It is NOT What we Have!
One of the highlights of my week has been the very encouraging coaching session I had with one of the practitioners I coach.?Very encouraging for me, because the practitioner expressed how valuable they thought our time together is.?“You provide clarity like laser focus” was one of the comments.??
During this coaching session, one of the things we discussed was…
Releasing Resources
It seems as though a HUGE amount of our time within the church is spent in meetings attempting to manage our resources.?Maintain our buildings, minimise all of the risks to our resources, balance the budget etc. etc. ??From our actions it may appear as though we believe that our fruitfulness – possibly even our faithfulness – is based upon our ability to own resources.
When it comes to church life people often tell me…
“We don’t have the people.”
“All our people are tired.”
“We don’t have the money.”
“Our building isn’t suited to what we need to do.”
All of these reasons, or as I would suggest “excuses”, are based upon the assumption that resourcing of mission needs to come from within the Christian communities themselves.
Is this really a correct assumption??
Consider Luke 10:1-10 and the instructions Jesus gave to the seventy when they went out on the road to minister, “carry no purse, no bag, no sandals” (Lk 10:4).?In other words take so little resources you have to rely upon the hospitality of others.?This missional tactic relied upon the goodwill and resources of persons of peace.?
The fruitfulness of this mission was precisely not based upon the disciples own means.?It was based upon the followers of Christ’s ability to express peace and love, and for other people to contribute resources, to help this happen.?Jesus modelled and taught his followers it was all about collaboration, with those who were open to collaborating, for the sake of the Kingdom.
My long time mentor – Peter Roennfeldt – taught me so well that God’s resources are in God’s community.?There are people within the wider community who desire to make a purposeful contribution with their time, talents and resources and there are organisations who seek to do good for others and wish to collaborate.
We need to look beyond ourselves and include other individuals, other organisations, all collaborators who are willing to work together for the sake of the Kingdom.
So it isn’t about whether we have the people, or the resources ourselves; rather whether we possess the ability to help release the resources within our community.
Maybe by extension we can say…?Fruitful ministry will not be about what we have, but how well we inspire others with the Kingdom of God.
The video link below - an with Christine Palmer - touches on this as Christine has few resources…
Feel free to use this video in your context if there is value in it for you.?Here is the link that you can view and share:-
What do you think?
More ways to be encouraged:-