3 Areas For Your Longevity

How you're doing is how your small group ministry is doing. After 40-plus years in ministry, Steve Gladen gets asked one question more than almost any other: how did you last? In this episode he and Derek Olson walk through three areas to check in yourself once the fall launch settles down, and Steve is clear that he's aiming every point at himself first.

1. Check your vital signs
Four warning signs that your soul is running low:

• Apathy: you've grown callous about miracles
• Arrogance: you've grown casual about sin
• Divisiveness: you've grown cynical about staff and leadership
• Laziness: you've grown careless about the disciplines

2. Be battle ready
Four giants that pull you off center, and what answers each one:

• Busyness, answered by prayer you keep up before the crisis comes
• Materialism, answered by giving
• Isolation, answered by living in the community you're asking others to join
• Ignorance, answered by time in God's Word, even if you start with one verse

3. Build your rhythms

• Divert daily: time alone with God
• Withdraw weekly: Sabbath
• Abandon annually: a retreat away from your ministry bubble

A line worth keeping: "Nobody gets into a spiritual hole with a backhoe. It's always with a spoon."

In this episode

• 0:16 Welcome
• 3:26 Why your longevity sets the pace for your ministry
• 6:21 Area 1: Check your vital signs
• 14:52 Area 2: Be battle ready
• 23:27 Area 3: Build your rhythms
• 27:22 Wrap-up

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