Planting Churches Among the City's Poor - Volume 2

P ART I: C OACHING U RBAN C HURCH P LANTERS • 61

(6) Living and working in facilities that are fatigued and difficult

4. Note: these difficulties are associated with internal issues impacting the representative’s confidence

B. The outward obstacles: the difficulties of investment, empowerment, and assessment

1. The lack of investment : What do you do when you feel that you are given a task to do without the requisite investment prior to engaging it? a. Scripture: Eph. 4.11-13 (ESV) – And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ

b. Having to make due with old, substandard, or broken equipment and gear

c. No funds for training seminars and workshops to help grow your talent

d. Operating on a shoestring budget all the time

2. The absence of empowerment : What do you do when after engaging the task, you feel that you have neither the freedom nor the resources to carry out that mission?

a. Scriptures

(1) Rom. 15.1 (ESV) – We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. (2) Gal. 5.13-14 (ESV) – For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”