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The theater is a mentor too? Guest Tiffanie McCurdy

Guest Blogger -Tiffanie McCurdy 
Works with me as Administrative Assistant, Organizer and Efficiency Expert, give her a map and a bunch of destinations and look out. :) 






The theater is a mentor too?

There’s something about the smell of sawdust and fresh paint on a set that feels like home to me. For those who have caught the theater bug, you know what I am talking about. I have been around theater for 18 years. Most of my life. It has taught me more than comedic timing and appropriate attire for the Elizabethan period; it has taught me that everything I needed to know for ministry, I found in theater. 

From the start of my theatrical experience, I was a techie. Although I dreamt of being an actress, the directors (also my instructors) mostly wanted me backstage. They were the first to see my gifting and allow me the environment in which to develop and grow in it. I am still amazed at the insights that they had of me. I learned so much in those early days of theater by shear experience alone, not to mention the grace of God. Acting technique was taught in the classes, but technical production, that was completely hands on! I have since come to love all aspects of the theater world, but the technical side is truly where I fit best in it ; the directors were right from the start. I guess, they could be called, my first mentors. They saw in me, something I did not see, and then developed in me that gift they saw. 

That’s where ministry fits in. Isn’t that what we are to do in the mentor role? See in the person, or persons, the gifting and talents that they have and allow them the safe place that they could be encouraged to develop in those things? It’s more than training someone else to take over when you leave, that’s not your decision to make, it’s Gods anyway, but it’s really more apostolic, to raise them up in their God given talents and then to release them out to continue on in them in the place God has made for them. 

 For more insight into this dynamic, try reading

Leading vs Managing
Bases
Mentoring is a Must

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Q4U  How do you spot the gifting in your team members?

What is in your hand?

Don't forget we have moved to sandivand.wordpress.com  We will be posting here at blogspot for a couple more weeks.  I can't transfer subscriptions so go there today and re-subscribe (one for the blog and one for the newsletter) Thanks for your patience.

Just because you are not in any official position at church doesn’t mean you lack influence.  Your relationship as daughter of the King of the Universe means you have position and influence.

A mistake a lot of people make is not owning up to that reality. They’re afraid to say anything because they don’t believe they have the position or the title.  Moses had the same problem.

Exodus 4:1 But Moses protested again,”What if they won’t believe me or listen to me? What if they say, ‘The LORD never appeared to you?’

Moses did not have an official position in Egypt or with the nation of Israel.  In fact, the only position Moses had was a shepherd on the backside of the wilderness. He had been training for this moment for a while.

I have asked God that very same question more times than I would like to count.  You know, “who me? You want me to do what? Who is going to believe me or even listen to me for that matter?”

What's in your hand?
God is notorious for answering a question with a question.  Like Moses he asked me the same thing “What is in your hand?”

God is so merciful answering Moses like that.  His mercy totally changes things.  You see, most of us would have replied "Really Moses? What does it matter if they believe you or not? Just go and do it?”

Let me tell you something, it does matter.  The whole point for going was to get the job done. It would have been totally unmerciful to show up with the attitude “oh well, you should have listened.” I believe Moses was on track, it was a great question. There might have been some inkling of self presevation going on with Moses. But hay, God picked him just like he was, self preservation and all.

Common and ordinary
Moses had a shepherd’s staff in his hand.  He had carried that rod around for years. That’s all he had, just a plain ordinary staff.  It probably wasn’t his only one either.  I'd venture to say he had to make a couple of them throughout the years. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if he had two or three laying around in the tent.

Let’s think about this for a second. God tells him to take off his shoes, because he was standing on Holy ground. Moses takes off his shoes and stands before God. Notice he didn’t lay the staff down. He walks on in with it still in his hand! He probably didn’t even realize it was in his hand.

Game Changer
I love game changers. What God does next is a total game changer for Moses. God tells Moses to throw it down. Moses let’s it go, the staff becomes a snake.  To Moses the staff is a staff, to God it’s a game changer. That common ordinary staff did a whole lot more than turn into a snake.

That staff changed the game on a couple of occassions. Once a meeting was going one way, Moses throws down the staff and wha-la it’s a whole new meeting going on!

If God is asking you to approach a subject and like Moses you are wondering “why would they even listen to me?” Look at what is your hand. God sent Moses as a shepherd with a staff.

In Virgina, I watched Allison Mullins, of Bartlick Presbyterian, teach bible verses to a bunch of teens using cell phones and texting. Who knew?  She was using what she had in her hand.

Maybe you are a baker with some flour, an actor with a video camera, a writer with a laptop,  guitar player with three chords and the truth, a painter with some face paint, a personal trainer with some boxing gloves it's all good in God's perspective.

Q4U: Have you eve had to take inventory of your life? Got any tips for the rest of us?

The Labor of Brilliant Ideas

The climax of the egg is the hatching.

The fiercest battles I have ever faced are the ones right at the threshold of breakthroughs.  It's the labor pains right before the birth. There is no turning back at this point.  Grace is the ability to do what God has called you to do.  That brilliant idea was His first, He will give you the ability to see it through.  If there was no battle then there would be no need for grace. Grace doesn't mean no effort on  your part, it means He backs up your effort with His power.

Brilliant ideas are open doors

God will open some doors for you.  He will give you brilliant ideas to commit to.  He will give you some marching orders to carry out.  These open doors are opportunities.  They will above all teach you all kinds of lessons. Always look at them as opportunities of growth. Sometimes we will experience growing pains when we go through those doors.

Adversity keeps the boat afloat

But because they come from Heaven doesn’t mean they will be pain free, battle free, or even misery free.  In fact, because they come from Heaven is a guarantee there will be some adversity.  It’s the adversity that keeps the plane in the air, and the boat afloat.

It never fails the minute I mention evangilism or outreach it seems like all hell breaks loose. The very instance the women even start considering a prayer group all kinds of havoc begins to play on everyone’s schedule.  It’s a gimme.

Keep your cool

Just because I know it’s going to happen doesn’t mean I’m not going to do it.  It means I need His grace more than ever.  I get a lot of phone calls from women’s ministry leaders right before a big event with all the “can you believe this happened and then this happened and then of all things bubba broke his foot.”  It’s calm down time.

Here are some things to keep you level headed during this battle.

Pray.  Im not talking about going to God and asking if you should have even done the event in the first place, or if you should have even went into ministry.  It’s all too late for that.  You are on the cusp of breakthrough, you are on the verge of cresting the top of the mountain, you have done all the leg work, now is the prayers of faith. This is praising and worshiping time. If you are going to petition Him about anything now ask Him to help you keep your integrity in all of it, that your response to the battle will be God glorifying and people redeeming.

Stand on God’s word.  He gave you the idea, don’t move on it.  Don’t let anything cause you to doubt it was not from God. Keep your feet in peace. Strive to keep the strife out. That "peace that surpasses all understanding" will but a wall around you and will guard your integrity.  When you are in the home stretch you have done all that you have known to do, now stand. Don’t back down from what God has given you.  The enemy will try to get you to sabatage the whole thing by doubting you heard from God. It’s too late to worry about that now anyway.  Don’t entertain any negative talk from you are anyone else.

Speak over it.  When all hell is breaking loose right before an event watch what you say.  It is easy to start letting the words of worry and defeat escape our already tired self.  Everytime you hear someone speak negatively you reinforce what God has said, His promises to never leave us, never forsake us.  It’s all about Him anyway.  Speak life over the ministry, the event, the situation.

Related Post:Your Faith on Center Stage
Leading in the Trenches

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Q4U: Got anymore suggestions for those breakthrough battles?