Leading Through Transition

Transition is hard. No matter who you are or what role you play, transition is never easy. It often comes with frustration, tears, and doubt. As leaders, learning how to lead through transition is difficult. As we walk through our own struggles, we are still called to lead. But how well that is done is the challenge.

I believe there are five biblical fundamentals for leading through transition. When these principles are applied, there is an empowerment from the Holy Spirit that flows from heaven to His servant, and then it flows out to those being led.

The first “must” in leading through transition is to always function in your purpose. Don’t confuse functioning in your purpose with your calling—they are different. In a nutshell, functioning in your purpose means glorifying God. Above anything else, we are called to glorify Him. First Corinthians 10:31 makes it clear that whatever the situation, or how much we struggle or suffer, we are meant to glorify God.

Above the messiness of transition, believers must be determined to function in their purpose—we must resolve to glorify God. With this mindset, your ability to navigate the struggles and hardships of leading through transition will prevail, whatever you encounter.

Developing a firm, unshakable foundation is the second “must” for leading through transition. In Matthew 5, Jesus preaches the most valuable sermon of all time. He begins His message with a series of beatitudes and then transitions into real-life stuff—he teaches about the law, adultery, divorce, money, praying, loving our enemies, and much more. He tells us how to live a righteous life in Christ.

At the end the most robust sermon ever preached, Jesus sums it up with a parable. The parable is about two guys each building a house on two very different foundations. A storm comes, and there are two very different outcomes.

Through this parable, Jesus emphasizes that if you want to live righteously and be successful in all areas of life, then you must be rooted in Christ. You will have many trials and storms. But if your foundation is in Jesus, you will stand firm and lead well.

The third must for leading through transition is prayer. Prayer is power. Prayer is the believer’s weapon to fight off the enemy. It is our fuel to survive. Jesus knew that His ministry was dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit working through Him—that is part of why we see Jesus praying continuously throughout the Scriptures.

Jesus was in constant communication with the Father. And it was through that communication that the power of the Holy Spirt was unleashed. The disciples recognized the connection between prayer and movement of the Holy Spirit, which is why when they could have asked Him for anything, they asked Him to teach them to pray. Every miracle Jesus Christ performed hinged on His connection to the Father through prayer. Nothing was accomplished without prayer. If you are not praying, you are simply not leading.

The fourth “must” is to let go of the former things. Isaiah 43 tells us to forget the former things. Why? Because God is doing something new. We can’t see the something new if we are paralyzed in the past. The yesterdays of ministry are gone—learn from them, and then let go. God is doing something new. Maybe you are surrounded by wasteland with no end in sight. But you can trust God for the streams ahead.

The fifth “must” to lead successfully through transition is to persevere. James 1:12 says, “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”

Rekindle Your First Love

This summer my husband and I celebrated 40 years of marriage. With that many years comes many peaks and valleys, disagreement, arguments, but also much joy, adventure, and shared experiences that tighten the bond. Eventually your children leave the nest for good and you are left looking at one another to decide how we will focus on one another in a new way as we spend these latter years of our lives.

Revelations 2 reminds us of 3 ways God wants to rekindle our first love with Him. The angel came to address the church of Ephesus. It is an active church with good attendance and hard workers, but it has forgotten the most important thing in relationship. It has forgotten love and moved to pragmatic functionality. This church is getting stuff done. They are hardworking, persevering, enduring, and tireless. In many ways they are exactly the kind of people we want in our churches. YET. Yet, they have forgotten their first love and the messenger of God has come to invite them back to choosing love.

For God, Christianity has always been about love.  The Trinity decided to add to their harmonious relationship by creating mankind to share in it. God’s purpose in this addition was always love. An invitation for people to choose simple and pure devotion to Jesus. As sin entered the world and a chasm was created between God and mankind, people used different methods to prove their love.  Hard work, sacrifice, perseverance, busyness replaced love. Ministry for God replaced relationship with God.  This Ephesian church is not the only church to need this reminder.  We, the Church, big C, today, needs this reminder as well.

God wants to help us rekindle our love for Him in three ways.  They aren’t necessarily difficult things to do, but will take our focused intentionality.

The first way God wants to rekindle our first love is tenderly and simply. When we first fall in love, we are hyper-focused on the person. We can’t get enough of their presence and want to be with them as much as possible. There is something about the person that the Song of Songs refers to as “ravishing my heart with one glance of your eyes.” In our relationship with Jesus, when we have “tasted and seen that the Lord is good” we want to keep experiencing that love. It bypasses our minds and awakens our heart’s longings for love.

The second way God wants to rekindle our love for Him is by asking us to realign ourselves to His wooing. This is another way of saying repent. He asks us to turn back from the things that have distracted us and realign our heart to His ways and will. Oftentimes getting off track happens very subtly. Slowly we stop spending time in His presence. We skip our daily routines that anchor us in the Word. We stop making time to listen for His voice. We stop waiting for Him in the secret place.  Over time our love grows cold, but we keep going through the motions with little or no feeling of love or desire for intimacy. It is always His wooing that causes us to return to Him. His tender calling of our name to come back to Him and give ourselves to Him again. It is always His kindness that leads to repentance. It may be faint, but He’s calling your name.

