Things Damien learned at Hillsong Servant School

The challenges that God has placed upon my life in the past six months, both within and without Ministry School, cannot be adequately summed up in typed words: His grace and favour to me have been beyond anything I have experienced so far in my life, and that extends to the things He has allowed me to learn.

In limiting myself to a page of typed summary I have chosen to focus on the one key thing that “pings at me” the most as I review my notes: I need to get started so that God can take what is in my hand and use it to His glory. He did this with Zerubbabel (Zechariah 4.6), He did in with Paul (1Corinthians 3.6), and He did it with Jonathan and the anonymous Armour-Bearer (Numbers 14). It is this last story that has most impressed me as it was the understanding that Gary Clarke brought out of this text, that God can use me mightily even when I am anonymous and “hidden” to the peripheral world (and even the Church), which was the thing I most needed to hear.
• God will increase what I do: if I do nothing then He has nothing to multiply, if I am nothing then He has no-one to replicate.
• Action with sacrifice gets God’s involvement: I need to be prepared to risk God not acting so that I can give Him something to use when He does come through for me. (I come through for Him by taking the initiative, either in the role of Jonathan and getting out from under the tree of boredom to act, or in the role of armour-bearer by committing “heart and soul” to the initiative of my leader.)
At present I am serving on two teams in the life of Hillsong Church London: New Christians-Discovery, and Because We Can. In my life beyond Church I am in transition in a number of ways, but in all of these (and at Church) I have taken the wisdom of God and the college to “just get in there” and am seeing Him begin to move in what I have already commenced.

Away from this key message I am constantly reminded that leadership is about servanthood, and that its main task is people-development. Servanthood is about serving people, the Greek words used in the New Testament refer to the role of leaders (diakone and episkope) as servants. Indeed everything is about people, God’s answer to every need in the church was people (Acts 6) and it still is today: indeed, as Mark Wilkinson spoke into Hillsong at a Sunday service in 2003, God’s treasure is people (Matthew 6:21).

The task of God’s leaders, whatever their role in the life of the congregation, is to connect people with the cause and focus of God Himself: the cause of Christ. His own life’s purpose was to show the Father to the world, John 14.31(msg), and the focus of his ministry was people themselves. Our motivation comes about through these two things, a deliberate focus on people and the cause of getting them connected to God and His Church. As Christians it can be nothing less.

Beyond that is the message that I am wonderful (Psalm 139 as read to us by Martin Houghton-Brown), and that I need to back myself, believe in myself, and get over myself. Once I am out of the way then it is easier for me to focus on other people, and to begin to do something that will bring glory to God and fulfilment to my spirit: I am free to get better at relationships, and be better set up to handle the twists and turns of life with my scenario-planning Father. It’s much easier to do “Selah, then move on” when my focus is on God’s wonderful and fearful creation, and not on my own shyness or the events of my life at work. This is both liberating and empowering: I’m ready to get on board with God and trust Him to see this through until the end.

27th March 2007.