What Can the Church Learn From Start-Up Companies?
If you follow any sort of social media outlet, then you are familiar with terms like start-ups, valuations, and IPOs (Initial Public Offerings). These terms have been thrown around lately as companies like Facebook and Twitter are hitting values in the hundreds of millions of dollars. So the question becomes, who will hit it big next?
So what can the Church learn from these start-ups?
Just last week I received two emails from separate companies. One from a company that had just been acquired by someone else and another from an acquisition that HootSuite had made. It seems that nowadays some of these companies have no concern for what they can accomplish other than doing a little work, making huge amounts of money when they sell the rights and move on. They just want to plant their seed and move to the next project.
What if the Church did this?
In fact, the Church already did. Take a look at the New Testament. When Christ left the Apostles and told them to go, they did exactly that. In the book of Acts we see the Church, with Christ at the head, being planted all over the place. Paul and the gang would travel from place to place, planting new local churches, raise up new leaders, equip them and move on.
What is holding us back?
So begs the question, what happened? What if we took this sort of mentality to a whole new level. I’m not talking about looking to make gobs of money, but the “plant-the-seed” mentality that we see that connects these two schools of thought. What if our biggest concern was planting the seed and moving on?
Where is the glory in “moving on?”
Are you going to live the high life, so to speak? Probably not. Is it going to get messy. You betcha. But you know what? It’s NOT about you! It’s not about me. And if we were to make raising new leaders up, equipping them, and moving our biggest concern, the glory would be right where it should be, with God our Heavenly Father!
At my church, LifePoint Church in Smyrna, TN, we just finished a six-week series called “Unstoppable.” We were taking a look in the book of Acts of how the Church can be an unstoppable force because of the power of God. I read the stories of the Apostles and I am in absolute awe of what was accomplished when thousands of people were saved. I cannot help but ask the question of why we don’t see this in our time.
Is it really out of our reach? Does God not work that way anymore? Scripture says that those Apostles were guided by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised me the Holy Spirit and I have Him. So whats wrong?
Me.
What do you think?
What’s holding us back?
Do you think we can see thousands upon thousands be saved? Do you truly believe the Church can be unstoppable?
