You can’t go far into scripture, and not see Jesus as a servant leader, willing to help and engage with people around Him. We take the opportunities to help those that are right in front of us, helping them develop and grow in their faith, and in their journey.

Whether it is to come alongside another leader, a young mother raising her children, someone in the workplace, or your neighbour next door, I believe we all have the opportunity to engage in the lives of another person, on a daily basis. This connection allows us the opportunity to be instruments of God’s grace and placed in a position where we can actively help one another.

As a leader, may we be challenged to carry the burdens we see on a daily basis.

Galatians 6:2 reads,

“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

I met a young woman who was standing at the grocery store, by herself accompanied by her 4-month-old twin boys, and her 3-year-old little son. I shared a few words with her, “You are such a good mother, I was watching how you are attentive to all of them, in a matter of minutes.” The young woman shared that most people walk by and smile, but they don’t stop and talk with her. We began a friendship, and I often visit her at her home and see the boys. Through a simple act of encouragement and support, I was able to help.

A simple model that I have found that helps me frame how to help a person, that God has given me, is to be a help in that time, in that circumstance. Essentially, it is leading like Jesus led, serving as Jesus served. The model has six different facets to it, elements that we can see observed by Christ himself. I offer these as a framework as you take your opportunities, in your sphere of influence, as you make a difference as a servant leader.

It’s as simple as first learning to partner, come alongside, discover what you have in common. Secondly, you may find you have the opportunity to be supportive, a listening ear, a caring heart in a time of a tragic circumstances. Thirdly, you may find that you can model a behaviour, action or desired outcome by being ‘present’ in their life. Fourthly, there are times we will be given opportunity to teach a new skill, or a way of coping, a way of engaging with others. Fifthly, we can become mentors in the people that God brings our way, through informal guidance, we come alongside a person. Finally, there are points in our relationship that we may need to challenge, rebuke or even give the hard words to help people to get back on the pathway in their journey.

So, what is helping?

It is a process of taking on one or more roles in the lives around us. It is being a servant leader, ministering to the heart, full of God’s grace and empowered by the Holy Spirit. It is partnering, supporting, modeling, teaching, mentoring, and challenging. In a story of the woman at the well, we see Jesus engaging in all six of these roles, taking advantage of an opportunity, to help in a situation, where seemingly, no help was needed. The result was a changed life. A woman’s questionable past was put on a new direction because someone chose to engage, get involved with an intentional purpose to see a life changed.

John 15:12 “Helping is simply loving each other, as God has loved us.”

Here’s what I have discovered as the marks and qualities of great helpers. Leaders who are life helpers are interested in people. They believe and develop the potential of those they seek to work with and, they have high expectations to continue to stretch and push those they help.

Hebrews 13:16

And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”

He was ten-years-old when he propped those screws up against the tire. Equal measures of boredom and curiosity set his experiment into motion. Would a screw pierce the tire’s thick rubber? There was only one way to find out.

He punctured the tire three times. Three times, we limped to the mechanic’s shop for a patch. Three times, he saw the damage, inconvenience, and interruption to our day, but he never connected the flat tire to his experiment until the mechanic handed over the evidence.

His brother encouraged him to tell because “It is always better to tell”.

It took him a few days to work up the courage. Finally, he spoke the hard truth. He risked everything on the genuineness of our family mantra. “We own our mistakes, say we are sorry, never stay angry, and always forgive.” With trembling lips, he confessed, and then he waited to see if our refrain was true. Forgiveness, should he receive it, was undeserved, unmerited, and unearned.

There is a woman in Scripture who finds herself in a similar place. Forgiveness, should she receive it, is undeserved, unmerited, and unearned. If you read her complete story in John 8:1-11, you’ll see that she is merely a pawn used by the scribes and Pharisees. They don’t expose her sin for the purpose of restoration. No one encourages her to tell because “it is always better to tell.” The leaders that should have been concerned with her spiritual health use her to trap Jesus. If Christ extends grace to the woman, he fails to adhere to the law. If Christ proclaims judgment, it undermines the foundation of his entire ministry. The scribes and Pharisees care more about disqualifying Christ’s ministry than this woman’s life. She’s positioned, trembling before the One who stands between life and death. Is His mantra true? Had he really come to seek and save the lost?

