thobela’s, the Jurgen Huysamen’s,  the Hannes Olivier’s, the Boy Ngomane’s, the Freddie Mabaso’s, the Jake Slemmer’s, the Peter Nguyen’s and the many other’s that allowed me the privilege of investing into their lives! Not only are they in ministry today investing into the lives of other’s, but they have kept me alive because I have received, retained  and given!
How about you? Are you like the Jordan River or are you like the Dead Sea?

Author: Pastor Phillip of Grace Bible Church, Anaheim