Armor Bearers

Who Ministers To You?

As leaders in ministry, we minister God’s love, wisdom, and healing to a broken world.  It would be foolish to think we are immune to this stuff.  We all have been looking for the force field that would protect us from getting hurt, experiencing loneliness and remain in perfect health, however, I don’t believe there is one.  I believe when we love others we become vulnerable to hurting people hurting people, particularly you. 

To minimize the drama trauma God places armor bearers around us. 

We minister to others, but who ministers to us? Who can we rely on when the going gets tough? It’s easy to tell someone to get it together, but who is telling us? Do we have someone in our lives to give us those wake up calls to our own silly choices?

Having the right support group in place is paramount to a great leader.  When you are in ministry, you will be surrounded by people all the time.  But not all those people will be the support you will need to walk in the mighty gifts and talents God has placed within you. 

What do you look for in armor bearers?  What kind of qualities will they display to tip you off that God has placed them for the purpose of supporting you?

1-They will strengthen us, not zap all the strength out of us. 

2- They will go the distance with you and the vision. 

3 - They will pray through for you. 

4 - Integrity, they will be people with enormous integrity.  

5 - They have discretion, they know when to hold their tongue.

6 - They walk in mercy and truth.

7 - They are capable worshipping warriors.

8 - They will invest in you and the ministry, with their time, energy and money.

9 - They are faithful to the relationship, to service and more importantly to God.

There is probably more qualities of these wonderful gifts from God.  If you have a suggestion to the list let us know!!!

Who is in your support group?  What do they do that makes you a better leader?  How did you find them?  How do you identify those who genuinely invest?  How are you being held accountable?  Leave a Comment!

Why do we have a Women's Ministry? (video pic of the week)

In some churches women's ministry is an after thought.

Some churches treat women's ministry as an accessory. You know the group of ladies that makes sure all the food is cooked, the place is cleaned and the kid's get their money for their big trip. I'm talking about real ministry.  I have been asked, a few times, about why are we separating the women from the men in ministry. "Can't they all just go to the same things?"  The very same people have no problem separating the youth from their parents. (that's a different post)

As a section representative for the Assembly of God, I meet with pastors and I hear their concerns about women's ministry, the good part, the bad part and even the ugly part, but isn't it the same concerns for every ministry?

I went to one church, a fairly large one, and met with the pastor.  Right off the bat he said "We don't do women's ministry." It must have been the Holy Spirit because I could never come up with anything so clever, my reply was "So the women hang out in the parking lot waiting for their men to get out of church?" He chuckles, I chuckle and our conversation lasted two hours.  The pastor realized whether there was a formal women's ministry or not in his church, women were ministering to each other. He also realized after looking at the demographics of his church, the majority of the congregation was women.  

I am not saying women and men need to be completely separated.  We need each other, it's the way God intended it to be.  Discipleship and mentoring necessitates separate ministries.  There are just some things that men don't get about us and that's okay.  

Here is the video pic of the week (so many has asked for it).  I believe it helps drive this point home.  

When and what are those issues that would be better served by women?  Yes, we need men's perspective (they have great perspective) how can we add value to the church when dealing with gender related issues? 

The Power of She

The Power of SHE

Take a moment and think about your congregation.  Go through the members directory list.  Is there more women than men?  If so doesn't it make sense to have a women's ministry.  Now I am not talking about catering and empowering women to hate the men and take over the world.  I like the guys I don't want to get rid of them.  We are to come together as a team, brothers and sisters.  However, we can't ignore the resource God has provided His church through women.

Here are some statistics taken from a poll conducted by a large parenting magazine.  It gives a incredible insight  at the enormous amount of influence women in our culture carry.

I call it the power of SHE.

SHE controls 85% of all household spending
SHE makes 91% of the decisions to purchase the new home
SHE purchases 66% of the computers in the US
SHE purchases 92% of the family vacations
SHE purchases 80% of healthcare
SHE makes 66% of the decisions to purchase the new car
SHE opens 89% of the bank accounts
SHE purchases 93% of the groceries
SHE purchases 93% of the pharmaceuticals

SHE tells her friends 92% of the time

OH and by the way she buys, drives and feeds her kids and husbands too.

With that kind of influence, why would we think women's ministries is a church accessory?  With that kind of influence in today's market and culture, Godly women can be the leaven in our culture, to change it for the better.   We as leaders in Women's Ministries have a responsibility to ensure women's influence brings glory and honor to our King, His people and His church.

