Wednesday, April 16, 2003

STRENGTHENING WEAKNESSES OR STRENGTHENING STRENGTHS?

I was reading morph! at lunch today (see What I’m Reading for more info on the book). On page 41, Ron Martoia says, “We hear parents, teachers, and coaches talk about the need to be well rounded. But it’s probably not God’s ideal… To invest our time, money, resources, and energy to get all our weak areas up to a baseline minimum leaves us no room, time, money, or energy to source and develop our strength. The result is quite obvious. Strengthen weaknesses, and you’ll be an average generalist. Spend time developing the treasure god has invested in you, and you soar as a crucial and high-impact player in God’s economy. We need to be reminded that God didn’t give everyone a modicum of every spiritual gift so we all could do a little of everything pretty well. He gifted us with very specific gifts and purposes.”

I wonder what TFB would look like if people did what they were gifted to do. I wonder which ministries would flourish, which would end, and which would begin. I wonder what I have missed out on because I wasted time strengthening my weaknesses rather that strengthening my strengths.

Tuesday, April 15, 2003

Strategic planning is in the air. We are planning to do strategic planning in the Young Adult Ministry this summer (isn’t that just too funny? Planning to do planning :-). TFB as a whole is also heading in that direction. Then I come across a short article on What is church?

In this article they ask—but do not answer—five questions:

What is church? (Or what did Jesus intend his church to be?)
What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus (or what does it mean to be an authentic Christian?)
Why do we really need the spiritual disciplines in our life?
What does it mean to be authentically spiritual? (In light of the culture's definitions of spiritual - i.e. 'Oprah Spirituality')
What does it mean to be a leader in Jesus’ church?

From http://www.whatischurch.com/toolbox/questions.html

Seems to me that the strategic plan for any ministry must answer these key questions.

To those who read this—and my site meter tells me you are there—whaddiya think?