27/02/2024
7 SACRIFICES MINISTRY FOUNDERS MUST MAKE AT THE BEGINNING OF THEIR MINISTRY, TO MAKE IMPACT IN MINISTRY
By Mfon Udoema
Being a founder is not the same as being an assistant or associate pastor. The sacrifices a founder must make for the ministry to be impactful and influential are enormous.
A lot of branch pastors in mega ministries or big denominations are just enjoying the sacrifices another person has made for the ministry to become a brand.
When the ministry becomes a brand, anyone sent to head a branch will not struggle much because his branch will enjoy the goodwill of the brand.
If you are not ready to make sacrifices as a founder, remain as a branch, assistant or associate pastor.
The following are the sacrifices a founder must make, especially at the beginning of the ministry, in order for the ministry to become impactful:
1. SACRIFICE OF TIME
Psalm 104:23; John 9:4
As a founder, you must see your ministry as work and be ready to invest a lot of time into it.
Ministry is time consuming.
For the ministry to work, the minister must invest so much time into the ministry.
Jesus Christ said that he works from morning till night.
If you don't invest time into your ministry, it will not stand the test of time.
According to Malcolm Gladwell in his book titled 'Outliers', you must invest at least 10,000 hours into your enterprise to become a master in it.
2. SACRIFICE OF PRAYERS
Luke 6:12
According to Luke 6:12, Jesus Christ prayed all night to choose His 12 disciples, and in verse 13 He chose them.
The Jews use to count night till morning from 6pm-6am. This implies that Jesus Christ prayed for 12 straight hours to choose the 12 disciples, turned Apostles. I guess 1 hour for one disciple.
Anybody that is not ready to pray for long hours should not be a founder.
When I was growing up as a child, my father use to pray in the church hall every Saturday night from 10pm till 3 or 4am and will start another round of prayers on Sunday morning from 6-9am before the service commences by 9am.
3. SACRIFICE OF PERSONAL FINANCES AND MATERIAL RESOURCES
1 Chron 29:3
Any founder that is not ready to invest his personal finances and material resources into his ministry is not ready for ministry.
If you don't give your own money into the ministry you lead, who will give his own?
It is the sacrificial giving of the founder that becomes the giving culture of his ministry.
The first special ministers chairs in our ministry was my father's parlour and dining set that he gave as a seed to church.
Our first microphone and speaker was bought by my mum.
As a person, I have sold my personal land in Uyo to sow the money into the work of the ministry.
I have sold my phone before to use the money for the work of the ministry.
4. SACRIFICE OF PERSONAL PLEASURE AND COMFORT
Mark 6:31; 1 Tim 5:6; 2 Tim 3:4; Prov 21:17
Ministry must stress you before it can bless you.
If you don't give yourself wholly to your ministry, your profiting will not appear.
At the beginning, you may not do the things you would like to do because so much of time and resources will be channelled into the work.
5. SACRIFICE OF FAMILY AND MARITAL PLEASURE
1 Cor 7:29
At the beginning of your ministry, you may have to sacrifice some of the time you would have spent with your family for the ministry. No matter how you are taught balancing ministry and family, at the inception of the ministry, especially if you are starting from scratch, there would be times you may not be able to attend fully to family and marriage needs, except you don't envisage a great ministry.
I stated earlier that in the beginning years of our ministry, my dad was sleeping in the Church premises every Saturday. So my mum had to condition herself not to seek sexual pleasure from him on Saturdays.
If you are married to a ministry founder, you must understand and bear with your spouse, especially in the formative years of the ministry.
6. SACRIFICE OF SEPARATION AND FOCUS
Neh 6:3; Prov 18:1
One of the greatest mistakes of founders is excessive socializing and networking in the early days and years of ministry.
You must concentrate on your ministry.
In the early days, give high premium to your Saturdays and Sundays, if you run a Church.
Be careful how you join ministerial associations and networks when you are just starting, it will do more of distracting you than it will help you.
Concentrate and build what God asked you to build and when you are established, kings will start looking for you.
7. SACRIFICE OF LABOUR
1 Cor 3:8
Ministry is work.
If you are not ready to work, you are not ready for ministry.
Ministry will not work until the minister works to make it work.
Engage the totality of your being in your ministry. Be busy at all times. Engage in prayers, study, evangelism, follow-up, workers training, ministers training, new converts training, etc.
Conclusively, don't feel bad in your days of sacrifice because your reward will surely come.
It is better to pay now that you are young and play later when you are old than to play now and pay later.
By
Pastor Mfon Udoema
