The Generous Church: Plan as if for God

    I think one of the paractical ways that we as a local church can plan as if it was not for us, but for God and God's Kingdom is take some time to ask ourselves what we already do well. All too often, we think that we need to be doing what the bigger church is doing, when really we need to be examining what God has called us to do and who we are called to be for such a time as this. God will not call us that which God has not gifted us for. So what is our gift? And out of those gifts, what are we hearing God calling us to do?
    But we can't stop there. We also need to be able to explain why we do what do we do. Another way to describe this is the phrase "so that...". We may be able to say what our gifting is and what God is calling us to do, but we miss the why we do what we do part, and without that we can quickly fizzle out.
    We give, friends, not because we feel like we have to, but often because of the mission and vision. Because we want to be part of the amazing movement of the Spirit. May we examine who we are called to be and what we are called to do as part of God's tremendous Kingdom.