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I hope reading
7 Questions with Maureen Mboizi
helps you in your leadership.
Cheers,
Jonno White
7 Questions with Maureen Mboizi
Name: Maureen Mboizi
Current title: Volunteer Facilitator, Adventure Ministry
Current organization: WATOTO CHURCH NTINDA in Uganda
WHO IS MAUREEN?
Maureen is married to Robert and together have 4 children, a girl Abigail 12, and three boys Abraham 8, Jeremiah 7 and Israel 4.
I met Robert while at University in 1999 and in 2000, he introduced me to our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. He mentored me, a relationship that later grew into marriage.
Though, a Christian for some time, I had not been involved in ministry, not until I joined Watoto Church in 2016. That’s when, I was introduced to a discipleship class. In one of the class sessions, I was required to take a spiritual gift surveythat can be got on www.churchgrowth.org.
This brought to light a number of spiritual gifts, God blessed me with among which included teaching. I was convicted to serve in church as a Volunteer Facilitator in Adventure Ministry something, I have done for 3 years now and going strong.
Serving in church has granted me an experience that is infilling that nothing in life has ever done for me before. I have taught the word of God and its practical living in the lives of those that the Lord has brought into my path. This has also given me an opportunity to be a mentor to many.
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1. What have you found most challenging as a church leader?
My prayer has always been to be used as a vessel in forwarding the Kingdom of God. After embracing my call of teaching the word, my prayer has always been for as many Christians to have a yearning to learn more about God and his ways. The discipleship class is a good place to start. Many are times when Christians come in big numbers to the class but then we are limited by resources both financial and manpower.
The need to grow each participant in the class, spiritually is the driving force that teaches me to give of self in any way I can and so do my co-facilitators. This also drew me to taking on documentation in addition to Facilitation for the ministry, something, I have been humbled into doing.
COVID 19 pandemic wave changed the way the discipleship class was handled last year. Our face to face classes, were turned into on-line classes something that came with its challenges. However, despite it being a pilot, it was a success.
2. How did you become a church leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?
I come from a catholic background, where I usually made a confession of being born a catholic and dying a catholic. This however, all changed when I met my Husband. He introduced me to Jesus Christ where I had an encounter and made him Lord over my life.
It was after I joined discipleship class, that I started serving in my local church as a facilitator to the same class, I had graduated from.
Teaching was one of the spiritual gifts that stood out in a survey, I had taken and this drove me into serving as a teacher of the word of God.
3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?
The Discipleship Course has 2 intakes every year, in April and October. Each course takes 14 weeks and classes are held on Sunday, with out-of-class sessions and one-one engagements during the week.
On Sunday when we have classes, my day starts at 5:00am, where, I take an hour in prayer surrendering the day into the Lord’s hands. I continue in Intercession for the day, the class and the family even when doing housework.
At 6:00am, I prepare breakfast and lunch for my family, as am also doing house work. We have breakfast at 9:00am, and later set off to church with my family. As the family attends the service, I go into class and teach.
Being a member of the prayer committee in Adventure Ministry, we lift up the ministry and class into prayer before the class begins.
Before the class starts, I also get time to sit down together with my co-facilitators and discuss how to structure our class.
After the class, we meet as Facilitators and evaluate the class session so as to address any loopholes highlighted.
At 12:00pm, I attend the last service at church and later go back home and have Lunch with my family after 2:00pm.
It is only after lunch, that I take time to follow up on my students who missed class.
My day comes to a close at 10:00pm after having supper and saying prayers.
When writing this section, it made me realize that looking after my family is my first ministry.
4. What one book had the most profound impact on your church leadership? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?
Despite reading a number of books on leadership and studying it at school, over the years, I have come to the realization that there is only one book with all life’s answers and leadership is no exception. This book is the Holy Bible.
The Holy Bible has had tremendous impact on my leadership skills in ministry especially Paul’s letter to Timothy.
Though, I get inspirations from other books, when it comes to Leadership. 2 Timothy outlines what is expected of me as a teacher of the word of God.
In this same letter, Paul addresses a number of issues the church is grappling with and this is no different from what the church is facing today. The themes spoken off, in the first letter of Timothy speak volumes and also direct my teaching.
Paul’s second letter to Timothy also gives me what I should be as a good soldier of Christ Jesus and a worker approved by God.
The scripture that drives me most is 2Timothy 2:2which says, “what you have heard from me in presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”
5. What's the most recent significant leadership lesson you've learned?
A co-facilitator once said that your leadership, your purpose, your gifts are not about you, leadership is not about you and your purpose is not about you. This touched my heart especially bringing home the lessons on being a servant. I resorted that despite the number of leadership styles; servant Leadership gets results faster in any area of life including Ministry.
Kevin Hall in his book Aspire, is more emphatic when he says, “A life of significance is about serving those who need your gifts.”
And Robert K. Greenleaf concludes it for me when he says, “The servant leader is a servant first. It begins with a natural feeling that one wants to serve......as opposed to wanting power, influence, fame or wealth.”
6. How do you develop a healthy leadership pipeline in a church?
A healthy leadership pipeline within a church is built through teams. The leader works with others being invisible among the team. The leader becomes a servant and not a boss. This always reminds me of how Jesus Christ washed the feet of his disciples. Jesus Christ is the best example to follow for a healthy leadership style.
7. If you had to pick just one story, what would be the most meaningful story from your time as a church leader so far?
The experience of my first student in Ministry, gave meaning and fulfillment in serving in God’s Kingdom. He was so depressed and life beaten due to the numerous challenges, he faced. He longed to have someone to talk too, I was humbled when he approached me.
It was not until, I had an interaction with him that the reason for his depression came to light. His Father had rejected him in his childhood and he had expected that in his adulthood, he would be acknowledged as a son, something that did not happen. This infiltrated him, his anger grew, which later harbored unforgiveness in his heart towards his father and all those close to him.
This taught me the importance of having peace at heart and I knew, it was wanted he needed to get out of depression. I counselled him into following a step by step process of forgiving, his father. He took notes and was eager to apply them to his life.
During his graduation from the discipleship class, he stood up gave a testimony of how, he had forgiven his Father and was overwhelmed with love towards him despite not being acknowledged as a son.
What touched me most, was the transformation that came with addressing unforgiveness. He was much happier, and seemed lighter like a load had been lifted off him.
Smiling, he thanked me for having given him knowledge on how to change his life, something that brought peace and joy back to his life.
He confidently said, as you did it for me, let me also do it for someone else. Today, he is Facilitator, teaching in the class, he graduated from.