“I am calling to encourage you!” This is how a recent voicemail I received began. The person leaving the message went on to tell me that the staff of his church had unanimously agreed to recommend to the church leadership that more fields be built for the sports ministry. He reminded me that, only 16 months prior, that same leadership considered shutting down the sports ministry. The juxtaposition of those two events – shutting down the ministry and building more fields – is why he called to encourage me regarding the work God had done in that time, specifically in changing the vision of the leadership. The first consideration - shutting down of the ministry – flowed from a lack of vision. While the sports ministry started over 20 years ago with a vision for outreach, the current leadership didn’t see it that way. They thought the sports ministry provided “church or Christian leagues” for Christians. From that perspective, they questioned the cost of continuing such an effort. This leader, who did not run the sports ministry, had a different vision. He knew something of its efforts and shared that over 1000 children and adults in the ministry each year came from a non-churched background and were getting exposed to the gospel. No other ministry in the church had such a reach to non-churched people. As the leader shared this vision, the perspective of these other leaders changed. From a different perspective, they decided to keep the sports ministry and persevere in finding a new ministry leader. This leader who called me even offered to supervise the sports ministry until they found a leader and oversee that new leader once they found one. Bottom line – Keep sharing your vision. People have misperceptions of what is actually going on. Tomorrow I will tell you the individual stories that made the vision come alive and move the group to recommend the building of the new fields.

Posted by Bob Schindler - Community Host at 2022-02-02 20:12:02 UTC