Ministry Vine

The truth is that every human being has emotional needs. While there is a lot of negative stigma around this term and concept, and rightly so, it is not entirely a negative concept. God created out emotions and our emotions matter. They matter to our living, to our family and friends, to our leadership and the organizations we lead. They have a tremendous impact on our life, leadership, ministry and faith. We all have emotional needs. We must first identify what those needs are and separate the healthy emotional needs from the unhealthy emotional needs. We then must take the time to do the work to distinguish the healthy ways to meet our emotional needs and the unhealthy ways. Rarely can this work always be done alone. Sometimes it takes a trusted advisor, a spouse, accountability partner or counselor to help us answer these questions.   This kind of work is a one time effort as well as a continual process. This is a question we must continue to ask ourselves, otherwise it sneaks up on us and also can lead us to having our needs met in an unhealthy way. Leaders, like all people have needs as well and it is imperative that we consider those needs and make sure they are met through the means that God gives us. Yes, we consider the needs of others first, but this does not mean ignoring our needs. We also need to be careful about having our work, leadership, ministry and the people we lead be the source of our needs being met. This is very, very dangerous and unhealthy.