Is it time for an adventure?

Is it time for an adventure?

Gary Gibbs invites you to step out of your comfort zone and use your gifts for the Kingdom

The parable of the talents told by Jesus in Matthew 25: 14–30 should thoroughly disturb many of us living in the 21st-century western world.

No doubt you’ll know the story. Three guys get given different amounts of money by their boss who is going away. When he returned, the first two had doubled the amount but the third one had simply buried it.

When Jesus originally told the story, he was pointing his finger at the Scribes and Pharisees. These were the religious people who didn’t want anything to change: they were totally conservative about their faith.

They thought nothing was broken and so nothing needed fixing. The faith had been systematised in the Law; it was all good – and buried in the ground as it were!

Time for an Adventure!

One writer, commenting on the parable makes this powerful claim: “…there can be no religion without adventure…”

Jesus promised us the gift of an abundant life (John10:10) but we are in danger of simply settling for a quite boring existence instead. What is clear from the parable is that faithfulness and fruitfulness are inextricably linked (verses 21 & 23).

The first two men were willing to invest what they had been given in order to be productive – and they were! So, if you are reading this page (thanks, by the way!), what are you prepared to do with the gifts which the Lord has given you?

Are you prepared to use those talents for the sake of the King and the Kingdom? In particular, are you willing to leave the safety of simply ‘doing church’ on Sunday mornings and midweek house group?

The Opportunity and the Challenge

Recently, I was invited to speak about church planting to a group of Pentecostal theologians from Europe. It was the final evening of a conference where they had listened to many excellent, but deep, talks.

We only had a short time, so I themed my talk ‘Opportunities and Challenges in European Church Planting’.

My outline went like this:

The Opportunity = ‘the Harvest is plentiful’ (Matthew 9:37)
The Challenge = ‘the workers are few’ (Matthew 9:37)

In 2000 years, nothing has changed! There are people everywhere who are far from God. And there are believers everywhere who are far from people, at least relationally.

What about You?

Individually as a believer or nationally as a Movement, we must never become obsessed simply with surviving. The Kingdom of God is about flourishing!

Living by faith, which we are all called to do, is about being on the front foot. It’s about living life for Jesus on purpose. It’s about being spiritually and practically pro-active. It’s about taking godly risks. It’s not about ‘shrinking back’ (Hebrews 10:38).

So, right now in Elim, we are looking for pioneering workers. Whether it’s with Limitless, starting brand new youth ministries in local churches or whether it’s with REACH in planting fresh churches around the UK.

You don’t have to be the ‘five talent’ person, or the ‘two talent’ person, not even the ‘one talent’ woman or man. The issue is: how will you use what God has given you? Just to finish, the promise in the parable is that if you begin to operate with the gifts you have you will become more fruitful and stronger in your ministry.

Conversely, if you don’t exercise, you will lose even what you have… that is one of the most sobering and scary things I have ever written… So, Let's Go! If not you, then who? If not now, then when?

We would so like to help you on this adventure of faith – get in touch!