Achieving your potential

 I recently read something I found quite interesting about former basketball coach of the UCLA Bruins, John Wooden. In forty years of coaching he only had one losing season - his first. He led UCLA to four undefeated seasons and ten NCAA championships. While that's impressive, it was not what I found interesting. What was interesting to me was that he never scouted his opponents. His focus was on getting his players to reach their potential. He knew that if each of his players reached their potential, the wins would take care of themselves.

How does this relate to leading a church? While I hope we do not view other churches as opponents that we feel the need to scout, I believe the focus Wooden had on developing his team does have application for church leaders. How many of the people sitting in our pews are living up to the potential God gave them? If we're honest, the answer would probably be pretty disappointing. The few churches I know who have done discipleship studies of their congregations were all disappointed in the results.

The Great Commission calls us to share our faith with those who are not Christians and to lead those who respond into a life of discipleship. Not many churches live up to the first part of that call, and even fewer are successfully leading people into a deeper life of discipleship. It's no wonder so many in our churches lack understanding of even basic biblical theology, struggle to live a Christ-honoring life and are growing in their faith. Many of us in pastoral leadership need to take a serious look at our priorities and find ways to address the lack of discipleship in our churches.

But, before we do that, we need to examine our own lives. Are we achieving our God-given potential? We cannot take someone further than we are going ourselves. We cannot ask people to do something we are not doing. We have to show growth in our own lives before we can ask people to begin to grow in theirs.

Let me ask you some questions. What are you reading? Whose tapes or podcasts are you listening to? Who are you spending time with? How much time do you spend each day in prayer and devotional reading? When was the last time you read through the entire Bible?

What priorities have you set for the remainder of 2024? How much time do you spend sharing your faith with pre-Christians? How many non-Christian friends do you have? What specific steps do you plan to take to help people grow in their faith?

These are important questions. Before you can challenge others to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ, you have to demonstrate that you are growing as a disciple. Years ago when I was serving as a Regional Minister in our judicatory our Executive Minister told me he had never seen anyone so committed to lifelong learning as me. I'm 75 years old, and I have the same commitment I had back then. I haven't achieved the potential God gave me, and I doubt you have either. As long as I have breath, I will continue to strive to grow and reach that potential. I pray you will make the same commitment. Only then, can you lead others to reach theirs.