[GiveWay Visioneering]

There are “earthquakes” happening in so many areas of ministry and meeting the challenges with innovation is key, isn’t it? To loosely quote Wayne Gretzky, we need to become more adept at risking some action upon where we think the puck is going. To name that barrier – allowing mistakes to be made. This takes releasing money and people.

However, the Lord is also preparing the answers, as He tends to do IF we are looking to the future rather than the present. It is true that we ignore our past to our peril but perhaps in today’s frenetic pace, the past could be seen in merits of foundation rather than as points of reference.

Fundraising is experiencing the “earthquake” of large, unrestricted giving, reducing the need for microscopic measuring as donors just want to get on with it. The language we use in our fundraising can bring our donor base to this new, preferred, reality. Concepts such as, “long-term sustainable giving” allows local people (in whatever culture) to take charge. Therefore, taking the long view in fundraising allows us to expand while seeing an exit strategy (releasing people for other work) where we can. (For example, using Philippians as a case study for church planting shows that the missionary moves on; the church continues to support the missionary while growing to support itself.)

Being more inclusive as we recruit personnel from every nation and sector of society is another “earthquake.” The language, culture, and look of our recruiters needs to be welcoming, opening the possibilities and the generosity of the nations and the diaspora.

To summarize the points of funding and personnel: as we all know, the resources are in the harvest and it’s ready – are we seeing it? To name that barrier – allowing visionaries/prophets (even if they’re foreigners and/or women) to speak and be heard alongside past and current respected sages. The ideas are probably being seen by our young (Acts 2:17) and we have to be willing to catch their vision for their generation.