Staff In Hand

I’ve been thinking a lot about the phrase “Staff in Hand.” Let me explain. Our pastor recently spoke about a conversation between God and Moses. God was encouraging Moses to be the leader He had intended him to be. Moses wasn’t really interested. God asked Moses what was in his hand. It was Moses’ staff. God was trying to get Moses to understand how to use it and use it for His glory. Moses didn’t always get it right but the point was to take what God has given and use it for His glory. Fast forward a couple thousand years and I’m asking myself; what is my staff? What has God placed in my hands that I should be using to further the Kingdom?

I began to think about what my passions are and how I could use those for Kingdom work. I admit, I’m a self-proclaimed techie nerd, but hey, this is what interests me. My desire is to take what interests me, things I’m passionate about, and use them as a witness. For me, this includes photography, social media, web based content and about anything Apple related!

Back up a year and a half. This is when I went to my first Catalyst West Coast Conference. Catalyst is a conference for leaders. Really, it’s a conference for those who desire to be obedient to Christ’s calling. The intent is to encourage others in their pursuit of Christ and in their desire to lead others to Christ through fresh perspective and new ideas. It’s new; it’s modern; it’s a cultural shift from Nebraska; it’s a techie nerd’s dream come true. Here is where I really began to think about how I could take my interests and use them in ministry. For me, this translated into my desire to work on a new website for our church. Could there be a much better way to combine photography, computers, social media, etc.? I believe that this can be an effective tool for ministry. The need was definitely there, and, I was willing.

Honestly, like Moses, I lost interest. I was gung-ho for a while. Then I came down from the mountain top known as Catalyst and got back to “normal’ life. The problem is, we’re not called to be “normal.” I’ve often asked myself why this is so seemingly hard for me. I’m reminded of the Apostle Paul in Romans 7 when he writes about doing the things he doesn’t want to do and not doing the things he wants to do. Why is obedience to the One who saves so difficult? Why is it so easy to skip out on our calling?

This idea of taking tech oriented interests in a ministry direction have lingered and I’ve felt a need to act on them but really haven’t, at least not yet. I have been involved in other ministry opportunities, but none of them have excited me as much as this. Just a couple weeks ago, I was having a conversation with a friend about the “Staff in Hand” thought process. I talked to him about photography and how I could incorporate that into a new website. We talked about the need for a new space, one that would relate to a new generation and possibly get them interested in joining the body of Christ. A couple hours later, one of our pastors contacted me and stated that he and one of the elders had been talking about the need for a new website and asked if I was still interested. A day after that, I learned of an upcoming class entitled; “Creative Use of the Computer in Ministry.”

Let’s just say that God has my attention again. What is your “Staff in Hand?”