Who hasn’t been seduced by a container store? Or put their hopes in a planner? Who hasn’t hoped that maybe it would be this supplement, this productivity tool, this online class that would provide the change we’re looking for? How many ads do we get with headlines like “Try this one cool trick” to burn belly fat, or get a huge tax rebate or improve your marriage? I see emails in my inbox all day promising me 30 day programs to a smaller waist, a bigger business, a better behaved-child, a more peaceful life. I’m sure you do too. They’re temping, who wouldn’t want to wave a magic wand over the problems that plague us, if there’s a potion to fix it, why not buy it?

We want magic. We want to snap our fingers and our problems to be solved. We’re disappointed when it never quite works that way.

But isn’t it funny that we often yearn for magical solutions for problems we actually could solve on our own, but just take a lot of work? I wonder if we fall for magical solutions for getting healthy or organized or growing our careers (and not for stopping time, or spinning straw into gold) because we know that they are things that actually are possible for us, we just aren’t doing them? 

What if what we’re trying to avoid isn’t the problem, it’s the work? If it was really the problem we were trying to avoid, we would have done the work already. I am writing this from a house with children’s books stacked a foot high on the coffee table and a Christmas tree that is still up, so this “we” very much includes me. I want a magic wand to put away my Christmas decorations and organize my kids clothes not because I can’t do those things but because I know I can and yet I haven’t. 

As part of my work at Incubators, I frequently coach church leaders. I was pretty sheepish when I was first asked to do it, as I felt I was too young and too inexperienced to have much to offer. Aqueelah Ligonde, our Vice President of Innovation Coaching, wisely told me that a coach isn’t there to give the answers, but to help leaders arrive at their own answers, and help them stay true to them. We don’t have magic wands, you already know what you have to do, our job is to walk alongside you as you actually do the work. I have found her to be right over and over again. Leaders know what they need to do, they just need someone to tell them that they really do have to do it. 

You really do have to work your way down your database, meet with all of those donors, send all those emails, put away those Christmas decorations (ok that last one is for me). 

But here’s the good news: that work is often where God most clearly shows up. It is in the work, the grind of meetings and emails, of consistency and faithfulness to the most basic of tasks that the Holy Spirit does some of the most transforming work, of both our ministries, and of our own souls. It is the work of ministry and of leadership, not the results of it, that change us and our communities. 

So what is the work you are called to right now? Not the big picture vision, not the cool activity, what is the work that you are finding things to do instead of doing? Is it volunteer recruitment (Mark DeVries would recommend starting to recruit for the Fall semester in February)? Fundraising? An audit? Is it tracking down members who you haven’t seen in a while, or following up with new people? Or is it (like me) the Christmas tree still in your living room? You know what the work is, now it’s just about believing that the work is worth doing. God is present in the faithful, consistent, often invisible work of our ministries and our lives. 

If you want someone to walk alongside you, feel free to reach out to us about coaching, project management, or whatever else you might need to do the work you know you’re called to.