I bought wi-fi on the plane for the first time…it is very slow, I’d advise against it and actually want my $5 back. Nonetheless, this posting comes to you from 30,000 feet in the air!  We put man on the moon, so I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised.

How often do you look at your ministry from a bird’s eye view? Student ministry and really any ministry in the church is due a good look from a bird’s eye view. Up here I can see everything going on…cars and trucks, highways and interstates, farms and cities, rivers and forests, you get the idea. I just made this trip a couple months ago in a different  fashion – Chicago to Austin via the interstate…it was a very different experience. On the road you can pick out details and give very special focus to particular exits, restaurants, pick out and dissect the hotel you may want to stay in, even play that license plate game for 1000 miles! When you are on the ground in ministry you get sucked into the nitty-gritty details of one program, one leader’s concerns, a game that needs to planned, a message that needs to be written…and this happens everyday one thing after another, non-stop. Getting stuck on one topic, problem point, or program may take you miles in the wrong direction when you are looking at the big picture. We have people on the ground that have extremely specific serving roles that need direction and vision. We need to know where we are leading our team and how we are getting there. This requires a bird’s eye view…often.

How often do we take a two hour flight, get up in the sky and examine our ministry’s journey?

Juggling the many tasks that ministry demands becomes somewhat natural for someone that has been doing it for a while. You can think, “I’m doing it!” But at what point do you put all of those things down to pray, evaluate, and take a good look from a bird’s eye view at the whole picture?

Take 20 minutes to answer the following questions to get your own bird’s eye view of ministry…write your answers down and keep them in a place where you can see them throughout the day. Repeat the exercise at least once a month.

• Pray for an honest heart in evaluating yourself and your ministry.
• Where is my ministry bearing fruit?
• How can I thank God for what He is doing among my flock?
• Is my team driving the same direction I feel God calling us? Why or why not?
• Do the passengers trust the pilot? How can I continue to build trust with my team?
• What stories can be captured that will fuel my leaders with encouragement?
• What people or areas of ministry need more attention or focus from me?
• What item(s) am I spending too much time on?
• Pray for a willing heart to follow through on the questions you have answered.

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