The third way God wants to rekindle our love for Him is by asking us to return and do what we did before. What did you do when you were desperate for God? What did you do when you had nowhere else to go? Jesus is asking us to remember and return to those routines and habits that helped fuel our passion and deepen our love and trust in Him. God wants relationship that leads to work, not work that leaves out relationship. Return to the simplicity of pure devotion to Jesus.  He is calling your name.  Make room for Him today and rekindle your love.

Rise Up Like Hagar

Sarai and Abram were desperate for a child in their old age. Though Abram received a promise from the Lord that they would have descendants as numerous as the stars (Genesis 15:5-6), he did not tell Sarai, so in her impatience and doubt, she took matters into her own hands.

Hagar was an Egyptian maidservant to Sarai and Abram. Sarai planned for Abram to take Hagar as his second wife, a common practice in their culture, hoping to fulfill her longing for a family through her maid. Hagar soon found herself pregnant with Abram’s child. At first, this might have brought her the sense of fulfillment and worth that she had longed for—however, as her pregnancy progressed, tensions grew. She began to despise Sarai, maybe feeling a glimpse of newfound power and importance that clashed with her previous identity as a servant.

Sarai, in turn, reacted with jealousy and mistreatment towards Hagar, blaming her for the situation she herself had created. Even Abram, the head of the household, failed to intervene, leaving Hagar to Sarai’s cruelty (Genesis 16:6). Faced with oppression and distress, Hagar fled into the wilderness.

Near a spring in the desert, the Angel of the Lord appeared to Hagar in her despair, urging her to return and submit to Sarai. “The Angel of the Lord told her, ‘Go back to your mistress and submit to her’” (Genesis 16:9). Despite the mistreatment she endured, we see Hagar rise up in grace, humility, and obedience. She chooses to trust in God’s plan, even when it seems impossible.

Despite being caught in the crossfire of human failures, she rose above her circumstances, finding strength in submission and trusting God. Her journey reminds us that even in our darkest moments, God sees us, knows us, and calls us to trust in His goodness. It’s easy to flee from a devastating diagnosis, family problems, depression, anxieties, grief, or barrenness, but God knows exactly what you are going through.

Hagar’s experience serves as a reminder of God’s compassion and sovereignty. Just as He saw Hagar in her distress, He sees each of us in our moments of suffering and uncertainty. He knows how you are feeling. He sees you and me. Nothing is hidden from Him. He pursues us. He wants to help us live out the plan He has for us.  In fact, he knows exactly where we are, and He meets us there. He will never leave us or forsake us. His grace is sufficient for us, made perfect in our weakness.

In the end, God’s faithfulness prevails. He blesses Hagar with a son, Ishmael, and reaffirms His promise to her. Through her story, we are reminded that we are never alone in our struggles. God is with us, guiding us through the wilderness towards a future filled with hope and promise. We just need to humbly obey and trust Him.

I’m Available

During my time as a student at Nyack College, I participated in the Brooklyn Gospel Team. Each Friday night, a group of students would make the trip into New York City to work with a local church and bring the gospel message to people on the streets of Brooklyn. One Friday night driving home, I stared out the window of the van. As we passed numerous apartment buildings with their lights on, I heard the Lord say, There are lost people living there—will you let me use you to share hope with people? And I said, “Yes!” I wanted to be a willing servant.

That was 43 years ago, and I have served the Lord in ministry for all the many years since. It has not always looked like what I imagined, and my husband and I have been          called to some hard places, but I do not regret saying yes to the Lord.

The prophet Isaiah responded to the Lord as well. Isaiah 6:8 records the following statement, “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’” There was no hesitation on Isaiah’s part, even though God tells him that the message he will be bringing is not a pleasant one.

I often ask myself, “If I had known the cost of going where the Lord planned to send me, would I have said, ‘yes?’”—and I can honestly say I would. Even in the hard and discouraging times, I know that I am walking in the path God has laid out for me.

Isaiah asks the Lord, “How long?” and the Lord basically tells him, “Until the task is finished.” Most would fall away, but a remnant would remain, and in that remnant, there would be found a holy seed—a reference to the Messiah.

Sometimes in ministry, we can feel as if our message is falling on deaf ears, whether believers or non-believers. Yet, if God has called us and we have responded with “send me,” then we must trust that God is working in people’s hearts. Only one or two may respond, yet, that one person may be the one that God uses to bring in a large harvest. Don’t be discouraged with the results or the numbers. God sees the results and they are not ours to worry about. Our task is to remain faithful to the end.

Our “yes” to God may take us down some hard paths, but obedience to your call will be used by Him to further His Kingdom.