With that kind of influence we can bring a lot of value to our culture and make a huge impact with the compelling love of Christ.

 What are we doing in our Women's Ministries that can make a difference in our communities? How as women can we use our influence to make an impact?

Creativity Is Not Enough, Finish Strong

Being Creative is Not Enough, we need to finish what we start.

Having a team that can come up with some unique and on the money idea’s that can’t finish is no better than a team that can’t come up with any new idea at all!

So, what can we do to ensure our team can finish strong.

1. When planning the event, the fund raiser, the ministry start from the end and work backwards. 
2. Motivation motivation motivation. Make finishing something they WANT to do.  
3. Keep the eye on the prize.  It’s easy to get distracted by all the details, and we should strive for excellence.  However, at the end of the day, we want to finish.
4. If the team, or members of the team are not known for finishing well, then maybe have them take on smaller projects at first.  
5. Identify some finishing “killers” 
1. Lack of clarity on what finishing looks like
2. It’s not going to be good enough.  Is it ever going to be good enough for some?
3. Fear of getting out of the comfort zones and into the splash zone.
4. Insecurity about stepping out and on display for the whole church to see and they fail.
6. You are who you hang out with.  Get some finishers on the team, or invite them to speak to your team.

Got some suggestions on "Finishing Strong" we would love to hear it!! Leave a comment.

advice to new leaders

Your position is not your identity. Don’t get caught up in labels. In fact I like the way Medina Pullings thinks about it. People try to call her an evangelist, prophet, apostle but if you ask her she just calls herself a “Jesus Girl.” You are way more than your title. I know many women after stepping down from leadership feel completely lost. That’s one of the reasons some women cling so tightly to a position. Loose the label and just be who God created you to be. If you asked Jesus what your identity is, now the church body is calling you “Leader”, He would call you a “foot washer.”


Your position is temporary not permanent. Okay lets get this sorted out quickly. First there is something to be said about staying power and the effects a great leader has on a team, especially when they have the time to implement the strategy. It’s amazing and wonderful. Yet sometimes we can become yesterdays anointing rather quickly. Or God can move us on to something bigger. It’s up to God anyway. And unless He has personally told you that this will be your position till you die then plan to hand it over. If you think this is a permanent position then it will be a challenge not to let it become an idol. Train up people around you to take the position and run. That’s why God gave us the following generation. I seriously want to go on a cruise and let the next generation sort some of the planning out. Embrace that fact and plan for it. It will create the sense of urgency and focus you into completing what God has called you to do.


Your position is a privilege not a right. When you stepped into the position in women’s ministry you stepped into partnership with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. This is a privilege, not a right. How many people have you met that truly thought they were in a position because they were gifted and talented and in reality they weren’t. Can you say “awkward!” Or how about the lady who is gifted and talented but a leader she was not. It is a privilege to serve. I like the saying, “We don’t give to get. We get to give.” That’s what it means to be in a position.


Your position is about faithfulness not achievement. We all step into roles with plans and goals that we set to achieve, we strive for them. We dream enormous dreams and then faithfully carry them out. Let’s be more faithful conscious than goal conscious. Not saying goals aren’t important they are. It is better to finish than to start. However being faithful means:

• faithful to God - staying saved is the most important thing you do.

• faithful to the service - serving when you don’t feel like it or when you think it is too hard

• faithful to the relationships - fighting for the relationships on your team and those you serve are way more important than achieving some goal. God is a God of relationships. Don’t throw away your relationships because you have to lower yourself and apologize. Now if they don’t want to continue on with the relationship you move on. You can’t make them be your friend.

Your position is about them not you. The world has more than enough narcissistic leaders. It doesn’t need one more. Being a leader is not about you, in fact it has never been about you. Ministry is about serving and promoting others. It is about loving each other and putting them before yourself. Let’s loose the celebrity mentality and be a leader that’s reachable and touchable. I understand there are times you need to steal away and have some quiet time. Just don’t be rude about it.
Your position is about stewardship not ownership. Being a steward is different than being an owner. As a Christian, I believe that God owns it all.


Your position will require more than you can provide on your own. This is a great place to be because now you have to lean on God. You have to get a word from the Lord. You can’t do this on your own. If you have been showing up to your meetings, your one on ones, your bible studies with the attitude I can do this with my eyes shut, you need a wake up call. Making disciples of people and ministries are easy, you can do that with your eyes shut. Making disciples of Christ takes way more time and energy and a whole lot of the Holy Spirit.