It’s Mine! No!

Why did the New Testament church grow so much faster than today’s church?

Is it because we think competitively and hold onto so much of our God-inspired creativity? It’s a challenge to "give away" your best ideas! Helping others to succeed is so counter-cultural.

In the sport movement, we have learned to encourage the principle of giving away your best creativity. Gifts and resources have been given to us by God to build up His people. Ephesians 4:12 says that gifts are to equip God's people to do His work and build up the church, the body of Christ.

Why hold onto intellectual property, good ideas, resources, strategies, or animations if someone else can take them and multiply them for the sake of growing the Kingdom? Perhaps the experience of pandemics and isolation has helped us realize how much we need each other. This type of sharing requires high levels of trust and generosity.

It’s exciting to think that a tool developed in Eurasia will be useful in Africa or that something developed by teens would help adults.

Sharing is so powerful!

Sometimes it’s helpful to imagine what the response of early church leaders might be if they were faced with one of today’s issues. Copyrighting gospel resources. Really? Paul publishing his letters to sell in a book? No way! They would probably be shocked.

Scripture to ponder:

Acts 4:32

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.

Key Lesson: Enjoy the power and effectiveness of radical generosity. Give away your best ideas and see them multiply!