When I was in seminary I had a professor that taught me the focus of discipleship in its embryonic form is to learn. She then asked us 'What is learning?' after a numerous attempts by students to answer her question she finally shared 'learning is a change in knowledge, skill, understanding, or behavior brought about by some experience.' For example, if we walk through the story of Abram leaving everything he knew to go to a place the Lord would show him and say "hm that Abram was a courageous dude." Then we have not learned. Rather if we read that story and walked away with a new/fresh/fuller/deeper understanding of God's sovereign plan and can begin to make parallels into our own life, we have then learned something.
As a leader, do you seek to learn from your experiences or are you content to live through your experiences? In my world of small group point leadership I am constantly trying to sniff out potential/current issues with my ministry model. This is not always an uplifting task, no one likes to see a model they designed and implemented suffer, but I'm convinced it is the task of great leaders. And when I come upon an issue that must be addressed so that more people can experience Group Life at its finest, it's hard not to hide.
Picking yourself up and making adjustments along the way is the quickest way to reaching your potential as a ministry. In my world, I'm at that stage. I've taken the bitter pill and admitted I'm not the greatest, but I refuse to allow my system issues to define my ministry. Rather, it spurs me on to try new things. Change. I have new knowledge. I have improved my skill. I have strengthened my understanding. And now I'm changing my behavior...I believe that's called learning. Are you?
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