On Silver Bullets

There isn’t one.  At least I never found one, and I looked hard! 

Go to the conferences, read the books, attend lectures, pray for insights, but don’t expect to find one silver bullet that will change everything in your ministry and provide amazing fruitfulness!

There is not one thing out there that you have not found that if found would give you instant success.

There are two kinds of instant success stories:

• those that are a fraud built on smoke and mirrors that will ultimately tumble and

• those that are anything but an “instant” success.  In his book Good to Great James Collins describes what he calls a flywheel effect.  Enough of the right things done over a long period of time will slowly build momentum until they seem to just take off—an “instant” success that has taken years to accomplish.

There is one other kind of instant success story.  Sometimes God just puts his hand on someone for his purpose and grants it.  It is God’s doing, his gift.  You can’t force it.  That is a rare experience.

Successful ministry and a life well lived are a combination of lots of right, small things done well over a long period of time.  That’s the well-worn path toward significance.

Instead of looking for a silver bullet to propel your ministry into a book worthy realm, keep steady focus on the following:

• Proclaim Jesus joyfully.

• Read God’s word persistently.

• Pray aggressively.

• Live faithfully.

• Love impartially.

• Tinker relentlessly.  (More on this later.)

So, put away the fancy Lone Ranger outfit and don the ranch hand duds.  There are no silver bullets.