Moving Forward, pt2
Leadership in Context with Keith Tucci
Episode 078
The Holy Spirit, no matter what is going on, is always telling us to go forward. How do you go forward? How do you get unstuck?
Five Forward Gears
1. You must determine that the place you are in is not the place where you will stay.
You have to determine this. Not someone else. Not circumstances. But you. It doesn’t mean it has to be abrupt, but it does have to be intentional. Waiting for things to change is usually not a good plan.
Personal Story: When Penny and I were first married, we were pastoring a church over an hour away. We had done this for about two years, and it just wasn’t working. We needed to be close to the community that we were a part of. It was time to move, but we couldn’t sell our house. It had been on the market for a very long time. We made a very serious decision that we were going to move with our house unsold. We realized that this thing was holding us back, and we were not willing to stay there anymore. I had left for a mission trip right before we moved. I had closed on the new home right before I left. We were literally trusting God to provide for us to be able to pay two mortgages. As I was loading the van to move, a lady walked up and asked if this was the house for sale. She had heard about it at the pizza place in town. I didn’t know I had a realtor working for me and making pizza! She bought the house and wrote a check that day for the down payment!
To this day, I know that this was a critical mile marker in our life. It taught us to trust God and put the Kingdom first. I didn’t do it frivolously. I knew there would be sacrifice involved. I knew I might need to go out and cut grass in the evening or wash cars to pay the bills. There was something bigger than our comfort here. We needed to be in the right place.
If you really want to go forward, sometimes you have to not only leave places that are uncomfortable, but also places that are comfortable. You must determine the place you are in is simply the place you are not going to stay, and make plans to get out of that situation. You have to have a conviction about it, not a preference.
Is there a place in your life where you are no longer willing to stay? Get an exit strategy, and begin to move forward. Listen to God. Bow your knee. Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. But pack your bags so you can move forward.
Next week, we will talk about the next forward gears.
[This series is based on a message that Keith Tucci shared at NRP’s 2020 National Conference. You can hear that message on NRP’s website here: https://www.nrpastors.com/nationalconference2020 ]
Join us next week as Keith Tucci continues to put leadership truth in the context of the local church. And as always, please like, share, rate/review, and invite others to listen. See you next week!
