Part 5 of a 10 Part Series By Rev Kurauone Mutimwii (Uniting Presbyterian Church - Masvingo)
Crisis of Potential
Mark 6:38 "But He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they found out they said, “Five, and two fish.”
Leadership that is reeling with the crisis of capacity is also deeply bullied by another crisis of Potential.
Jesus Christ after challenging his disciples (Church) not to send people away but to give them food to eat, he went further to command them to go and do a resource assessment and mobilization.
Economically it was clear that even 200 denaris worth of bread would not suffice and that a young man had five loaves of bread and two fishes which literally meant nothing at all in as far as addressing the issue was concerned.
That was realistically the fact on the ground but Christ will keep putting his Church in situations like these to stretch its potential beyond what is obvious and tap into the power of God.
The Church and its leadership oftentimes think less about its potential because it preoccupies with issues of available resources.
Yes, resources play a major role which the Church can ignore at its own peril in the execution and accomplishment of its intended mission.
The foremost character of primary importance in the discipline of the Church introspection, is to assure itself that God will not call the Church, commissions it and abandon it along the way or in moments when it must beam out rays of hope in people.
The scriptures says that He will accomplish that which He started in us and in this particular case it was Christ himself who challenged and commanded them not to send people away but to give them something to eat, knowing fully that they had less than enough to feed those people.
The Church can learn that sometimes God is not giving it tasks on the basis of the available resources but because of the deepest needs of the people surrounding, the little resources they are still holding onto and the potential of the Church to express faith, believe and proclam God in a powerfully transforming manner which can pave way for the power of God to work out miracles in the lives of people.
That is the potential, every Leadership of the Church that shepherd God's people must first unpack before it retreats from the challenges of the crisis of resources.
This is not to say material, mental or spiritual resources are not important, but to actually solidifies that nomatter how little they are, they are extremely cardinal in facilitating the accomplishment of the Church mission, be it money, or ideas.
But what resource can surpass Christ himself in the completion of his work? He is the power, protection, inspiration, wisdom, and trajectory of those whom he chooses to be Agencies of his Mission, therefore our potential to do extra ordinary is because we are obeying the mandate of the supernatural God.
Whenever we claim to be Church, much more its leadership, the drivers of our potential to effect transformation must go beyond the quantitative aspect of our material resources, they are qualitatively spiritual and divine, anchored in Christ himself, a connection that enables us to tap into the creative power of God.
The Church, like in the case of Ezekiel, where God did not simply tell Ezekiel that dry bones will live, but asked Ezekiel, the son of man whether dry bones can live, and to prophesy life to them, is being elecated by God, like Ezekiel into becoming an agent or partner through which God's restorative and creative power could be exhibited.
God is the source of the potential of the Church and by truly obeying God's mission, any other resource will fall into place and holistically serve its purpose.
Christ by commanding his disciples to give the multitudes something to eat and finding out what was available, was simply elevating them into becoming Partners with Him, who would be participating in the program divinely planned and budgeted by God himself.
We often hear Politicians saying the Church must abstain and be locked in pews and pulpits 'praying' for the nation and leadership.
In whatever motivation they say it, if the Church stay in, within the Sanctuaries of God, let it be to tap into God's power. Like Moses, that power must charge up the potential of the Church to energize Joshua in the battlefield.
The World underestimate the transformative potential power of the God believing, divine Mission fulfilling, and answer seeking praying Church, especially if that Church is confronted by the desperate multitudes who are in deep need and questing for answers.
Christ, in front of such confrontations, inspire its little faith to search deep and measure up to respond holistically and intervene pragmatically to those circumstancial arisings.
He does not want the Church to back off but to stand their ground and trust its God.
Potential that can be build on basis of abundant resources already available is just as good as hope build on what is already seen. Potential supply our dreams, desires, quests, hopes, aspirations, and imagination with the capability for mobility.
It starts with acknowledging the little resources we have and then stock taking that if God is on our side nothing can stop us, no-one can be against us, and nothing is unconquerable.
The Church in Zimbabwe especially its leadership sometimes publicly underestimates itself because it does not know or dare investigate its potential and the possibilities that can be achieved along with it.
God has always worked great miracles more with what we have than what we do not have.
Deep down the Church desires to see Zimbabwe towing the aspired trajectory, and if it hopes to to see that happening one day, it must better start awakening to focusing on what it have than what it does not have.
In its advocacy, it does not have guns and bullets but it have believers, God and the Bible, it may not have much of Gold and Silver but it definitely have God and Saviour. Now what it have is more than what it actually think it needs to leverage its potential and stand resolute as a provider of shepherd leadership for the Nation.
The Church have people who still worship and trust God because they are strongly convicted that God is the solution and indeed in its spiritual corner, it has God who desires to see those people going home fully fed, satisfied and fulfilled in their aspirations and needs.
The Church potential is therefore standing between these two pillars of hope which might appear as burdens.
Hence in obedience to Christ, the Church must continue exploring what capabilities are still within the people though they look so desperately like a hand of the cloud rising from the sea, but that can become the potential resources sufficing in addressing their need with adequacy.
Five loaves of bread and two fishes is potential enough for God to spark something novel and big for the Nation.
As for the Church in Zimbabwe, as long as there is still a piece of bread, an ounce of commitment or a droplet of an idea, small as they may be, then the Church has the potential it needs to make the difference in people, its hope has basis and is still actively animate and not lost completely, chiefly because Christ is in the midst.
People must not be send away but instead they must be strategically organized and rallied around those substances of hope and the project of Christ.
The Lord Christ commands the Church to continue dipping and knowing what little positive people still have in our politics, economy, spirituality, relationships and human reserves so that like five loaves of bread and two fishes it takes those to Christ in order for Him to rebuild the hope of people out of them.
The Church must trust that Christ will use that to spark new life, and new aspiration for our nation. With God, it is not more about quantity but attitude, availability and purpose.
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