Jamin Bradley

Micromanagement is a form of overthinking that removes others’ autonomy. It’s an attempt to replace the image of God in another person with the image of God that was placed on us. The pastor’s job is to equip the saints for ministry, not do the ministry for them. That means you have to give them space to work while you celebrate their successes and help them work through their failures.

We must learn the lesson from God himself, who is the least micromanaging entity we know. He creates the world, entrusts it to humans, and then allows them to decide how to best cultivate it for him. While many want God to direct their every step, he doesn’t typically do this. Instead, he often gives us missions without necessarily explaining every step of how to get there.

This truth is seen in the messages of the prophets in the Old Testament. Among the different forms of prophecy they gave, John Walton says, “instruction is the least represented category.” Specific instructions weren’t often needed when it was prophesied that Israel must repent. They should have had a pretty good idea as to what repentance looks like without every step being dictated.

Sometimes, we’re just doing our best with God’s plan when he points us in a different direction. Paul, for example, knew that God had called him to be an apostle to the Gentiles, so he went looking for Gentiles. But as he determined where to go, he felt the Holy Spirit forbid him from evangelizing in Asia. In time, he dreamed of a Macedonian man saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” Paul woke up and pivoted his efforts in that direction. His ministry was a mess of autopilot and spiritual nudges. He knew his mission and kept his eyes on it while God nudged him along the way about what to do and what not to do.

God could have cultivated the whole world by himself or made fully obedient robots to do the job. Instead, he chose you because that’s the way he likes it. He wants to empower you to make your own decisions on his behalf. In some situations, there may not be a right or wrong answer. Indeed, there may be several right decisions that could be made. There may even be acceptable right answers that are not as right as the other right answers. Just do your best to prayerfully make a decision that you believe honors God.

Even in Heaven, God doesn’t micromanage. Once, he called his heavenly council together and explained his ultimatum: King Ahab has to go. This was the mission that God had assigned to the heavenly hosts, but he left it to them to decide how King Ahab would go. Eventually, one of the beings of Heaven made a proposal that God deemed appropriate, and they implemented it.

God loves to co-labor with us, not micromanage us. We must do our best to listen, but when he doesn’t speak, we simply echo the ways of Jesus.