When serving your leader, there are unwritten protocols that you must adhere to. Even if their leader didn’t sit down and explain this to them, they exist. Most of the prayers from the leaders will be that the squires learn certain protocols in the School of the Spirit. Allow the Holy Spirit to sharpen you in His service. Consider some of the backroom etiquette listed below:
1. Know when to leave your leader’s presence
This practice is essential. Remember, you are not your leader’s peer. There will be times when you are stitching up your leader and he or she meets up. With your peers (ie conference, meetings, panel discussion, etc.). Unless your leader’s discussions with your peers tell you otherwise. Leaders often discuss leadership issues. Shepherds often need to discuss with their peers the problems of other sheep in the flock. You don’t need that information. My belief is, in this case, the less now, the better off you are. Why? Once you know something, you are responsible for it. You don’t need to expose yourself to certain things, you don’t need to know the weaknesses of another leader. You do not need to be exposed to the difficulties that a leader may face in ministry. All of these exposures now create more prayer points in your own life. You can afford to share that information or even judge someone for something you’ve heard about and never should have been exposed to. When you get the chance, run from these opportunities to be exposed. Unless you are nosy, you should not want to be deprived of certain information.
2. Share your opinion only when asked
There will be times when your leader will have discussions with others about a topic that you know well, there will be topics that you know much more about than your leader. Even when this is true, he should not offer his advice without being asked. You must defy the temptation that comes to you when you know about a topic or topic that your leader doesn’t. There is nothing you have to prove to your leader or your leader’s partner. Don’t interrupt your leader’s discussion with your own advice or her advice. If requested, then proceed. But if your advice or knowledge is not sought after, resist the temptation to speak up.
3. Avoid the spirit of gossip
For whatever reason, there are believers who believe that gossip is a safe form of promotion. Is not true. Gossip is a sign of immaturity. When you have difficulty keeping intimate topics that are revealed around you when you listen to them for the privilege of being close to your leader, you are immature. I’m not talking about unethical things, but about confidential things that leaders deal with in ministry.
What you may be exposed to because you are in the presence of your leader you should never share with others. Often a person is confidentially destroyed by a gossiping spirit in the servant.
That is why I suggested earlier to avoid being in the presence of your leader when he is with his companions. It prevents you from being responsible because you know too much.
4. Avoid self-promotion
As a squire, you must remember at all times that what you make happen in someone else’s life will happen in your life. You have been called to make your leader great. Do you want to have a successful ministry one day? So make your leader’s ministry successful?
You must flee from the temptation to promote yourself. There will be apple opportunities. When you are with you, man or woman of God, you will get exposure. What you do with that exposure will make or break you.
I will never forget an incident that occurred years ago while serving as a squire. He was bringing a guest speaker to church for a conference we were hosting. The guest speaker proceeded to ask me who my favorite speaker was. He seemed surprised when I replied: My pastor is. Did a man often throw questions at you to expose your heart? A squire with a strong psychic ambition will always fail. Your heart should be towards the advancement of the one you serve, not towards yourself.
The exposure you get from serving is not a time to promote yourself, your anointing or your schedule allows your position of service to speak for you. Be known for your service. Elisha, at one point in his life, was only known as the one who poured water on Elijah’s hands. The prophet Elisha was anointed and prepared for ministry. But when he was spoken of during the times of his service as an armor bearer, he was known for his service, not for his anointing.
I have found some of the following practices to successfully prevent you from walking into self-promotion:
– do not bring your own business cards during ministry
– never give your own contact information (always the church)
– always talk about your leader and never about yourself
– listen twice as much as you speak
– speak when spoken to (don’t fight to show what you know)
– remember, you have nothing to prove to anyone
5. Never discuss your leader’s weaknesses
Throughout the course of serving your leader there will be weaknesses that will be revealed. Revealing these weaknesses is never intended to harm the leader. Many times, your leader’s weakness has been revealed to you so that you team up with God to intercede on your leader’s behalf to eradicate the various weaknesses.
The most damaging thing you could do is discuss your leader’s weaknesses with others. If you imagine that you could win brownie points with others by sharing your revelation or some existing weakness in your leader’s life, you have been deceived.
This is illustrated in the story of Noah and his two sons. The Bible says that one saw the nakedness (weakness) of his father and spoke of it. While the other brother stepped back and curved his father’s nakedness, we are called to cover our leader’s weaknesses and not spread them.
6. Never speak negatively about your leader
There will be times when you have disputes and disagreements with the person you serve. We all make mistakes. Therefore, there will be times when you disagree with a position your leader takes. You have the right to disagree with what your leader has decided you do or say. However, you should not express those disagreements to others. The principle says never complain down, always complain up. Most of the time it’s your leader or God
7. Never speak negatively about the vision
There will be times in ministry when you don’t agree with or even understand the decisions your leader makes. You may not agree with the direction the ministry chooses to move to. There will be times when God gives your leader a directive for the entire ministry and doesn’t even explain why. If your leader doesn’t even explain why? What makes you think you’d know why?
The important point here is that you should not even speak negatively about the vision you are working on, never complain about your vision. Fight for your vision. Work hard towards the vision. Commit to the vision Give your life to the vision. But never talk negatively about the vision.
