I was in a meeting this week with the leader of a remarkable ministry. God is using this man to impact thousands of lives.
He asked me to join him for breakfast because in his words, “Our opportunities for impact are exceeding the giving we’ve received each year for the past five years.”
He then asked me this critical question, “What is holding us back?”
While sometimes there may be a long list of things that are holding the ministry back, it is often the case that there is one simple but frightening answer.
The answer is YOU.
Here’s what sometimes happens to me, and you, and so many others. We just want to focus on the “ministry” work. We want to keep our sleeves rolled up and fight in the battle for lives. We want to serve. We want to get stuff done and then head into new territory with new programs and new impact. But, we know we also need to “fundraise”, and we sigh and look at our calendar and wish God would just send someone else, maybe an expert fundraiser to engage in this fundraising work that somehow keeps us from doing the real ministry work that we want to do.
Here’s what I want you to do. STOP fundraising and START learning how to share your heart and God’s vision for the ministry. There is a way to tell the story, challenge people to consider the work of the Lord, and see God move their hearts to give.
The answer is not for you to do less ministry and more fundraising. The answer is to stop trying to be the fundraiser and start being more of YOU. God has called you to tell the story in a way no one else ever can, and He will bring tremendous and impossible resources to bear through other people.