WIGTAKE

Ask the Right Question!

    When Missionaries would arrive in a new country they would often look around at all the needs and not be sure exactly where to begin. Sometimes they would start a church, a social ministry, or a school. They usually asked the same basic question, “What can I do?”.  However, it all begins with asking the right question. If you ask the wrong question, you get the wrong answer, or start down the wrong road. The question you ask will usually define how you approach the problem or challenge. When a Missionary asks the question, “What can I do?”, they have immediately limited their ministry to what they can do.

    The better question would be “What’s It Gunna Take”(WIGTAKE). What is it going to take to reach this city, community, country, this people. If we ask "What we can do" we have limited our vision to what we can do. We may can start a church or two, start a school, start a ministry. We may can reach 100, 200, 500, over the years. However, the real question is: What is it going to take to reach the entire city of 250,000 , 1 million, 5 Million (Houston, Porto Alegre) 24 million ( Sao Paulo, New York, Mumbi). The entire people groups or segment of 800,000, 13 million, Etc.

   When we ask this question, we begin our strategy at a different level.

Answer the Right Question!

     It is not enough to ask the right question. We have to actually answer the question. How many churches will it take ( 1 per 1000?), How many small groups? ( 1 per 25?), how many leaders, teachers, pastors, workers? ( 1 per 25?). How will these groups reproduce? How often? Where will they meet? How often? Who will lead them? How will they be trained? A Vision with out a plan is only a dream!

Example:

      A few years ago a girl came to me after several Volunteer Mission Trips to Salvador. She said that she wanted to come to Salvador to work with children. I asked her about how many children she thought she could work with.  She explained that she had worked with groups up to 200 and more. She had years of experience.

      I explained that in Salvador we had over 850,000 kids in the public school system. This did not count the thousands that did not attend school or those in private schools. You see we are not just trying to reach 200 kids, we are trying to reach close to a million kids. To reach a million kids you will need to approach this quite differently than if you are trying to reach 200. You will take on a different role. You have to envision a ministry beyond “what you can do”.  Your plan must be God size and not Your size. You must depend on God’s resources not Your abilities. You begin to pray for grace, mobilize heaven and earth, involve any and every legitimate partner, cry out to God to do what God alone can do. When it happens, who get the glory? You guessed it, not you. God gets glory for what only God can do.

      To reach the people God has put on your heart, let me ask you a question. What is it going to take?