Have you ever seen the movie Fields of Dreams? It’s a classic baseball movie. In the movie, Ray the main character is hearing voices from the corn fields that he farms. It’s a whisper he can’t ignore.
“If you build it they will come”
Ray builds a baseball in his field over his crops. After the field is built late at night, hall of fame baseball players come out of the field and play baseball with Ray. As I write this, it kind of sounds like a strange zombie movie! Not to mention my description is not doing the movie justice.
As church leaders how does this apply to us?
Is it that if we build a large facility people will come and fill it up? Or if we design a newer, better class our Sunday school attendance will spike?
Maybe not so much, it is not about creating the perfect infrastructure and expecting things to develop.
Do you organize events, or plan programs? What can we take from this and better what we do?
I believe God will raise up the leaders that are needed to support the new growth that is on the horizon.
If a church is going to grow, if a small group is going to multiply or if a new Sunday school class is going to start, it’s going to be because God has risen up competent leaders to handle and nurture the new growth.
We even see this example all the way back in Genesis. Starting in the creation story, we read:
Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. The LORD God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:7-9 NLT)
First God created Adam, than he created the garden.
Adam was going to be the caretaker, manager and leader of the garden. You would think God would have created the garden and then put Adam in the garden. But he didn’t. First he raised the leader to support the new growth.
God first rises up leadership when he is ready to move, multiply, or begin something new. Once the leadership is in place, growth will occur.
This is why leadership development is important personally and in the church. What areas are you developing yourself in? Is this a new place of growth in the body of Christ?
In the next 30 days what area would you like to see growth in your personal life that would set you up to be a better leader of others?
