Your P-E-O Chart

Serving alongside people disrupts our biases and preconceptions.  Service eliminates the us verses them mentality, or the “those who serve” and the “those who are served.” 

Throughout the stories of Jesus, you see him breaking down traditional barriers and shattering constructs. He said the last shall be first.  He went to be among the sick, the afflicted, the sinners.  When we follow that model and take steps Jesus would take, our notion of “otherness” dissolves.  And unity, oneness, sameness is a powerful theme in Scripture. 

John 17:23 says “I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity”

Consider how you can invite champions to serve in ways that will break down constructs and promote unity.

When we search for what the Scriptures say about the cause, when we look at what God says about those we serve, and when we see what God calls his people to do – that can provide fresh insight into who God is.

So, while your P-E-O chart will likely have other learning opportunities on them such as reading a book or watch a documentary to help people learn about the cause, we should also be deliberately pointing our champions to the Scriptures. 

Some organizations and causes have specific Scripture study that is connected.  Others have a Scripture passage or selection of passages they regularly point to. 

2 Timothy 3:16 says “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” (NIV)

How can learning about the cause reveal things about God? 

Giving is an opportunity to  cheerful generosity and reveal God’s character as champions depend on him. Consider how are we encouraging gifts that are not just bigger, but gifts that are acceptable and pleasing to God?

We do that by inviting gifts prompted by God’s grace, not organizational need.  We do that by inviting gifts that affirm God’s delight in them, void of with “shouldisms” and guilt. 

Ask yourself when am I most cheerful about giving?  Am I more cheerful when I sense God’s delight and pleasure with the act of giving?  Am I most cheerful when I am not stuck on the amount that’s expected, or worrying if it is enough?

So when we are designing opportunities to give, whether a face-to-face ask or an appeal letter, we need to ask: “Does this invitation prompt the kind of giving that reveals God’s character?  Would He delight in the response?”

That’s how our invitations to give can point people back to the generosity of God. 

The category of sharing typically means encouraging and equipping champions to share the cause in their spheres of influence.  How do we do this in a way that helps champions be more deeply rooted in God?

So we ask, “How can we equip champions to share about and celebrate the work God is doing in them and in the cause?”

We can equip them with stories of God’s faithfulness in the work. And we can help them see and make meaning of the work God is doing in them through their connection to the cause.

In Matthew 5, after the beatitudes, it says in verse 16: “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

When we share what He has done, the result is glory to God.  By seeing God in action, people can know him. 

Now we look at praying.  How can we invite people to pray in ways that reveal who God is?  This one is kind of easy.  We are inviting them to have a direct conversation with Him.  

And he taught us how.  Matthew 6 beginning in verse 9 (NIV)

“This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done,
 on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

When our work is rooted in God, God’s will can be expressed through our cause.