On Playing the Hand You Are Dealt

The less time you spend trying to be what you are not, and even more so, the less energy you spend forcing your congregation to be what it is not, the better.  Don’t underestimate the significance of this insight.

God gives some gifts to all people.  He does not give all gifts to all people.  He has dealt you some cards but not every card.  In ministry make sure you play the hand you are dealt and not the hand you wish you had.

My family enjoys pinochle.  After the dealer deals the cards, each player sorts through the cards and arranges them.  The player must assess what can and, even more importantly, what cannot be done in this round given the cards in hand.  You cannot play cards you do not have.  You must make the most of the cards that you do have.

In ministry God has dealt you certain cards.  They consist of:

• Your personal gifts

• A family situation

• Your congregation’s make-up

• The community’s characteristics

• The general tenor of the time

You must sort through these cards and see what the possibilities are and what the limitations are.  Nothing is gained trying to have a dynamic college aged ministry in a community without college students.  Do not expect a city congregation to be able to do the ministry that a small town congregation might do.  If you are not particularly gifted in organization and leadership, do not expect to grow a mega-church. 

Spend time regularly assessing the strength and opportunity of the cards you hold…now.

Play the cards you have not the ones you wish you did.

Many congregations and pastors try to be what they cannot become.  There is nothing worse than a contemporary service conducted by a congregation that holds the wrong cards for such a service, i.e. a stiff pastor, no contemporary musicians and a resistant congregation.    Congregations in remote locations are better off supporting a city congregation’s soup kitchen rather than conducting their own.  Some pastors and congregations have the cards to become very large congregations.  Others don’t.

Play the cards you have not the ones you wish you did.

But play them always as wisely and aggressively as you can.   Play hard.  Play smart.   Remember Paul wrote, “Make the most of every opportunity.”  Also Jesus said, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.”

If all goes well, your ministry will be a long one.  The cards you hold in your hand now are not necessarily the ones you will be dealt in a later round.  But you cannot win now with cards you do not have or wish you had or see that someone else has.

Take the tricks now that you can.

Play the cards you have not the ones you wish you did.

Let me give you a special caution regarding books, conferences and seminars designed to help you develop as a pastor and as a congregation.  Make sure that you use such resources wisely.  Most of these come from a source or a situation that was holding cards different from what you hold in your hand.  Make sure that you apply these resources based on the reality of what you hold in your hand.   If you do not, you will frustrate yourself and confuse your congregation. 

Play the cards you have not the ones you wish you did.

I do not know about your psyche; I do know mine.  This has been a tough trick for me to stick to through the years.