No two persons and no two church bodies are the same in calling or in gifting. Instead, Jesus has prepared good works for each local church that is spread across different cultures, times, and places. 

No one church is called to do all things. No one church is called to reach all people. No one church is called to go to all places. But each local church is to discern and allocate and invest the resources entrusted to them by God into the things which he has called them to accomplish.  

To do this will inevitably mean directing a church’s resources towards certain things and away from others. It will likely mean maximizing by minimizing: investing more in a few things rather than investing a little in many things.

This is a matter of stewardship: of being a good and faithful steward. It is not a matter of one program, or person, or ministry being bad and another being good. There is in each community various good and viable ministries and opportunities. Rather, it is a matter of which “good works” God as our Master has entrusted to us as his steward. 

We should, in fact, approach our personal lives and resources in a similar way. We don’t have an infinite supply of money or time or energy. Therefore, each of us assess what our priorities are, what God has given as our primary tasks and areas of care and responsibility, and we invest primarily there. It would be irresponsible to take valuable and limited resources away from an area of great importance and to invest them in an area of little importance. 

Hand in hand with allocating our resources responsibly, is having resources available. God will give us opportunities we haven’t imagined yet. If we are faithful over little, he will make us faithful over much. We must be prepared and ready to take action when these opportunities arrive. But we won’t be if we are not wise with our resources now. 

At all times and in all places, a local church should seek to participate in God’s grace by being generous in giving and serving. They should live with open hands, receiving from God and giving to others, and with open eyes, looking forward to the future and what God is calling them to invest in. 

Living this way should prompt us to always begin with the question: Why? Why are we doing this? If we answer because we’ve always done it, or because it seems like a good idea, or because people will be disappointed if we don’t, then we will never dare to push further. 

The question of “Why” is one that ultimately needs one answer: because God called us. Then we can dare to push further. Because though the climb at times will appear too difficult or impossible for us to achieve, we will remember, and have the deep-seated conviction, that we didn’t start this. God did, and with him all things are possible. 

So let us be trustworthy stewards, good and faithful servants, of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There is nothing that we have as a local church that we have not received from him. We owe him everything, because on the cross he lost nothing of what the Father gave him. That includes not only each local church, but the good works, which God prepared beforehand, that each should walk in them.