Office Projects

Nowadays, the misuse of marketing within churches is in fashion. Christ is being viewed as a product to be offered, and it is considered necessary to have a vision and a mission statement so that everything takes on an air of seriousness, and then to do the planning for the next 5 years

and to plan and plan…

I have never managed to understand much about those things; to me, they are very abstract, just like ministries. Nowadays, churches have countless ministries that sometimes overlap with one another and few of which lead anywhere. I once heard someone say, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans,” and that is an absolute truth. Who told us that we could make plans according to our own will? He is the one who makes all the plans.

Just try it: dare to make plans for yourself without taking him into account, and you will see what your day turns into. You will be overwhelmed with anxiety about accomplishing what you have set out to do, and you will never manage to carry it out. Why? Because you are simply a servant, and your Lord is the one who gives the orders. The day you truly become aware of this, you will wear yourself out less; you will simply place yourself in his hands and allow yourself to be guided by him.

This also applies to the gifts God has given you. If someone told you that you would choose which gifts to exercise, you were deceived. He is the one who equips you and decides which gifts you will have and what you will use them for. We do not discover the gifts we have and that God wants us to use for his glory because we do not place them at the service of his people. We bury our talents and then wonder why they did not multiply. We seek to exercise the gifts that gratify us and bring us recognition that raises our self-esteem, without realizing that we are so preoccupied with this that we fail to recognize the gifts God wants us to put into action.

We envy the gifts other brothers and sisters have, and in that unhealthy feeling we overlook the wealth we carry within us so that God may work through us.

We do not have to possess all the gifts at the same time, for it is written in 1 Corinthians 12:11: “But one and the same Spirit does all these things, distributing to each one individually as he wills.”

Brothers and sisters, be very clear about this: Gifts are for building up fellow believers, not for self-gratification. They are not for us to glory in, because we have nothing that has not been given to us: “For who makes you different? Or what do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you glory as though you had not received it?” 1 Corinthians 4:7

So, it is not about you; it is about the body of Christ. It is not about thinking of yourself; it is about thinking of serving others. God’s work is not planned in an office; it is planned on one’s knees, and the one who carries it out is the Holy Spirit who lives in you. Let him flow freely.