When God commissioned Moses to return to Egypt to bring the Israelites out from bondage, Moses naturally wondered how he would be able to pull off such a monumental task. He was intimidated by potential credibility issues. He feared his own people would not take him seriously.
“What’s that in your hand,” God asked.
“A rod,” Moses responded, referring to the crude implement he used for tending sheep.
“Throw it down,” God said. “I will use it to convince them you mean business.” Essentially God told Moses to use what he had at hand.
I believe that is good advice for us also as we go about the mission of making new disciples for the kingdom. While it is human to make excuses and moan about what we don’t have and what we can’t do, God is interested in how resourceful we are with what we have. Jesus underscores the idea with his parable of the talents. The moral is, “faithful in little, ruler over much.”
So what do we have in our hand? The story of Pentecost teaches us that we hae the presence of the Holy Spirit, manifested in specific God-breathed abilities, to provide the horsepower to accomplish the mission. Jesus promised the disciples at his ascension they would receive power to be witnesses. That promise was fulfilled on Pentecost Sunday.
Natural Church Development (NCD) has discovered that churches are most effective in making disciples when members discover and use their spiritual gifts in ministry. Not only are they more productive, but NCD says gift-oriented people are more fulfilled in their relationship with God.
NCD also notes that when we think institutionally, we create a list of job titles and then try to recruit people to fill them. This is what I call the “names-beside-titles” approach. We force a bureaucratic organizational structure, and then pressure people into taking organizational positions.
In my experience this has never been effective in making disciples. It has been great for filling out forms to send to the Conference and making every slot has a name written by it, but it has never helped us become more fruitful in kingdom building.
As a pastor, my job in ministry is to help people discover what is in their hand, and then coach them on how to use that. God has given us far more than is needed to get the job done. I’d rather have a slim organizational structure with lots of permission-giving, and emphasize an anything-goes ministry that encourages people to do what they are called and gifted to do.
Uneducated, lower-middle class Galileans turned Jerusalem upside down in just one day. A fugitive shepherd with low self-esteem, rough-hewn stick in hand, pulled off the greatest single management task ever accomplished. All this was done by the power of the Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit who now fills us and equips us to do good work in Jesus’ name.
So, what’s that in your hand?
“What’s that in your hand,” God asked.
“A rod,” Moses responded, referring to the crude implement he used for tending sheep.
“Throw it down,” God said. “I will use it to convince them you mean business.” Essentially God told Moses to use what he had at hand.
I believe that is good advice for us also as we go about the mission of making new disciples for the kingdom. While it is human to make excuses and moan about what we don’t have and what we can’t do, God is interested in how resourceful we are with what we have. Jesus underscores the idea with his parable of the talents. The moral is, “faithful in little, ruler over much.”
So what do we have in our hand? The story of Pentecost teaches us that we hae the presence of the Holy Spirit, manifested in specific God-breathed abilities, to provide the horsepower to accomplish the mission. Jesus promised the disciples at his ascension they would receive power to be witnesses. That promise was fulfilled on Pentecost Sunday.
Natural Church Development (NCD) has discovered that churches are most effective in making disciples when members discover and use their spiritual gifts in ministry. Not only are they more productive, but NCD says gift-oriented people are more fulfilled in their relationship with God.
NCD also notes that when we think institutionally, we create a list of job titles and then try to recruit people to fill them. This is what I call the “names-beside-titles” approach. We force a bureaucratic organizational structure, and then pressure people into taking organizational positions.
In my experience this has never been effective in making disciples. It has been great for filling out forms to send to the Conference and making every slot has a name written by it, but it has never helped us become more fruitful in kingdom building.
As a pastor, my job in ministry is to help people discover what is in their hand, and then coach them on how to use that. God has given us far more than is needed to get the job done. I’d rather have a slim organizational structure with lots of permission-giving, and emphasize an anything-goes ministry that encourages people to do what they are called and gifted to do.
Uneducated, lower-middle class Galileans turned Jerusalem upside down in just one day. A fugitive shepherd with low self-esteem, rough-hewn stick in hand, pulled off the greatest single management task ever accomplished. All this was done by the power of the Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit who now fills us and equips us to do good work in Jesus’ name.
So, what’s that in your hand?
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