"For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." (Matthew 18:20)

 

The Church of Jesus Christ began with the Apostles very much as a Small Groups Ministry. The apostles travelled the known world establishing, helping and training small groups of believers where ever they travelled. These small groups were the seeds from which more small groups grew even when the Apostles were taken away by a world determined to stop the spread of the word and Spirit of The Lord in it. The Lord in creating small life that multiplies rapidly by spreading self-replication gave us the model by which His Word and His Spirit from one small group in an upper room in Jerusalem shall cover the world as the waters cover the sea and shall reach to every corner of it in an unstoppable tide.

 

A community divided and controlled by big business churches and big business denominations and, of late, big business ministries were never part of God's plan, but rather were a devastating and decimating deviation from it. But what I see that gives me hope is that small groups and autonomous local churches are once again emerging out from under the fading grasp and weakening control of these slowly crumbling "Big-is-Better" empires of traditional orthodox, Protestant, and "modern/post modern" orthodox "super churches". Once more the Kingdom of God is becoming about a relationship between a God and HIS People and not a God, the "churches" and THEIR people.

 

 

But it is important to understand that Small GIFTS Ministries is not about creating yet another big time ministry, it is simply introducing a ministry CONCEPT and a COMMUNICATION method by which brothers and sisters in Christ can use the Internet to share their God given gifts freely to help other brothers and sisters grow and nourish the worldwide body of Christ as the Lord intended His gifts to do. 

 

Call it the "Dandelion model" of small groups growth. The seeds of the dandelion are carried far and wide through the air BUT they do not grow IN the air, they grow IN the soil where they land even though they still need the gift of rain from the air. And when the time is right they too will spread many seeds the same way from the places they have grown. 

 

Like dandelions the seeds of (and the watering gifts of the spirit for) small groups can be carried on the Internet to all corners of the world. But also like the dandelion, small groups actually need to grow on the ground where people meet face to face, not in the ever changing, ephemeral and somewhat impersonal "clouds" of the Internet. Our seeds and our resources are in the "clouds" of the Internet but the feet of small groups must always be firmly planted on and in the ground of the real, face-to-face lives of real people if we wish to grow, flourish, and not be easily uprooted.

 

 

When a young boy came to hear Jesus he had five loaves and two small fish. Clearly it was provisions for himself and had he not offered it to Jesus it would have remained nothing but meagre provisions for himself. But because of his willingness to share, Jesus took those meagre provisions and blessed them, and what was intended to feed one, fed five thousand but would have just as easily fed whoever came and hungered no matter how many it was.

 

One of my ministries involves converting old VHS tapes to video files and DVD's. One of my current projects is to convert old VHS sermon tapes for a church pastor in Brisbane so he can re-use them and distribute them again in his current ministries. It got me to thinking how much of the God given words and wisdom of godly men now lies idle on the shelves and in the cupboards of churches and manses not only around this country but around the world. Words and wisdom in how many languages? We (quite rightly) revere, preserve, copy AND distribute far and wide the words of God given through the prophets and Apostles of 2,000 to 3,000 years ago but what do we do with the words God spoke through our pastors and church newsletter contributors last week? What if we were willing to share them and allow Jesus to use them to feed not one congregation, but thousands around the world? As many who would come and hunger for such words?

 

What if we were able to collect all that video footage, sound files and printed copy, from local churches and small groups and put them on the internet to share with local churches and small groups anywhere in the world? What if a small group of isolated believers in the middle of Africa could share the same message your Pastor shared with you, last week, last month, or even last year. What if you or your small group could access the sermons and teaching sessions of church pastors and others from local churches, seminars, church retreats, etc. From all over the world, both recent and past. What if even your own church could listen to its own past sermons and pastors any time it wanted?

 

In the Internet we have a tool capable of doing that. Of allowing local churches and small groups and even gifted individuals, to share what they have received and allow The Lord to take it and feed as many in the world who hunger for it. What's more, if we give them the necessary permission they can not only use it themselves but copy or print it and pass it on to others

 

If a sermon is worth saying once to a handful of people who were able to hear it it is worth saying again and again to as many as The Lord wants to hear it.

 

 

G.I.F.TS stands for Group Internet Facilities & Technical Support. They cover all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the Bible as well as the natural gifts and talents any brother or sister in Christ might lay before The Lord as a free will offering. The first are freely received FROM The Lord to be freely given. The second are freely received BY The Lord that He might freely give them wherever they are needed. So whether the gifts and offerings are received freely from The Lord or given freely to the Lord we acknowledge that they do not belong to us but to The Lord and His desire is that they be FREELY given by us to all who have need of them. For the gifts we receive we do not receive for ourselves but for the common good of ALL. 

 

(1 Corinthians 12:7 "Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.")

 

 

As it turns out ... Quite a bit! When the name Small GIFTS Ministries first came to me I did not realise just how much it described all aspects of the vision. Initially I was scouting around for a suitable (OK catchy:-) acronym for the concept. However the name was not in my line of thinking at all. It just "arrived" as if this was the name it was meant to have. On the first level obviously the first word comes from "small groups" followed by the acronym for "Group Internet Facilities & Technical Support" followed by the very much plural word "Ministries". However I realised later that the inspirational images, clip art, videos, "How To" instructional material, sermon, and teaching recordings, written articles, etc. that would make up a substantial portion of the SG on-line resources are "small gifts" freely given from groups, churches and individuals for sharing with other groups, churches and individuals. 

 

And finally it is very much plural because it is not about A ministry but about giving anybody who wants to (or already does) share their gifts as a free ministry to others a simple and effective way to connect with others who have the same vision and are doing the same thing, as well as with those in need of what they have to offer.

 

But at its deepest level it recognizes that Small GIFTS Ministries is based on the observation that when it comes to the ability to grow and expand rapidly and to thrive and survive all adversity the Lord's creation shows us that small and many is better than big and few. It is not by chance that Solomon should suggest that if we wish to become wise we should consider the ways of - the ant.

 

Proverbs 6:6-8 "Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest."

 

The strength of the Small GIFTS Ministries is the actual and physical DISPERSAL of the fruits of the gifts of the Holy Spirit among the worldwide body of Christ. Once dispersed it can be dispersed again and again by brothers and sisters in Christ from anywhere in the world. In other words in the parlance of the Internet the gifts of God go ... VIRAL!  And what is dispersed stays dispersed and cannot be "undispersed". Even if ministries and nations should fall and technologies and the Internet fail or be "commandeered" the gifts of The Lord dispersed by SGMs will still be everywhere or somewhere IN the body of Christ to be freely used and shared BY the Body of Christ, physically if not electronically. As any gardener knows for every dandelion you pull up more will come as long as wind and rain exist. However hard you try you will never rid the world of Dandelions. Their roots may be firmly planted in the ground but they give their gift of seeds freely to the winds to be carried to all corners of the Earth to take root and to seed wherever they may land, watered by the Heavens themselves.

 

To find out more about the concept of Small GIFTS Ministries and how it works read my introductory article on my "Views From An Island Place" blog. (Click above link or go to this address):-  

 

http://islandplaceviews.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/introducing-concept-of-small-gifts.html

 

 

D.J. Ludlow

 

 

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