Thursday, June 04, 2009

Growing Pains

Seth Godin blogs (http://sethgodin.typepad.com) and he writes about business and marketing principles, not too mention that he is so smart that he frustrates me!

I am in the process of evaluation and one of the things that Seth writes is:

Growth is frightening for a lot of people. It brings change and the opportunity for public failure. So if the astrological signs aren't right or the water is too cold or we've got a twinge in our elbow, we find an excuse. We decide to do it later, or not at all.

But uncertain times, frozen liquidity, political change and poor astrological forecasts (not to mention chicken entrails) all lead to less competition, more available talent and a do-or-die attitude that causes real change to happen.

If I wasn't already running my own business, today is the day I'd start one.

From my perspective there is no better time for the church then now. We have a great opportunity to partner with God and have a huge impact on our community and our world.
How can you partner with God to make a huge impact. God wants to use you to change your world and there is no better time than now! What are your thoughts?

5 comments:

Scott said...

Why now? I'm not trying to play devil's advocate here, but is it because have have dropped the ball so much in the past that NOW is the time because we are feeling bad about our prior mistakes? Is it NOW because we are losing ground to other religious practices? Will it be NOW again in the future?


We have had the Bible for close too two centuries and we are still unable, in my opinion, to express it in a significant way to the masses. And lets face it, we don't have the results that we as Christians would like to see.

I hate being so negative about this subject, but in my opinion we as Christians set our gaze to better times, and forget get there to see the view.

Soulpastor, I would love to hear your perspective on this.

Selah said...

To be quite honest I hate the idea of linking the Church with business and marketing principles. This is not a business we are growing. It is a family.

But change and growth is a scary thing even in families. Add a new member to the family and everyone's roles change. New dynamics are brought into existence and ones place in the mix of it all is uncertain and in need of redefinition. It is a time of turbulence but definitely worth weathering the storm. Just my humble thoughts...

Scott said...

Maybe I should change my tune on this a little.

Billy Graham has said, "The evangelistic harvest is always urgent. The destiny of men and nations is always being decided. Every generation is strategic. We are not responsible for the past generation, and we cannot bear full responsibility for the next one. But we do have our generation. God will hold us responsible as to how well we fulfill our responsibilities to this age and take advantage of our opportunities."

The time then is now, because we have so little of it. I did some research and Acts 17 sheds some light on this topic. We see Paul bringing the Gospel to the culture of the first century.

Another quote from Greg Laurie suggests "That is because the way to change a culture is to invade it. It is to go out where people don't typically hear the gospel, enter their world, and tell them about Jesus Christ. That is what Paul did."

Some things to ponder...

Karen said...

"there is no better time for the church then now. We have a great opportunity to partner with God and have a huge impact on our community and our world."

Are you saying that so far God hasn't been making much of an impact? Is the impact bigger on the world if we "partner with God"? Maybe the impact is just greater for ourselves because we become aware of what God is doing.

Just my thoughts

Jordan said...

Karen, we are called to "go into all the world and spread the gospel". I have no doubt in the ability of God to spread His own message around the world yet He has chosen man as a medium to reach other men. So the way I see it, we have to be partnered with God for there to be any impact on/in our world.