BiVo Podcast: Encouragement for BiVocational Pastors and Cell church Ministers

One of the chapters in the book “Developing the Leader Within you 2.0” by John Maxwell is titled “The Indispensable Quality of Leadership: Vision”. In today’s episode of the BiVo Podcast, I share a few of the lessons I learnt from this chapter.

I’ll start by defining Vision – Vision is your conviction of what the future looks like! I believe it is a glimpse of what your future or that of your team looks like.

• Make sure the vision is clear – If vision isn’t clear, then the mist in your mind will eventually become a fog in your organization.
• Find People that will help you with the vision – “When we find our vision, we find our way. However, there is another discovery that is equally important – the people who will join us on the journey to fulfill that vision.”
• Share the vision as often as possible – When done right, it can never be too often – Without [vision], a team’s energy ebbs, people begin to miss deadlines, team members’ personal agendas begin to dominate, production falls, and eventually team members scatter.
• Actively seek to be with people who can enlarge you and your vision – Are you actively searching for people who can enlarge you and your vision? Is it one of your top priorities? If it’s not, it should be.
• Know that the vision is progressive – There is always more to see if you prepare yourself to see more.

Pastoring is leadership! In pastoring, your goal is to encourage people to be all that God created them to be. You are called to encourage them, inspire them and influence them to accept the gift of salvation and become salt and light of the earth.

As BiVo Pastors, we must learn to increase our level of influence with the people we serve. In this episode of the BiVo podcast, I share a few tips on how to do just that. The entire discussion is based on John Maxwell’s 5 Levels of Leadership that I introduced in episode 31 of the podcast.

Here is a summary of the tips. Please share your thoughts in the comment section at the end of the post.

If you are a pastor, you are at different levels of leadership with all the different people you are serving. Run through a few of the key people in your church family and try to determine what the level of your leadership with them is. Then use some of the tips below to begin the process of increasing your level of leadership.

Take note that you can get the definition of the levels of leadership from the previous podcast episode here.

1. Level 2 – Permission – Genuinely love the people you are leading and show it to them. I find that listening and empathy is very important here.
2. Level 3 – Production– Get some result! As a pastor this will be inviting your neighbors to church, embodying the messages you preach, lead a successful Lifegroup, etc! Building the kingdom of God
3. Level 4 – Personal Development – You expose the people you are serving to resources and opportunities that will make it possible for them to replace you! You consciously work at raising leaders and experts! Be observant so that you can discover the natural, spiritual and ministry gifts of the people around you, then do whatever is within your power to develop these gifts
4. Level 5 – Pinnacle – This level is given to you after years of consistent delivery of results as well as years of developing new leaders!

The BiVo Pastor or Minister must be a very good leader because ministry is “influence”. Dr Maxwell defines leadership primarily as “influence” in his book titled “Developing the Leader within you 2.0”.

In todays episode of the BiVo Podcast, I share my thoughts on the concept of the 5 Levels of Leadership. Here are the 5 levels.

1. Position
2. Permission
3. Production
4. People Development
5. Pinnacle

It’s neat that they all begin with the letter “P” so that we can easily remember them.

If you would like to know more about the 5 levels of Leadership or read the book, here is the link to it. (Full disclosure – The link to the book is an affiliate link. This means that I get a little commission when you purchase through this link at no extra cost to you of course)

In this episode I share more advantages of the BiVo Pastor. I also share some of what I took away from reading the book “Developing the Leader Within you 2.0” by John Maxwell.

In this episode, I draw your attention to the fact that as BiVo Pastors we are paid to share the gospel 40hrs a week. I also share some tips on how to do this more effectively.

1) Pray for a move of God in your ministry everydays as you pray for a worldwide move of God on his church.

2) Pray for the individuals that you interact with as often as you can.

3) Ask the Holy spirit to give you an opportunity to share your story with them

4) Look out for opportunities to serve and show love to them.

5) Relax and take each opportunity that is presented. It may be an opportunity to invite them to a bridge event at your church.

Note:

Prayer is the power source for this. Expect God to move first on you, then on the people around you.

In this episode, I share about the prelude to the 1857-1859 Prayer Revival. What did Jeremiah Lanphire a businessman do to make his noon time prayer meeting spread all over America in such a short time? How can a BiVo minister have a move of God in his or her ministry.

God is always ready to move among his children!

Here is a scripture that reminds me of this truth! It’s so comforting that I can initiate the process of the move of God. What I can’t determine is the scope, but I can be assured of a move of God.

7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. – James 4: 7-10 

Last week I talked about the truth that Bivo Ministers must have a move of God! This is so because all spiritual ministry must be done with the power of the spirit. And more so because as BiVo ministers we have limited time and sometimes limited professional training.

To buttress this truth, I shared the story of the Laymen Prayer Revival that started in 1857 – 1859. It is also known as the 4th Great Awakening according to revival historians or the Fulton street revival.

Today I want to highlight one thing that preceded this awakening and how it is very important for you as a Bivo Minister.

Before the outbreak of the prayer revival of 1957 – 59, there were various calls for prayers. Charles Finney preached and published a series of lectures on revival in 1835 in the New York Evangelist.

You can read the updated Lectures on Revival Here

You can also get Power from on High – Finney

Another Pastor also Preached and Published his sermons on Revival and Prayers for Revival in a book titled – Tongues of Fire – William Arthur

• Pray consistently for a move of God.
• You can be assured of a move of God if you and are willing to let God work on you.
• Learn about revivals to build your faith

Another story about the revival shared by Dr Edwin Orr

In this episode of the BiVo podcast, I share some of the advantages of being BiVo Ministers. One of which is a greater dependence on the move of God. I also shared the laymen’s prayer revival of 1857.

Read more about this revival from the book. Revial Fire by Wesley Duewel

Fundraiser For Overcomers Academy in Kuje, Nigeria

Pastor Chuck Smith – Audio and Video 

Sermon Preparation is a major part of our duties as pastors. On this episode of the BiVo podcast, I share a few tips on how I prepare a sermon even when I don’t have a lot of time all at once.

Blue Letter Bible

Sermon Preparation is a major part of our duties as pastors. On this episode of the BiVo podcast, I share a few tips about sermon preparation in general. What is the foundational thought behind a very good sermon?