Loaves and Fish – Not Business as Usual
GOOD NEWS ASSOCIATES LISTENS PRAYERFULLY for how we might be more closely aligned with God’s Spirit. Sometimes our faithfulness as an organization means we approach one another and do business in counter-cultural ways.
We Americans are saturated in a culture that fixates on what is lacking. We are trained to see what yet needs to be done, to attend to where growth is necessary. It is the foundation of how we usually approach life, business, education, politics, church, personal relationships, and ourselves. Think about it: Is there any area of our lives in which we aren’t being challenged to do more, be more, create more?
The result is that we quickly move on past what is good, effective, real, or life-giving, to focus attention on what still needs to be worked on. We are quick to spot the deficiencies and pour criticism, judgment, anger—virtual curses—upon ourselves and others. So we end up turning our love and good intentions toward pushing one another be something different than we are in this moment.
As an organization, Good News Associates worked that way at first too. We focused on getting each other “up to speed” in income and ministry opportunities. We thought that was what we were supposed to do for one another. But slowly and surely, the Spirit shifted our focus. God is doing a work in every person. God is not displeased with the shape or pace of that unfolding work. Our job at Good News is to put all our energy into the Life-points, the areas where we see the clear motions of God’s love and empowerment already happening.
Loaves and Fish Transformation
A release of the Spirit’s power happens not by striving for more or better, but by blessing what we have and what we are. Just as Jesus blessed the insufficient loaves and fish to meet an overwhelming need, GNA is in a continual loaves and fish transformation. We release what we are and what we have, bless it and let God make something of it.
Amazingly, the same miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 happens again and again. When together we offer up the whole truth of a situation, and we bless that together—honor it, bow our knee to it, use it—then life and the flow of ministry are reshaped in extraordinary ways for good.
Then we watch change happen. Growth takes place as naturally as plants on a summer day. We let ourselves be flexible as the shape of an unfolding ministry can be unexpected, as well as deeply satisfying and Life-giving. We are surprised by the scope of what God has and is doing through us. GNA has learned that Blessing What Is creates a sturdy and trustworthy model for supporting ministry. As it turns out, the hallmark in this work is joy.
A Divine Symphony
The core truth is that each ministry is a member of a Divine symphony of ministries. Each has a different voice, a different function, different effects. The beauty of the music depends not only on the ever-present violins, but the unique insertions of the percussion instruments. Brass instruments are muted at times and loudly assertive at others. The rests are as important as the times we are playing. Each of us has something to contribute. Each of us is enough to be faithful to whatever God needs in this moment. Together we play the music of Love over the earth.
