“Don’t you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.”1 This quote from the 1998 movie You’ve Got Mail (starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan) perfectly sums up how I feel about this time of year. A bouquet of sharpened pencils! New packs of ruled paper! Fresh boxes of crayons! I love it!
Yes, the calendar flipped from July to August, and we turned our full attention from summer vacation to a new academic year. School supply shopping is in full swing. New outfits for the first day pictures were chosen. Important dates are being put into the calendar. Fall is in the air.
But with all the new that August brings also comes a lot of stress. How do I establish these new rhythms and routines? How do I meet all the new people? How do I manage my time with these new schedules and events? And how do I do all of this with joy?
Jesus’s words to His disciples in John 15:4-5 give us some instructions on how to do this. To survive and thrive as a ministry leader in this busy season, we must obey His command:
Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.
Here are three reminders from this passage for busy leaders:
1. STAY CLOSE TO CHRIST.
In these two verses, do you see the word that is repeated four times? Remain. Some Bible translations use the words abide or stay instead, but the concept is the same. To have a joy that is “full and complete and overflowing” (v. 11, AMP) no matter how busy the season is, we must remain close to Jesus. In other words, we are on a “stay-at-home order” with Him. (Does that bring back Covid memories?!?) This means we make our home with Him, we find our fulfillment in Him, and we don’t look for our joy in other places. I resonate with the verse of Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing which declares, “Let that grace now, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.”2 In order to stay close to Christ, we must repent of our sins, spend time reading and meditating on His Word, and walk with the Spirit. As ministry leaders, we must remember that before we can teach or lead others to do this, we must be doing it ourselves. What happens in public begins in private. So make your home with Christ and stay near to Him.
2. DEPEND ON HIM.
Jesus reminded His disciples that they could do nothing without Him (v. 5). Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada. As ministry leaders, I think we often forget this truth. We try to do things on our own strength and in our own way. We rely on our giftings or our talents. We rely on our past experience. But Christ’s Spirit is what does the work of ministry. He allows us to participate with Him, but make no mistake, it is Him working through us. Spend time in prayer begging for Him to show up. Pray that He will open your eyes to where He is working and allow you to join Him there. Plead that He will save, transform lives, and change hearts. He alone can do it, but He is faithful and will do it.
3. PRODUCE FRUIT & BRING GLORY TO GOD.
As His children, God delights in our growth. He doesn’t want us to stay the same. This is why even in verse 2 you see the progression of “fruit” to “more fruit.” And in verse 8, Jesus says, “My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.” Fruit. More fruit. Much fruit. God delights in seeing His children look increasingly like Him. This fruit is described in Galatians 5:22-23a:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
However, don’t miss this important truth: You can’t just white-knuckle it and try to be a good Christian girl, producing this fruit. It is “of the Spirit” and only by His power that we can be women who show love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control to others. As we remain connected to our Vine, we allow His Spirit to produce these qualities in our lives. And our joy will be so full, so contagious, so genuine that it is complete (John 15:11).
So as you begin this new school year with bouquets of sharpened pencils, may you remember these three simple truths from John 15. Jesus desires for you to thrive in ministry this year with true joy, but you cannot do it alone. No matter how busy you get, nothing is more important than your walk with the Lord. You must remain close to Him, depending on His Spirit to produce in you a life of much fruit!
About Tara Dew
Tara has loved Jesus for as long as she can remember. She grew up in a Christian home, and even met her husband in the church youth group. Tara & Jamie have now been married for twenty-five years and have been blessed with two sets of twins, lovingly called “The Dew Krewe.”
She has the privilege of serving NOBTS as President’s Wife, teaching in the Ministry to Women academic programs, and directing Thrive: A Ministry Wife Certificate program. Tara is a national speaker and her first book, Overflowing Joy, was released in February 2024 and her second book, Overflowing Peace, will be coming out spring 2026. You can find out more on her ministry Facebook page.
