Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Are you a consumer or investor?

...or...

Something Innes J said on Monday while enjoying his Americano got me thinking... We were talking about house church and planting and small scale missional communities of faith... and he spoke about consumers vs investors in relation to church and being in community.

I am very much into investment... Church and community, for me, is about giving as much as receiving... I subscribe to the priesthood of ALL believers concept... Its not about top-down spiritual leadership where we consume what we are fed solely from the platform. For me its about feeding yourself and contributing to the discussion... teaching and nurturing as well as being taught and nurtured. Telling your story as much as listening to someone elses.

Its about investing in people... investing in the future... As Erwin McManus from ((Mosaic)) said in the last podcast in the Mosaic Sports Centre series that we need to stop being slaves to the present and become enablers for future generations. We can only do this if we move from consumption to investment.

Sure we need to feed... but we also need to feed others...

This extends beyond church and community... and into our whole lives... We need to give as much as we take... live in balance with our neighbours...colleagues...friends...family...

What do you think?

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1 comment:

caldjr said...

Your last paragraph gives the key to this one Thomas - balance. So often people are in our churches and find themselves at one extreme. They either sit back and consume or run around like headless chickens investing their time and energies in the others. As someone who often finds himself giving out, I regularly need to keep myself in check to take time to consume. Its a difficult balance to get and I'm nowhere near reaching that balance all the time, but I'm getting better - with God's help. Have to say, and I don't know if its totally relevant to this discussion, but I find being part of a blog ring - to read and publish - is helping me to keep a healthy balance.

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