Worry doesn’t generate miracles disciples do. Jesus didn’t say, “Go and make givers of all nations,” but disciples. It keeps us small by putting personalities before principles. While churches do need money to pay bills, fund ministries, and advance visions, keeping the big givers happy is the wrong way to go about it. But that rushing river of abundance slows down to a trickle when we think it can only come through one person or another. The truth is that God alone is our Source, not any particular giver. Every new idea, every decision, every ministry has to be judged by whether or not it will upset certain givers. When we put money worries first, what we’re left with is worries. Here are the rules of this game and how they do us in: It’s one of the strategies we’ve been busy employing as numbers have gone down, membership and worship attendance has dwindled, and doors have closed. The game of survival is all about keeping the church afloat, alive, open another day. I want to share with you the 3 rules of survival that will do us in. The more we pay attention to survival, the more likely we are to die. Rather than insure the survival of the institutional church, he was inviting them to transcend that worry and re-connect with the life-giving joy of their call. The room was quiet, stunned.Īfter years of paying attention to the three rules of survival, he was inviting these pastors to play a different game. Don’t worry about the institutional church.” He stood before some 40 clergy colleagues at a recent clergy orders retreat I led. I’ve never heard a denominational executive say these words before: “You were called by God to serve the Kingdom.
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