How Do WE Invest Our Lives Like JESUS Did?

How do you leverage your time, talents, money, energy, relationships, etc for Kingdom influence?  Living into the Kingdom of God will require us to be good stewards of ALL of life in order to live well for HIM.  We have no better model than JESUS.

Mike Breen says this,

As we seek to live as Families on Mission, the way we invest our time, energy, and money directly affects how effective and fruitful we become. It’s a big discipleship issue, and Oikonomics looks at how Jesus did this with his Family on Mission and how we can imitate him in it.

 Check out this resource if you would like to know more:
http://weare3dm-store.3dcartstores.com/Oikonomics_p_326.html?mc_cid=ebbd54af10&mc_eid=1f5d4cbad0

Holding Evil in Check

In organizations, in new churches, it is easy to forget some simple biblical truths. God always seems to use the weak to do great things. He often chooses to use the simple to display his power. As I sit here tonight watching the Hobbit, I am struck by this quote from Tolkien,

Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love. Gandalf”

How does God hold evil in check? It is in SMALL....EVERYDAY....DEEDS.....OF....ORDINARY.....FOLK.

Small acts of KINDNESS. Small acts of LOVE.

If you are an organization, it may not be the person on the top of the organizational pyramid who provides the greatest growth opportunity for the company. It may not be the Pastor's great sermons who holds the key to the transformation to the city.

For the company achieving growth, it could be the checker at the checkout stand, giving a simple smile who provides the customer satisfaction which brings the customer back, again-and-again. In the city, it may be the ordinary follower of Jesus simple act of loving their neighbor which advances the Kingdom of God.

We must be careful, as organizations and as churches, what we invest in as we seek to hold evil in check. Don't overlook the ordinary folk - the ordinary followers of Jesus. They hold the key. Free them. Release them. Empower them. Trust them. Encourage them. Be grateful for them.

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Kingdom Placemakers: Becoming Attached to the Place You Help Create

Placemaking is a bottom up approach to shaping a public space.

According to Project for Public Spaces, "Placemaking is a multi-faceted approach to the planning, design and management of public spaces. Put simply, it involves looking at, listening to, and asking questions of the people who live, work and play in a particular space, to discover their needs and aspirations. This information is then used to create a common vision for that place. The vision can evolve quickly into an implementation strategy, beginning with small-scale, do-able improvements that can immediately bring benefits to public spaces and the people who use them" (http://www.pps.org/reference/what_is_placemaking/).

There are 11 steps guiding the PLACEMAKING strategy (building a better community):

1. The community (the people of the place) are the experts.

2. Create a place, not a design.

3. Look for partners

4. You can see a lot by just observing.

5. Have a vision.

6. Start with the Petunias: Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper

7. Triangulate

8. They Always Say “It Can’t Be Done”

9. Form supports function

10. Money is not an issue

11. You are never finished.

Read more here on the 11 steps: http://www.pps.org/reference/11steps/

The result is community ownership and excitement. See the quotes below....

"If you’re not building social capital in the community where you’re working, you’re not Placemaking; you’re just reorganizing the furniture."

“Human capital and creative talent increasingly goes where it likes; talent increasingly goes to great places; but talented people become most attached to places that they help create.”

 

As you think about making disciples who make disciples and form a church in a local place, community or neighborhood, how might these steps help along the way?

As followers of Jesus into the neighborhood, we alert people to the reign and rule of God's Kingdom through Jesus. We enter into these public places proclaiming the good news both with our words/stories and by our ACTS (the acts of Jesus followers), demonstrating a kingdom place worth entering into!

Let's be Kingdom Placemakers!

 

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