Like this woman, we have an accuser who is most interested in thwarting God’s plan of redemption. His goal is destroying the ministry of Christ and the reputation and lives of His followers. Only one person stands between life and death. He is the only One worthy of casting a stone, but He doesn’t. Instead, He calls us to humble repentance and offers His life in exchange for ours. This woman remained vulnerable and exposed before Christ. Jesus could have been harsh with her because the law would have allowed it, but instead, He offers grace along with the command to sin no more.

Wherever your ministry takes you this week, remain humble before Jesus. Resist the temptation to cast stones, and instead offer grace.

Read more about Stacey's Books

Growing up did you have a nickname? Over the years I’ve been called “Tidy-Heidi” or “Heidi-Ho” but my favourite one is what my friend Shaunie Brown calls me… “Heidelein.” It has no prophetic or profound meaning, but when Shaunie calls me by that name I feel accepted and cherished. I treasure that name in my heart.

The names people call us have an acute affect on our identity.

The names people call us have an acute affect on our identity. Sticks or stones may break our bones and disparaging names always do hurt us. If I were to tell you a story in the Bible about a “bleeding woman” you would immediately know whom I’m talking about. She was that nameless woman brave enough to push through the crowd to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment. The name of “bleeding woman” was her identify for 12 years and she was desperate for healing.

How about the lepers? During Jesus’ time lepers were condemned, cast away from society and were called “unclean.” In fact, leprosy meant that the diseased person had to tear his clothes, dishevel his hair and put a covering over his upper lip and shout “unclean, unclean.” Put yourself in the lepers shoes; isolated from society and your identity is “unclean.” It wrecks my heart to even write this.

What were some of things shouted out to you during your informative years? “You’ll never amount to anything.” “Why can’t you be more like your sister?” “Can’t you get anything right? ” “What is wrong with you?” Perhaps you internalized your own name of: stupid, incompetent, hopeless, disorganized or fill in the blank….

Back to the “bleeding woman.” When Jesus’ turned around and saw that the “bleeding woman” had touched his garment He said to her:

Daughter, be encouraged! Your faith has made you well.” (Matthew 9:22).

Wow, he called her daughter! This is the first time in the gospels that Jesus called someone “daughter.” Jesus did not see her as the “bleeding woman” but as “daughter.” This woman reached out to Jesus, was healed and her identity changed instantly.

The “bleeding woman’s” name was now “daughter.”

The leper? When he encountered Jesus he asked to be made well: “I want to,” he said, “Be healed!’ (Matthew 8:3). Immediately he was healed and was no longer “unclean.” His healing didn’t just change his name it changed his identity. Now he’s “clean” and allowed back into society to live out a normal life.

What about you? Do you also need an encounter with Jesus to heal you from self-imposed names of past shame, condemnation, guilt or failure? It’s hard for women to comprehend that our inadequacies and failures do not shape our identity. Shame is not your name. Failure is not your name. You are a daughter of the King, with a high calling and purpose. In spite of ALL of our inadequacies we are leaders.
Failure is not your name.

Through the power and authority through Christ we are to live out our prophetic calling and unclean names have no power to stop it. Jesus knows your name; he has it engraved on the palm of His hand, died for you so that you could be called his “daughter”. That’s who you are.

What self-imposed negative name do you call yourself?

Give it to Jesus so that you can be healed and know you are His “daughter.” Exceedingly, extravagantly and unconditionally.

Read about Heidi’s recent book Fresh Joy

This foolish plan of God (i.e. the message of the cross) is wiser than the wisest of
human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength. 1 Corinthians 1:25 NLT

Our church Mission Team was zooming with one of our Missionary families. In response to our sincere query about how they are doing now, six months into this pandemic, he said, “Truthfully, I’m feeling frustrated – just by all the uncertainty. We can’t plan anything. We can’t seem to get any momentum.”

