Our high school small group had plans to meet at our regular time on Sunday evening. However, I’d planned a big Italian night, spaghetti dinner, salad, the works. My co-leader was going to be out-of-town for a reunion and I told her “no problem.” The groceries were purchased. The Bible study was planned (which included meeting around the meal and looking at passages on the early church). What could go wrong?
Everything. The pain started in my side at around 1 am early Sunday morning. By 4 am I was heading to the hospital emergency room. By sometime, not sure when (I was on pain meds at this point), the doctor came in and said you have kidney stones. I won’t go into any more of the details, but literally, any plans I had for Sunday were “down the tubes.”
During my coherent moments my husband and I made plans on how to readjust our day. He quickly called for a sub to fill his teaching position at church. Then a call was made for friends to help with getting our three girls to church and lunch. These were quick and easy decisions – mostly because my husband made the decisions and calls and I was in such terrible pain I didn’t care.
But then there was the dilemma of the small group that was supposed to meet at our home on Sunday night. Who do you call? Not only had I promised dinner, there was a Bible study and accountability time—and these are “my girls” that I am supposed to be responsible for!
According to my recent search of online dictionaries, delegation is the act of empowering someone to act on your behalf or a group of persons chosen to represent others. For some people it is easy to delegate to tasks and assignments to others. For others it is more difficult.
One thing I’ve learned (that isn’t in the dictionaries) is that good delegation requires trust. There is nothing worse than being asked to do a task or having an assignment delegated to you only to have someone hover over you while you do it.
In Girls Ministry delegation is a necessity. There is no way one person can meet the needs of every girl in the group and reach out to others outside the church at the same time. Part of delegation is learning to trust the teachers, parents, and volunteers working and ministering to the girls. God may have placed me in a position to lead out with this small group, but I am not the only one He can use. And I am not the only one He wants to use.
Delegating your responsibilities in girls’ ministry to others may feel like you are giving away control. You may even sense some false guilt asking and assigning volunteers various responsibilities that you think are yours to accomplish. You may even feel like you are not fulfilling your job or your calling when you delegate to others. However, there is no quicker way to watch a girls ministry go “down the tubes” than when only one person is holding it together.
Sometimes I wonder if God places certain situations, circumstances and people in my life to push me to delegate. If He sees that I am holding too tightly to an assignment or feeling like this task “is mine,” He conveniently or inconveniently intervenes. Also, in the same way, there may be someone He wants to use and involve in ministry that is holding back for some reason. However, in an urgent situation this person steps up and meets the need and in the process sees that she can do it. She can be an asset to this girls’ ministry and God can use her beyond what she ever dreamed or imagined.
God is teaching me that entrusting a task or responsibility to another is not always going to be easy. Delegation requires me to ask others for their help and is especially difficult when I have underlying pride or trust issues. But He is also teaching me that delegating to others opens new levels of communication and relationships with others. Delegation is part of becoming the body of Christ as God intended, working and ministering in unity and using the unique gifts God has given each of us (1 Cor. 12).
Today I am challenged to trust more and delegate more. I’m also thankful for a friend and a mom who was willing to step up for a Sunday night small group on really short notice. I’m thankful for her willing spirit and her gracious attitude. I’m thankful for high school girls who aren’t afraid of change. And I’m thankful for high school girls who are so committed to one another that it doesn’t matter whether or not their leaders are there!
What about you? What has God taught you about delegating to others in girls’ ministry? What are you currently learning about delegation?
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