Lessons of a supervisor

Failure. It continues to be my most humbling mentor.
I know this isn’t exactly the response you might be looking for. InterVarsity does provide me with wonderful mentorship and community (who’ve helped me process through what you’re about to read) – but failure has indeed been the primarily catalyst for growth this year.

In my new role, much of my spiritual development has come as I’ve been challenged in how to love and support other staff. What keeps a missionary going? How do you help them walk through their own areas of weakness? When do you call out their mistakes and praise their faithfulness? This is a ministry on a whole new and more difficult level. And what I’m discovering is that I don’t naturally want to engage difficult conversations. I don’t want to call out things that are uncomfortable. And when I decline these opportunities, I fail as a supervisor and I fail the mission.
But as I’ve failed in this area, I’ve been reminded that declaring God’s kingdom on campus requires that we live the kingdom. And this includes asking our staff to be held accountable. So I am being challenged to be a better staff worker by holding our people to a higher standard -- to the standard of a King. I am being challenged to act instead of letting things go.
And thankfully, we have a King that wants to help us conquer our weaknesses. But we all must first admit that we need His help. Failure has helped me to admit it.