I do not possess an entrepreneurial mind. That's not to say I don't have business sense, but I'm not the guy who has an idea and fearlessly seizes the moment to gain investment money or spends money of his own to move the idea forward into an invention or an innovation that takes off. Interestingly enough, the entrepreneur may not be good at running his own business. Steven Jobs comes to mind because he got tossed at Apple early on and came back. Steven Jobs was Apple, but he wasn't the one who had the business sense to run Apple. He had the ideas.
The entrepreneur sees things that others do not see, and he has a certain tenacity to not really care how others feel about his vision. The businessman may have a vision for growing a business, but he also has the capability of stabilizing and maintaining growth. This has become a dirty word in society known as "management." The idea of a bureaucracy (German borne and bread by the way, thank you Max Weber) was to create a system that would develop a certain level of consistency (originally borne in industry, not government). In fact, there are studies that offer a considerable amount of data that what gets the business started isn't necessarily what grows the business. Consequently, the entrepreneur who has the vision may be bought out and gone by the time the business is growing.
What's the have to do with faith? Good question, but I observe this in our faith lives in this way. God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) have the vision and the creation of faith and how it works in our lives. Man, commissioned by Christ to grow disciples (Matthew 28), is largely responsible for leading and managing the church to fulfill the Great Commission (and the Holy Spirit as well).
How does man do? The good news is I'm not God and cannot give an accurate score card on the successes and failures of the church on earth, but I do know what Christ said while he was here and what he did. Interestingly, He didn't seek religious leaders of the day to lead His movement. His disciples were a hodgepodge of fishermen, a doctor, a tax collector, a few family members, and eventually a man who hated the church (Paul). That should be both comforting and frightening to us at the same time. We are to go about the work of the church and sharing the gospel with those who do not know Jesus, but we are not experienced leaders of faith. Yet, each of us in our own way should be about the mission of the church.
So, we've been given a commission from Christ in Matthew 28: "Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.'”
We pray that as we go about the business of the church, that we hear Christ's words: We are to go and make disciples of all nations; we are to teach and baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and we are to turn to Him when we need to because He is with us until the end of the age.
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