Compelling Influence Doesn’t Have to be Complicated

“You’re so rich. I envy you,” our Airbnb guest said as they left our home in rural Shipshewana, Indiana, a well-known Amish and Mennonite community. I laughed at their naivete about my mundane lifestyle as a farmer’s wife in the area where I grew up. Milking a goat before delivering a keynote is not something most Christian speakers, award-winning authors, or church leaders dream of. 

The comment lingered with me for a while, changing my perspective on what I thought was a compelling life. It also revealed the lies I’d believed about the life God crafted for me. For years, I envied others and felt less than as I compared myself to Christian leaders with access to professional ministry opportunities. I believed that if only I lived elsewhere, I could fully step into God’s calling. 

Instead, God showed me the ministry He’d given me where I was. I’d been a parent, Bible study leader, educator, youth leader, mentor, counselor, speaker, and writer for years. Hadn’t he used me in these ordinary spaces? Why did I complicate God’s work and impact based on what wasn’t rather than what was?

Do you have “if, then” statements that make you discontent with the calling God’s given you, feeling like the best life is always just out of reach? Viktor Frankl, an Austrian Holocaust survivor, says it’s never a question of where someone is in life; it’s only a matter of how he fills his place, his circle of influence. As Christian leaders, we need this perspective more than ever in a fast-paced culture focusing on bigger, better, and best. God’s humble, powerful influence hasn’t changed, though most things around us have. 

If you are wrestling with how to influence God’s kingdom in your current season as a writer, speaker, or leader, uncomplicate your life with these five principles: 

1. Routinely clarify your top five values for your ministry season. Post these values where you consistently see them. When opportunities arise, or you are unsure where to spend your time, talents, and energy, pray and filter options through this list. It will simplify what you should focus on in the current season. 

2. Eliminate obstacles that prevent you from cultivating the influence you desire. Cut out responsibilities and promising opportunities that distract you from what’s best. 

3. Be content with what God is asking you to do, give up, or put on pause. Discontentment tells us our best life is always just out of our reach. Instead, joyfully rest in what God is asking of you now. 

4. Celebrate your ministry’s successes and eternal impacts, no matter how minuscule they appear. We never know the impact of what we leave behind with our most ordinary acts of obedience. 

5. Steward what God has given you, including yourself. Good stewards are responsible and accountable for what is entrusted to their care. This consists of our circles of influence, ministry calling, and ourselves. I call this self-stewardship, which is more profound than self-care. It recognizes that as Christian leaders, we are not machines of productivity but ones whom God has called to be rooted like a sheltering tree by a stream of never-ending sustenance. Leaders can only pour from a full cup, not one of scarcity. 

Psalm 90:17 (NKJV) is a benediction and prayer for an uncomplicated, compelling ministry life: “And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands.” 

Prayer: Lord, let your beauty rest upon the circle of influence you surround me with today. Establish the work of my hand, whatever I put it to. Yes, establish the work of your hands through me. Amen. 

Question:  What is the best next step to uncomplicate your ministry life today? I look forward to reading your comments.