Make A Difference

My husband and I have great conversations as we're walking. He's getting ready to speak at a community leaders' luncheon this week, so we were recently discussing his topic: making a difference through community service. Because we're both in ministry, we started talking about our different experiences, when our ministries have had the most significant impact, and how God uses our gifts at different times in different ways.

I'm sure we're not the first ones to recognize this, but significant impact often follows a shift or change. A new leader comes into a church. A ministry team is reorganized. Volunteers are recruited and trained church wide. Each time we've moved, the ministries we've moved out of and into both changed. People's lives were impacted.

Make a difference by doing something different.

When I took on a new position as Small Groups Coordinator, the seeds planted in the first six months were super-seeds. I sometimes wondered if God was using his version of Miracle-Gro every day! Groups grew, leaders emerged, and individual lives were changed. Then we reached a plateau. There was still growth, but enthusiasm waned and was replaced by some "maintain status quo" attitudes. When a new Coordinator replaced me, I strongly encouraged him to question everything I had put in place, not because I didn't believe in the vision and direction I had but because I had experienced how people respond to freshness. It's essential to growth.

Make a difference by doing something different.

Change is essential to growth. You can keep watering the same seeds in the same way every day, but the plant changes and will eventually rot from too much water, outgrow the pot, or consume all the nutrients in the soil.

Make a difference by doing something different.

Are you too comfortable? Are you where God wants you to be? Or is where you are more about where you want to be (and don't want to be) right now? I'm not saying your gifts or passions are always changing, but how you use your God-given gifts and passions can definitely change. Does your hand always do the same thing for you every day, all day? No! It would take you a long time just to make a list of everything your hand does in a single day. Consider your gifts and passions in the same way. How will you use them? Be creative. God is.

Make a difference by doing something different.

You may be asking why I changed my plan. Do you think I make my plans carelessly? Do you think I am like people of the world who say “Yes” when they really mean “No”? As surely as God is faithful, my word to you does not waver between “Yes” and “No.” - 2 Corinthians 1: 17-18