My wife and I quite possible have the two brownest thumbs in California. Give us a drought-tolerant cactus and after a few months, we will show you a dead cactus. A few years back I was trying to do something about "The Great Campbell Desert", otherwise known as my front lawn.
I diligently went to Home Depot, bought some strong fertilizer and grass seed and even a hand cranking seed sprayer. With enthusiasm for a green lawn, I proceeded to seed and simultaneously fertilize the desert. I watered and waited for weeks - but nothing happened. My problem wasn't the wrong seed or fertilizer; it was forgetting to till the hard-packed soil.
The silly thing is that I never bothered to talk to my neighbor across the street - who is a landscape architect - or the neighbor to his right - who is a gardener. Thankfully, the gardener must have had some pity on me, because after a couple of months he walked over and gave me some basic tips on growing grass (the legal stuff). His advice worked; my grass is now about 80% in!
My failures in gardening taught me a good lesson on why unity matters and why leaders and churches often fail.
We often do ministry like I tried to fix my lawn: on our own. Most of us think we have everything figured out, so we rarely work with other leaders. We are too busy ministering to our own flocks and too prideful to care for what's happening down the street.
Do we truly care about their successes and failures; do we encourage one another and spur on each other, and most importantly, do we pray for each other? Christian ministry done in a vacuum often leads to deep failures or burnout. We desperately need each other to succeed and to see a spiritual transformation of the Bay Area in California, as well as where you live.
I love what Mark Twain wrote: "Great people are those who can make others feel that they, too, can become great." One of my passions is to see the faith and effectiveness of other leaders rise. I don't want to gauge success by just what MY church or ministry does, or on how many I shared the gospel with or helped feed, or disciple, in a year.
I want to see the level of the spiritual pond rise in the entire Bay Area. This must be done in collaboration with one another, one small pebble at a time. If we truly want to see God's kingdom glorified, we need to check our arrogance and calendars at the door and get busy working with one another.
"Then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others..." Philippians 2:2-4
Keivan Tehrani
Bridge Builder, Amateur Gardener