Spiramentum Ministries

Want some time out from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and / or ministry?

Do you need an opportunity to pause, relax, or decide what to do next? Maybe you need a place to refocus, rest, or even take a respite?

Possibly you simply need some time and space to get away from it all for a while and talk to someone who will just listen?

Then Spiramentum Ministries
might be right for you!

Spiramentum Ministries aims to provide Breathing Space, comprising faith-based life coaching, accountability partnership, mentoring, pastoral support and care, natural character development (NCD) and more.

Over the past few years or so I have grown to really appreciate moments in the day, week, month or year just to simply stop and take stock of all the things that I’m currently striving after.

For me, health issues and ministry stresses have compounded the need for the body and soul to slow down and concentrate on the things that really matter in life. I know I’m not the only one!

Many people also have moments where they just need to take time out and focus.

Unfortunately, many people don’t allow themselves the time and space to do this and they end up going from one issue to another, or one crisis to another and wonder why they don’t seem to be making any ‘real or true‘ progress.

As Christians one of the biggest travesties (the false, absurd, or distorted way) of looking at ministry and even faith in general, is that we need to be busy. Which is something that the Western Church especially has manifested over the past few decades or more – we fill our days with doing more and congratulating ourselves when we have worn ourselves out for God.

Busyness a challenge and a curse.

The trouble with this approach though, is that the more busy we get the less time we have for some of the more (if not most) important things in life, if we are not careful 😦

It is as if “we wear our busyness like a badge of honour, like an identity or proof of worthiness. But maybe, we’ve got it wrong.“

In our busyness we often neglect God’s goodness, His grace and His mercy.

You see, God’s goodness in the midst of everything is extremely important to focus on because it provides us hope in the darkest of times. Unfortunately though this appears to often get crowded out by the busyness of life and faith, and I know plenty of ministers that have stepped away from church and in some cases faith completely, due to the constraints put on them, and by the pressures of maintaining the busyness of church life.

They have started focussing on the wrong things in amongst the busyness and become more and more frustrated, and lost sight of the things that they need to remain true to.

How about you? Where are you at?

Are you coming to the end of the year and feeling completely drained of all life?

Are you hanging out for the holiday break, longing for some down time just so that you’re ready for whatever the new year will bring?

Are you struggling to keep your head above water as you approach the end of this year?

If you’re truly honest with yourself, are you just a little concerned about what new challenges the next year might bring and not sure if you can take another hit? Then Spiramentum Ministries may be able to help you in the new year and beyond. 

I am currently working on expanding a project that when up and running can potentially help provide you with some Breathing Space, which I hope you’ll want to be a part of and that you will grow to appreciate more and more as we each endeavour to do God’s work in whatever setting He has placed us in 🙂

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Transactional v’s Transformational Relationships

Today’s Word of Encouragement comes from a colleague and good friend of mine in the ministry, pastor Hamish Thomson of Abundant Life Church, Wellington.

“The way of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, which shines ever brighter until the full light of day.” Proverbs 4:18 (New Living Translation)

Transactional v’s Transformational Relationships

One of my ‘life verses’ this year is Proverbs 4:18 and the call of God for those who love him to live in ways that light up the lives of others like a hot summer’s day.

You see, when it comes to the way we live, I think our relationships with people fall into one of two categories: transformational or transactional.

Most of our relationships are transactional. They are friendly, they are respectful, they are helpful, but they are superficial. That’s why when you’re at work and someone asks you, “how are you?” you answer, “I’m fine” – even if you’re not. Transactional relationships are safe, but they don’t build people up the way transformational relationships do.

Transformational relations are about bringing out the best in others. They are the type of relationships where you are committed to the well-being or the good of others, even if there’s nothing in it for you! There’s no transaction, no balanced ‘give and take’, no ‘what do I get out of this’, no scorekeeping: just a desire to build up and prosper the other person.

And here’s the thing. The people who have had the biggest influence in your life have been transformational types of people, not transactional. They lived and engaged you in ways that inspired you and lit up your life like a hot summer’s sun! So now it’s your turn.

Now it’s your turn to see people as people and not objects. To go beyond the superficial and start investing in others.

Start small, but be intentional. Start by resisting seeing work colleagues as rivals or burdens, instead choosing to see them as equals. Start calling out the potential in others and fan it into flame.

Because as you start taking steps to be more transformational, however small those step may be, they will grow from being like “the first gleam of dawn” to become like “the full light of day” in the lives of others!

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