By guest blogger Dave Wasemann of www.visionteam.info

When you’re balancing leading a local congregation with a deficient budget and angry people, ministry can get ugly fast. You need a bigger perspective, that calm divine company that directs your eyes upward. When you are dissatisfied, depressed, and upset, it’s hard to recognize the presence of Christ. It takes someone else with that sense of surety– that can often be a coach or a friend who is anchored enough to remind you.

What do you need to be reminded of? That God is with you. You have company on this journey. Too often we forget that and we try to do ministry alone. Here’s my advice: Don’t do church without God. It’s amazing how often we try to do just that. Instead, we need to ignite that reframe that reminds us that there is a God and he is involved.

We can help call one another back to that reality. We can nurture each others’ prayer life. We can help people call on the name of the Lord. We can reflect God in ways that help turn one another back toward him. God doesn’t blow a foghorn to get our attention (although there are always exceptions); often he uses us in each others’ lives.

God, grace, and community: That’s the reality and we’re living into it, even when we have to stumble into it. We can reflect the light of God to one another as we travel this journey together. Without incarnation, there is no mission.