Boundaries Vs. Branching Out

I inherited a church that had a healthy love for the Book written by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend entitled, "Boundaries": When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life. It was done as a Bible Study here several Pastors ago. While I appreciate the Boundaries Book, if not careful it can serve as motivation for the old song, "I SHALL NOT, I SHALL NOT BE MOVED, JUST LIKE A TREE THAT'S PLANTED BY THE WATERED, I SHALL NOT BE MOVED.

One of the most important duties for any leader is moving people from their comfort zone to their "wheelhouse", area of expertise, their sweet spot.

Getting out of your comfort zone is like going to the gym for your mind, your confidence, and your creativity. It forces you to engage things in a new way. It stimulates you to think new thoughts and see things in a different light. It expands the scope of what you see as currently within reach. Without it, your mind gets flabby.

The problem with this is most people are resistant to being moved because COMFORT IS THE ENEMY TO CHANGE. Most of my members ignored the part of the book that taught them how and when to say yes but rather embraced the no concept.

It’s good to stretch someone beyond their comfort zone. To put people in situations that stretch their capabilities and familiarity. It’s how you pull potential out of people that didn’t even know they had. Make them realize they are capable of things they won’t believe until they do them. Past the edge of our comfort and convenience is where God can raise our lives to new heights.


One of the biggest hindrances to this is not only comfort but the Past. Nostalgia is the best friend of comfort. Often times, when we have stepped out of a comfortable situation because we know it is holding us back, we find ourselves confronted by nostalgia. When the future is uncertain, it is natural for us to think about the past, and long for what was comfortable.

What’s deadly about nostalgia is that is always looks different than reality. Nostalgia shows us the past as we wish it was, anything negative tends to be either filtered out, or blurred into the background.

Nostalgia and comfort work together to stunt our growth and keep us from progress.


While it’s good to stretch a person out of their comfort zone, we have to understand that it was God who wired them, gave them life experiences, passions, burdens, and skills to do what He called them to do.

In other words, they have a God-ordained sweet spot. A place of intersection where God has called them to live in and function out of.

People can’t be anything they want to be. Or anything we want them to be. But they can be everything God created them to be. And this only happens as they’re operating in their sweet spot. Where they’re using everything God has equipped them with to be all He has called them to be.

Stretching someone out of their comfort zone should be a means of developing people in their sweet spot. Not taking them out of it. There’s such a thing as being uncomfortable because you’re being stretched. And then there’s being uncomfortable because you’re doing something you weren’t created for.

Our prayer is over the upcoming Vacation Bible School is to develop new leaders and transform older leaders into finding our sweet spots in Christ for greater service. I believe that Acts 6 model shows us how to find our sweet spot and we will talk about that in the upcoming posts.

Owens