Ministry is Like Lifting a 300 Pound Tire

On Sunday night I took four men on a field trip. Instead of our usual leadership training meetings at my house, the five of us gathered at a local high school. On the eve of launching our first set of Neighborhood Groups at Garden City Church (five groups which are led by these four men and me) I wanted these men to remember a pivotal truth.I led us across the football field to a massive three-hundred pound tire. Without explaining anything, I asked each guy to flip the tire over--to squat down, grab the tire from the bottom, and flip it onto its other side. Some of the guys were able to do it and others could not. All of the guys struggled. One guy spent twenty seconds straining, lifting, and pushing until the tire finally flipped.Then I told them. I told them that the ministry God has called them to is like lifting a three-hundred pound tire. Why? Because lifting a three-hundred pound tire exposes your weakness, it shows you the strength you don't have. I told the guys that as we lead these Neighborhood Groups throughout our city and move forward as a church it will, at times, feel like flipping a three-hundred pound tire. I told them that God has us in roles where our weakness will be repeatedly exposed as we realize how inadequate we are at loving people, making disciples, and spreading the gospel. This is a good thing. I told them that God places three-hundred pound tires in our lives in order to expose our weakness and humble us to rely on his strength and power instead of our own."Remember the tire" is now a slogan of ours.

But he said to me,  “My grace is sufficient for you, for  my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that  the power of Christ may rest upon me.  For the sake of Christ, then,  I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For  when I am weak, then I am strong. -2 Cor 12:9-10