I have the great opportunity to work with designers, both video and graphic volunteer artists, in my work as a Children’s Ministry Leader. The death knoll for many creatives is, “Do whatever you want.” Creative people find great comfort in constraint, in boundaries, in clearly articulated vision. I’m sure that your ministry (like mine) is heading into budget, goals, and evaluation season. I have to admit, this is not my favorite time of the year. During staff prayer this week, our Executive Pastor told the ministry staff that budgets would be cut – not increased this year.
But I began to think about what that means for me and my ministry. When I think about it globally, I realize that most of world operates ministry without a budget at all. A staff member just returned from a trip to visit a ministry partner on the other side of the world and they mentioned that one of their leaders was arrested for being a Christ-follower and would probably be tortured by being hung upside-down and having boiling water poured down his nose. And I’m worried about budgets and meetings? I live in Disneyland.
For those of us who will be asked and required to make goals that grow our ministries using less resources, those restraints might be freeing. At the very least it will require us to push the roots of our ministry deeper into God. Speaking of trees, I read this week that a tree can grow with water and sunlight, but it can grow stronger, faster, and deeper when areas without growth are cut away. Don’t miss the principle here. A tree will not bother putting energy (green of course) and resources into something that will die or cannot sustain growth. What about your ministry?
What was it that Christine Yount-Jones said at Conspire last year? “Lean into your worst case scenario.”
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