Photos courtesy of Andrew Degarde (left) and Caleb Oquendo (right) at Pexels.com
Different resources. Different callings. Different results. The same responsibility to steward them well.
I recently read the book Sacred Spaces, Modern Production by my friend Toby Walters, the founder of ChurchGear.
Like many of us, Toby is a technophile and loves to geek out over gear whenever he’s in new production environments; like many of us, he enjoys looking at church websites or social media scrolls to see what’s new, or even to visit new ministries when he’s on the road.
On a trip before writing the book, he visited one ministry and was immediately struck by the level to which they took their live production. He noted his first thought, “If that is the new standard [of worship and production], how can we compete?”
Churches should be learning from one another, not keeping score.
Immediately the response hit him. “We’re not competing. No one is called to be [any particular ministry] except [that ministry].” Later on in the book, he added, “We need to be excellent at the unique work that God has called us to in the unique church in which He’s placed us. We’re not called to be anyone except who God has created us to be.
I think we all need to be reminded of this on occasion. Like Toby, it’s generally easy to look at what another ministry is doing and think one of two things: Man, I wish we did stuff like that; or, Thank God our stuff doesn’t look as bad as theirs does.
Comparison can often drive us in negative ways.
We are quick to diminish our ministry and its resources, calling, and exposure because it’s not as expansive as another, and we can be just as quick to thumb our nose at another ministry that’s not doing it the way we would, or whose end product seems to be “below” ours.
When we do those things, we are quick to lose all context whatsoever. We have no idea what vision is driving their decisions, and it’s unfair and prideful for us to compare ourselves to them in any way.
I think often of the parable of the talents, told in Matthew 25, with principles that also echo in the parable of the minas in Luke 19.
The theme is similar in both: a master entrusts his servants with varying amounts of wealth to be invested during his absence. When he returns, he rewards those who invested and gained a return, but punishes the servants who did not.
When looking at the parable of the talents and seeing the servants given five, two, and one talent to steward, I feel that many of us naturally see ourselves as a five-talent person who is perhaps more worthy or capable than others, and quite frankly, we are. As John Maxwell would say, everyone is a 10 in something.
The question isn’t how your production compares. It’s what you’re doing with what you have.
God created all of us as a “five-talent” person in one area. He’s not a God of redundancy or unnecessity. Everyone and everything He created was created on purpose for a purpose, and He needs all of us to use our five-talent areas to make a maximum impact for His kingdom.
In the same way, there may also be areas of my life where I’m just a two-talent person, perfectly average or middle-of-the-pack. And there are going to be areas where I’m a one-talent person who lags way behind others in something.
All of that is OK, because it’s exactly how God created me, so as part of a broader team, my strengths can offset others’ weaknesses, and vice versa. It’s all part of us working together as a functioning body.
But here’s the thing: when the master returned from his journey and judged his servants on their returns, he didn’t ask the two- and one-talent servants why they didn’t earn five talents like the first servant. He didn’t compare the servants to each other; he just asked them what sort of return they got with what he gave them and judged them for that.
In the church world, we often teach this parable as a principle of stewardship, but it’s also a lesson about comparison.
God doesn’t judge our results, return, productivity, failure, or inefficiencies based on how we stack up against someone else. He only looks at how we manage what He gave us: our energy, attitude, gifts, talent, time, etc. It’s not about whether I did or achieved more than someone else, but it’s about whether or not I realized my potential and properly stewarded what He blessed me with.
Comparison can make abundance look like scarcity.
So spin this back to the world of church production and content creation.
If God isn’t looking at me and my ministry and comparing us to others, then why would I do it? It’s less about asking who we are “better” or “worse” than, and more about whether or not we understand God’s unique calling on our ministry and are doing all we can to leverage our resources to have as great of an impact as possible. Comparing ourselves to others means we’re taking our eyes off the goal, which means I’ve forgotten Paul’s exhortation to work for the Lord and not for men (Col. 3:23).
My team may never do a certain thing as well as another church, and that’s fine. We may do other things way better than someone else, and that’s fine too. All that matters is that, in a vacuum, I’m doing the best I can, because that’s what He’s called me to do.
The “big C” Church isn’t a place for competition, but collaboration. It’s a place where we can learn from, support, and encourage each other. It’s a place to offer guidance, not criticism.
Each ministry has its own identity and mission, and I do too. God didn’t ask me to run someone else’s race. He put me in this specific place on the timeline of history for a reason. He didn’t ask me to do what someone else was already created to do.
He called me to be me.
