A note from Keith
27 August 2010
Mark 1:17-18 
Dear Friends,
A leader's first responsibility is to allow their vision and mission to have tangible results in the real world. It is a calling that all who exercise leadership must keep before them. Leaders cast bold visions and recruit people to help in making those visions become a reality.
Throughout my ministry, I have been conscious of the right time to ask people to take a particular step of commitment… and invariably they were surprised because they did not expect such a request to come to them. I'd like to share with you a framework for such asking, which must be in the heart of any Christian leader:
- When God prompts a person to ask another to make a step of commitment, it must always be set in a meaningful context. Getting this first part of the framework wrong can be disastrous and rarely evokes a productive response.
- The person making "the ask" must always seek to express it with clarity and simplicity. People are not fooled by sales patter or circuitous journeys. It is much better to be absolutely clear, rather than unhelpfully vague.
- In the context of asking, we must leave the response to the person themselves. This is often the most difficult aspect, but we remind ourselves that if we have made the request properly, we can leave the response with God.
At Wesley Mission at this time, we are facing challenges, creating opportunities and entering a whole new world with the message that has underpinned us for close on 200 years. I recall as a young leader having a person quietly say to me, "you have to be careful and not put people off by asking too much". I have often thought about this… throughout my life, I have received many pieces of good advice, but this was not one of them! Think of those people who have made the greatest difference to your world and you will find that some of them asked for your help, recruited your support and called you to share with them.
This week I want to close with some inspirational thoughts which I hope might touch you:-
It is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich. (Henry Ward Beecher)
Life's most urgent question is: What are you doing for others? (Martin Luther King Jr)
You will invest your life in something, or you will throw it away on nothing. (Haddon Robinson)
I place no value on anything I have or may possess except in relation to the kingdom of Christ. (David Livingstone)
"Come, follow me," Jesus said, '" and I will send you out to catch people." At once they left their nets and followed him. (Mark 1:17-18)
Warmly yours
As Superintendent and Friend,
Rev Keith V Garner
Superintendent
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