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Give Up To Go Up 1 (of 5)
Someone once said, “You have to ‘give up to go up.’” As a leader, the choice is yours:
- Continue leading the way you already do…and most likely experience similar (or declining) results. Most choose to do this.
- Make some strategic sacrifices to increase your influence for Christ. Only a few choose this.
I’ve experienced innumerable benefits and deep satisfaction leading a growing ministry. But with each step up in influence and effectiveness, I’ve had to give up something that was hard to surrender. This week I’ll talk about five things you might have to “give up to go up.”
Give Up Control
One of the first things you must give up to go up is control. Most of us like to control the things around us—especially in ministry.
Some thoughts on control:
- The smaller your ministry is, the easier it is to control.
- The more you try to control your ministry, the more you’ll limit it.
- People who fight to stay in control might attract followers, but they rarely attract leaders.
- Growing leaders learn to delegate authority, not just responsibility.
- Growing ministries are always out of control.
- If we try to control everything, we’re squeezing God out of our ministries.
What are you trying to control that you need to surrender?
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I just think you blog entirely way too early in the morning.
reputation….safety….
Let me ask my team this question at our staff meeting this morning and I’ll get back to you. lol
gulp….
Safety~ I’m so with you Anne
Reputation~ No doubt!
I know better than God dilemma?
Those would be my top 3.
after being one of the only staff people in my organization for 2 years, we now have a staff of more than 4 amazing individuals. In the process of transitioning responsibilities I am realizing that what I need to give up is a “my way is the best way” mentality…
For me…I have a hard time giving up things that I do with excellence knowing that for a time they won’t be.
As we have planted our new church I find myself doing many of the details that others could be doing because they may not do them as well. I have always had a hard time with this.
I’m not sure if that is a control issue as much as it is a perfectionist syndrome.
Great topic, I play on a softball team with one of the guys who is a part of our church plant, and we had a conversation last night about this very topic. I look forward to reading insights from everyone.
Scott, You probably should ask your team. That could be a great learning experience.
Jason, Either way… control or perfectionist syndrome… it is something you’ll want to grow through. Hope your new church is going great.
“People who fight to stay in control might attract followers, but they rarely attract leaders.”
To grow an effective ministry you must attract leaders with the desire to submit to the God Given Vision and the ability to make it Their Own Vision. If you have people who are afraid to make it their own vision it’s because they are afraid of criticism or disapointment.
You can never draw that Gift or Talent out of someone when they don’t have freedom to make it Their Own Vision, even if it fails(there is always the chance it will be more successful than if you did it).
Give up the Method to make room for greater Ideas, Talent and Success.
Craig…You are a freakin’ inspiration…I can’t help but be challenged by your ministry and what you’ve allowed God to do through you and your team.
I’m a church planter at the point of needing to let go of more and more, and it is a major challenge. But I’m needing to let go of all kinds of things: control, my too small understanding of God, my fear of failure, my need for approval by others, and my need for security and safety.
We’ve had a great first 2 years, but God is really streaching my leadership ability in our second year. Thanks for sharing your journey with the rest of us!
“Growing leaders learn to delegate authority, not just responsibility.” I like it. I also like ‘give up and go up’. There’s a saying ‘Hold all things lightly and nothing tightly’. It seems to me that it fits the discussion.
I think I recently cought myself controlling my wife. I was trying to find or receive too much vindication or confirmation in her eyes and it didn’t work well for me. I think it’s a form of control, but I have to think longer about it. Anyway, I need to surrender this something.
Again, referring to Sarah’s posts, it’s great to be a servant. Servants want to control less. Or maybe the word ‘want’ is not part of their lexicon.
It’s so true! When I first started at Life, I was proud of myself for having everything under control… because of that our student ministry wasn’t able to grow past 100 or so… now, I’ve given A LOT of the authority and responsibility away to my leaders and we’re already seeing results! SWITCH is gonna blow up!
Being “in control” also denotes faithlessness… if we’re truely putting our faith in Christ, we’re already out of control…
Great post. I think failure to “give up” also rolls back to a need to be right. I can’t let you do it because I am the only one who can do it right.
[...] Read part one and two. Posted in Leadership [...]
Frankly, I try to control myself. I want to feel in control, appear in control, and actually just have it all together. I have seen this struggle affecting all kinds of relationships. Being vulnerable is one of the biggest things He’s challenging me with right now. I was totally convicted by the statement from this weekend’s message - ‘the be independent is to be non-Christian’. I used to consider myself as an independent person. I work ever day to surrender all control and be dependent on Him.
Give it up. For Christ’s Sake.
Just read a great post by Craig Groeschel. It is invaluable for leader but especially children’s workers. In children’s ministry you need so many volunteers to accomplish everything and if you don’t learn how to give up control you wi…
[...] Check it out here! So far posts one and two are my favs [...]
Ever met someone that is obviously led by the spirit. The way they do relationships, ministry, participate in sports, etc…They are attractively unusual, in a way that makes people wonder what motivates them. Life is not about them…they are in remote control. Then you realize, they are one of His, and the One holding the remote is glorified.
Wow Craig, you’ve done it again. You’ve made me positively uncomfortable. Giving up control is an issue I’m facing right now as I’m beginning to recognize some walls that have been built between me and my oldest son. These walls are the product of my controlling, rather than allowing him to grow into the leader I want him to be. I think your post here applies to many different fronts in our personal lives, business lives and our spiritual lives. Thanks for opening my eyes a little bit more.
Craig, great insights on this fact of life. I first read this in Maxwell’s book 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (Law 18). We all face this challenge and need to recognize it for all the reasons you noted. A couple of things that have been a help to me is learning to give clear expectations and boundaries when giving up control. I enjoyed The Leadership Pipeline by Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter & James Noel it was a great read on recognizing when and what changes I needed to make in handing over controls. For me personally this goes to the core of who’s in control. The productive get it done me or God? I get to choose each day, each moment of each day and find that balance of being a servant leader and using the gifts and talents that God have given me.
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