When Kingdom-Minded People Conspire
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Sun, March 16, 2008
- Viewed 71
- (19) comments so far
You see, I love it when Kingdom-minded people conspire together. Maybe it’s sharing and being open handed with your church’s resources (like LifeChurch.tv and Sea Coast Church, just to name a couple who are literally giving away all their weekend creative elements on the internet). Maybe it’s a church looking outside its walls to partner and work side-by-side with other churches or organizations in order to serve and reach a community for Christ.
Here are some things for you to consider today. Maybe there are some ways you can put aside your competitive nature and conspire for more Kingdom impact:
1. What has your church done in the past month to work with others outside your walls to reach your community? If you’re trying to do everything on your own (or if you think you’re the only one that is qualified to do it right), then you need to re-evaluate your mindset.
2. What have you, personally done to help the Kingdom outside your main ministry area? Have you met with or encouraged a friend in ministry? Have you met with other local pastors or community leaders? Have you turned down opportunities for greater Kingdom impact because you are so enamored with your own work or ministry?
Healthy ego and competition can be positive attributes during your ministry career. But both must be kept in-check. Otherwise, you will find yourself spending your days building your own deal, and vastly limiting your Kingdom impact.
When was the last time You conspired for the Kingdom? I love with when Kingdom-minded people conspire!
Have a great week!
Todd
PS—I’d love your input on this one… what lessons have you learned about going-it-alone, or having a competitive attitude towards ministry?
Let’s face it, the Christian community is sometimes competitive, protective, and egotistical. Too many of us think we have original ideas (while few of us do). Too many of us think we know the best way to ‘do’ ministry (few of us do). And too many of us, while we’d never admit it, turn our whole ministry career into a competition with other churches and rivals that we constantly try to out-maneuver and out-wit. The truth is, all this striving can be good and push us to do our best for the Kingdom. But it can also be a detriment to our ultimate success in ministry. To many times, while trying to out-do and over-achieve, we end up alone and, in the end, unsuccessful. I’m discovering that an unbelievable thing happens when we lay down our competitive swords in ministry: there is actually more power in working together than in looking at everyone else as our competition.
Comments
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Greg Atkinson on Mon, March 17, 2008
This is something very near and dear to my heart. My book, “Church 2.0”, that I’m working on talks about the churches you mentioned and Kingdom-minded leaders, which I call Church 2.0 leaders.
I wrote a blog post about how I reach out to other churches/church leaders here: http://churchvideoideas.com/2007/12/06/whos-in-your-network/
Will on Mon, March 17, 2008
This article is just saturated with all kinds of presuppositional fallacies.
1. “the Christian community is sometimes competitive, protective, and egotistical. ...too many of us, while we’d never admit it, turn our whole ministry career into a competition with other churches and rivals that we constantly try to out-maneuver and out-wit. ...there is actually more power in working together than in looking at everyone else as our competition.” Only someone who has a corporate mindset to write an article entitled, “What is the biggest need in your church: Leaders vs. Managers” would even perceive that there exists any competition among churches. And if there does exist compeition among churches, it’s probably among those pastors are the ones being considered great leaders.
2. “Too many of us think we have original ideas (while few of us do).” That’s because that’s what churches who have pastors as “leaders” do: trying to come up with new visions and new ideas. And when churches have bought into this heretical concept that pastors should be leaders, they learn to expect and demand that their pastors become competitive in producing the most and the best in their church. This article is a complete oxymoron to last week’s article.
3. “some ways you can put aside your competitive nature and conspire for more Kingdom impact.” So the solution to avoiding competitive tension among churches is by having an evangelistic zeal, a missional compassion, and a pastoral network. I truly hope that, at best, Todd Rhoades is simply naive and idealistic to think that these are the solutions. To tell churches to hire a CEO corporate leader as a pastor in one article and then to say be evangelistic, missional and networking to avoid competitiveness in this article is like telling a church to hire a prostitute as a pastor, and then to avoid HIV, go wash yourself in the river for a week and pray for deliverance.
To avoid competitiveness, here are the biblical mandates:
1. The church must be Gospel-centered in its ministries.
2. Repentance of sins is only by looking to the Cross. Evangelism, missions and pastoral networking do not cleanse anyone of sins.
I wish Todd Rhoades would give more solid and more correct biblical advise.
Pete Wilson on Mon, March 17, 2008
Todd, this is huge. Thanks for taking this topic on. I believe this a huge challenge in the church today.
One of the coolest things happening in our church right now is connecting with other churches in our areas. We are a five year old church plant that truly values building a Kingdom mindset.
One important step we have taken is financially supporting a new church plant ever year right in our own community. We put our money where our mouth is.
We have built some incredible relationships in the process and God is working in a huge way.
SSCoach on Tue, March 18, 2008
Some benefits of conspiring together
Bigger perspective;
Sense of community;
Less comparing-less envy-less pride;
More ideas-better ideas;
Synergy;
Cooperation;
Sharing the load
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