It has been four years since we formed our non-profit, Potential Endeavors. During these years it has been a time of listening and watching for God’s direction. We have often thought we knew where we were going only to see God close one door and open another one. During these four years our vision to help people find their full potential has not changed, but the way that we accomplish that vision has. We are doing things now that we could never have dreamed of doing when we started in 2017. In our fund raising, God has always given us what we need to cover our expenses, but never more than the minimum. It is a constant reminder that God is in control, and we are not!
As we begin our fifth year of ministry, God has been clarifying our focus and how we go about helping people reach their God-given potential. We have begun to weave this focus into all or work and allow it to form the foundation of our ministry.
Our first area of focus is to DREAM. We have found that it is hard to reach the potential that God has given you if you do not take the time to dream what is possible. That might be in the impact your church could have in its community or a passion to reach new people for Jesus. Our potential is limited when we do not have dreams for ourselves and for the ministry or work that we do. In addition, these dreams need to be God-sized. Not something that you could do on your own, but only through the help of God, so that He gets all the glory.
Let me share how this has applied to our ministry. When we started Potential Endeavors, we dreamed of making an impact in one church and one city in Ukraine. God closed that door and told us to dream bigger. We thought we could impact 20-25 pastors and churches in one region of Ukraine. But God told us our dreams were not big enough, so we started dreaming about how we could impact all 24 regions of Ukraine and the entire country. Now that is a God-sized dream that is far greater than our skills and abilities could do. This year we will begin working towards this dream. This will only happen through God’s power so that He will get all the glory.
Our second area of focus is MENTORING. Part of finding your God-given potential is through multiplying your impact by investing and developing others. We have tried to model this in our ministry by intentionally developing leaders and helping them to grow and develop leaders themselves. This idea of multiplication comes from Jesus’ teaching. In the parable of the three servants in Matthew 25, the master gives each servant differing bags of silver, one 5 bags, one 2 bags and one 1 bag. When the master returned, he asked each servant to account for what they did with their silver. The one given 5 grew it into 10 bags, the one given 2 bags grew it into 4 bags and the one given 1 returned just the one bag. Read how the man who gave the silver responded to the one given 5 bags:
“The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’” Matthew 25:21 NLT
Here is the response to the one given 2 bags:
“The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’” Matthew 25:23 NLT
Here is the response to the one given 1 bag:
“But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate, why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’”
Matthew 25:26-27 NLT
I believe that these bags of silver represent the God given potential that each of us have been given. I believe that how we use this potential through our gifts and leadership will be assessed by God one day. One of the areas that we can use our potential is by mentoring others and helping them to achieve their potential.
Our third area of focus is COME AND SEE. We are using a theme from The Chosen to help leaders and churches ask some question:
- Is your ministry a “Come and See” place?
- Can people “Come and See” Jesus in your life, church, ministry?
- Is what you are doing representing who Jesus is so that others want to “Come and See” more?
We are not trying to teach people to do it in any specific way, but rather to always ask the question; Is what we are doing “Come and See” worthy? This may look different with each person, church, or ministry, but this is what we exist for. If people cannot see Jesus’ teaching and life represented in what you do, why would they want to come and experience it? In John 4, the woman at the well has a transformed life that makes people want to “Come and See”, and ultimately that is what our potential is for – to transform lives with Jesus.
As we continue to follow God’s plans for our potential, we are working with leaders in Ukraine to bring this message to all the regions. This fall we will be doing a training with the Regional Pastors; these are the leaders for the churches in each region and working to start mentoring groups in at least 10 regions. We will be traveling to several regions and meeting with these leaders and these mentoring groups and training them how to replicate this vision across their region. These mentoring groups are to grow future pastors and church leaders to help their churches and ministries to multiply both in the number of new churches and in the people existing churches are reaching.
These are God-sized dreams. We cannot accomplish this without God opening doors and changing hearts. This expansion of our ministry will require more resources and we are praying that people will step forward and be willing to help by sponsoring a region to do these mentoring meetings. We are looking for $1000 per year for three years for each mentoring group. This provides half of the costs for gathering the group, food, housing, and training materials. We hope that each group will consist of 15-20 young leaders that we can work with to help them recognize and grow their potential.
If this is something you or your church would be interested in doing, please let me know. I would be happy to talk more with you about this, or you can give directly to our ministry by clicking here.