Beg, Borrow & Steal

I used to think I had to create everything, build everything, write everything… every system, every job description, every evaluation, etc. Somehow I thought I was shirking my responsibilities as a leader in not creating these uniquely for our organization.

But I’ve learned the beauty and freedom of begging, borrowing and stealing.

There are so many great organization and great churches who have already developed most of the tools, systems and processes you need to run your church or organization.  And most of them offer this stuff free or for a small charge.  The big guys have fancy networks and websites where you can get all this stuff but I’ve also found most churches willing to share their resources if you just ask.

Here are a couple of great ones that I use all the time:

North Point Ministries

LifeChurch.tv

That’s the beauty of the business of ministry…  there should be no competition in this game.  Share best practices so that you can spend the majority of your time on the front lines of ministry.

Go ahead!  Beg, Borrow & Steal!

If you know some other great sources for ministry resources, leave them in the comments for us!

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11 comments

  • Lindsey_Nobles April 7, 2010  

    There are so many great resources for the churches to share ideas. I was just reading the Catalyst blog and they were interviewing a pastor from Portland about how they try to take the focus off the sermon and put it on the worship. It was fascinating. And I thought about he probably had other church leaders thinking.

    It seems like it is harder to find people to beg, borrow, and steal from in the business world. I love how Michael Hyatt leads in this space and openly shares the happening at Thomas Nelson.

    • jcatron April 7, 2010  

      Yeah, it's much more rare to find this same attitude in the business world. Michael Hyatt is a great example of openness in leadership.

  • alece April 7, 2010  

    open-handed ministries have been such a huge help to me/us over the years. i've tried to live/lead with the same stewardship mentality, sharing resources back and forth with other organizations as we can. love seeing what God does with stuff like that!

    • jcatron April 7, 2010  

      @Alece – I agree! I'm learning to be much more generous… being in the corporate world did not help me learn the value of generosity. I think that is why I felt like I had to create our own stuff all the time for so long.

  • Marvin April 7, 2010  

    I have used openresources.org. They have some good graphics.

    • jcatron April 7, 2010  

      Thanks Marvin for adding this one!

  • Guest April 7, 2010  

    12Stone Church in Lawrenceville, GA has much to share – and considers it a privilege to share with other churches. http://www.12stone.com

    • jcatron April 7, 2010  

      Thanks for this resource!

  • Jason Dyba April 7, 2010  

    Amen.
    I actually steal from CrossPoint.tv fairly often 😉

    • jcatron April 7, 2010  

      @Jason – steal away 🙂