My Strength Weakness: part inclusivity [Sharné Finn Osborne]

Inclusivity.

This is one of my biggest strengths although, lately, I’ve seen it as a weakness.

I’m the worship pastor at my church. I love Jesus, I LOVE worshiping Him with music and I love leading people in corporate singing worship. I feel like this is one of the things I’m called to do.

In the Vineyard movement we have a saying “everyone gets to play.” John Wimber coined this phrase. I love the heart behind this saying.

Ministry is not for the elite few. Everyone gets to do God’s work and “play” in His Kingdom.

In worship I try my best to include as many people as possible in leading our congregation in worship. I’m always working to “extend the tent pegs” and make space for more people to use their gifts to serve the Body of Christ. “The more the merrier.”

The weakness aspect for me comes in when I have to organise an event. For instance, I am coordinating the worship for our upcoming National Vineyard Leaders’ Conference and have been asked to lead worship (not only coordinate it). I have to put the teams together and as always I try to get as many people involved as possible. What I end up doing though, for the sake of being inclusive, is I often am the one to give up my “leading slots” in favour of including others. Then, by my own doing, I end up not leading at all and just coordinating in the background.

Why do I do this when I know like I know like I know that I’m called to lead?

I’m desperate to be inclusive and not have the “elite few” mentality and I NEVER EVER want to be seen as the “stage hogger,” but if I don’t do what I’m called to do (and have been asked to do) then I’m disobeying God and dishonouring my leaders.

Lately this has been a big struggle for me, because I want to keep growing in and practicing using my gifts, but I can’t do it if I put them on a shelf in favour of inclusivity.

I’ve realised that I need to find a balance. I need to find the happy medium between being inclusive and allowing myself to lead when I feel I need to.

Inclusivity is an amazing gift. I never want anyone to feel like an outsider so I live my life being as welcoming and encompassing as I possibly can.

The key is to be aware of the fact that if not used well, and with awareness, any strength could easily become a weakness.

to follow the words and wisdom of this lovely lady, visit her blog

to read more about my friend Dalene’s Strength Weakness of AMBITION, click here

My Strength Weakness: [intro]

the other day i was listening to one of my friends share some of their story with a group of people – four of our friends were speaking on the topic of serving God [and people] with our Time, our Talents [skills, giftings] and our Treasures [money, things] with each person dealing with a specific one of them.

as i listened to Lara [who is, among other things, a mom, a wife, a daughter, a nurse, a church member, a Simple Way board member] speak about Time, something she said jumped out at me and i was hit once again with the idea that sometimes our biggest strength can also become our biggest weakness [or if not the biggest then at least a source of weakness]

i think for me, something like competitiveness can be a good thing because it drives me to succeed and to push and to go further than maybe others think i can and so on, and to attempt things a lot of people might not, but when it is bad it is really bad and it can be a source of choosing goals over relationship, or getting into a bad mood [and generally helping other people feel bad] when i am losing in a game [Stop nodding, anyonewhohaseverplayedabunchofgamesagainstme!] or having some choice but not to kind words to say to the opposition on the hockey field.

it becomes tricky because unlike something that is just seen as a bad thing in my life, the answer is not eliminating it because it is a strength as well. and so i have to learn how to work on and emphasise the strong points while looking at diminishing or at the very least being aware of the weak points so i can hopefully let them appear less.

but that was just a taster… i have asked some of my friends and people who i respect if they will take some time to look at their own lives and choose a strength that they have which they have also witnessed the weakness side of and a number of them graciously agreed and so i will be running this series over the next few days.

i invite you to take a look at some of the strengths you have and see if you can identify the weakness that might lurk behind them. and feel free to share in the comments section. i am hoping that awareness of this will help us to be more focused on strengthening the strengths and weakening the weaknesses.

what is your Strength Weakness?

read the story of Steve Graybill as he speaks about a THIRST FOR KNOWLEDGE

read the story of Tshego Motiang and her experience with EMPATHY

read the story of my good mate Bruce Collins and his experience with PEOPLE…

read the story of Lara and her take on SENSITIVITY…

read the story of Robert Murray as he speaks about the WOO FACTOR

read the story of Shae Leigh Bloem and her experience with being HARDCORE

read the story of Dalene Reyburn and her experience with AMBITION…

read the story of Sharné Finn Osborne and her experience with INCLUSIVITY

read the story of Tim Tucker as he looks at being a MULTI-TASKER

read the story of Jane Lee as she talks a little bit about CONTEXT