It seems to me that in life, you have two choices when it comes to your mindset of provision. You can operate from a place of abundance – believing God will provide all that you need. Or you can operate from a place of scarcity – believing you have to hang on to all that you have just to survive.
Churches are no different. We operate with the same two mindsets. Either a church operates from a place of abundance, or a place of scarcity.
And the practical outcome is this:
Churches that operate from a place of abundance send their people out.
Churches that operate from a place of scarcity never send their people out.
I grew up in a church that managed to make the shift from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset. In our first twenty years of existence, we thought it was all about us. Our scarcity mindset sent us many messages:
“Don’t send people out – you are going to need them all to survive.”
“Hang on to what you have.”
“Don’t be generous – difficult days are coming.”
But then our pastor became convicted that the same God who “owns the cattle on a thousand hills” was able to provide for us. He became convinced that God did not just want us to survive, but to send out people to plant to new churches. We began to learn an abundance mindset, that sent us new messages:
“Send people out – God will send more to take their place.”
“Give yourselves away.”
“Be generous – you can’t out give God.”
I remembered both mindsets from my childhood church experience. I remembered the awesome transformation that occurred when we moved from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset.
I think this is why I have been a church planter for forty-four years. I truly believe you cannot out give God – but it sure is fun to try!
A theology of sending comes from a place of abundance. It comes from the conviction that we are still called to be fruitful and multiply. It comes from a belief that God will provide. It comes from moving out of a mindset of scarcity to a mindset of abundance.
A theology of sending comes from the conviction that God’s plan does God’s way never lacks God’s provision. That is operating from a place of abundance!