A Pastor whose church has been pivoting brilliantly, first to on-line from their facility, to on-line from her living room, back to their facility then to both in-house and on-line, and now back to only on-line. All this while doing their best to be in touch with their seniors and those without internet access. “I’m a bit dizzy from the pivoting … I bought a little pack of Peanut M&Ms and sat down to catch my breath. Now what?”

We’re grieving the loss of SO MANY lives. We’re tired of waiting for things to return to normal. We’re fearful about the prospect of another lockdown, this time during winter weather, which will be even worse than the first lockdown.

Yet, we hear stories of unexpected blessings:

• people watching church services online who haven’t been to church for years, or maybe ever
• believers marvelling in the sense of God’s presence with them as they pray and worship in a small group – over Zoom!
• individuals reaching out with caring phone calls to others more than ever, not wanting anyone to feel forgotten and alone
• Christians banding together with other groups to care for those suddenly needing food
• learning new ways to minister under these circumstances
• realizing the benefits of more family time, more time to read, time to make home-cooked meals, even to bake bread or can fruit!

Unexpected blessings.

But, even more than these things, we ponder. Just as God’s amazing plan for the sacrifice of His Son to be the means of salvation and bringing many sons and daughters to glory, so might there be ways that God’s plan for these pandemic days is actually wiser than our human plans for ministry?

Might these wiser, stronger plans involve our learning to wait more in His Presence? Or our learning to trust Him more for amazing results?

Might they involve neighbours, impacted enough by our sense of peace and generous love, that they actually ask us about this?

As he was chafing under a thorn in his flesh, the Lord calmly spoke to Paul, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness”. Having come to understand this scripture, a beloved and frail old man noted, “Our inadequacies are God’s opportunities”.

How are God’s plans wiser than our best planning efforts? I don’t know.

Perhaps as His power works in our weakness, small coincidences happen, unexpected people step up to tasks, anticipation builds in our spirits. Maybe other things happen.

Let’s watch.

He may, yet again, accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think!

This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans,
and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.”

What makes a leader? What is it that defines the soul of the one who stands at the front of the line? There are many characteristics that one could use to describe the many facets of a leader, but time and time again I find myself pondering the same question when I lead or am myself led by those who have gone before me:

Do we lead by our opinion or our conviction?

We don’t have to go much further than the local news or any online media outlet to see those in leadership and come to our own conclusions favouring one side or the other. But we’re not responsible nor accountable for the decisions of others. We’re responsible and accountable for our own.

If we peel open the onion-skin pages of scripture we will find, buried deep nearly to the end of the Old Testament, a leader who must have battled his pride over God’s will to bring truth to the light.

Haggai was a prophet of the Lord given the task of preaching to the Jewish people. It was nearly 20 years after their exile from Babylon and they were vulnerable, disappointed, and greatly discouraged as they began the difficult process of rebuilding their lives in the land of Judah. The Jews became very self-focused on their own tasks and interests as opposed to the rebuilding of The Lords temple. And Haggai had a most challenging task of speaking and preaching truth in order to bring the people out of their emotional famine into a spiritual feast.

Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai:

Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your panelled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”

Now this is what the Lord Almighty says:

Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

As a preacher and leader of the people, Haggai would have witnessed much. He would have counselled much. He would have certainly listened much as the people poured out their hearts lamenting about all they lacked in their lives.

I venture to make the assumption that because Haggai was of flesh and bone, he would have wrestled with the truths he was commissioned to declare. And perhaps he would have doubted his words thinking the people of his fold would shun him believing he was speaking of personal opinion and not declaring the Word of the Lord by the spiritual conviction to do so.

But alas, the Word promises to never come back void for a convicted heart cannot go unchanged. Conviction is a firmly held belief and if it comes from the Holy Spirit, it will be received and accepted by the hearts God has prepared to hear it. Our personal opinions have the ability to stand in the way of God’s truth and, more often than not, God’s timing when moulding the delicate soul of another.

As we lead, let us learn from Haggai and powerful testimony he left for us. When we lead and desire to lead well through times of vulnerability, disappointment, and discouragement, let us set aside our personal opinions seeking the conviction of the Spirit who is constantly at work within us.