Is Your Natural Leadership Default Rooted in Scarcity or Abundance?
When you encounter a less than desirable situation, is your natural tendency to consider the new opportunities the situation might bring? Or is your natural tendency to focus on the limitations this might bring? The type of typical response one has is likely rooted in their personality, experiences, environment, familial values, and culture.
As a church, what is your natural tendency when adverse situations occur? Does your church tend to skew towards a response of scarcity or abundance? Similar to individuals, churches can develop response tendencies based on experiences, environment, congregational values, leadership, and culture.
A personal mindset or a congregational culture grounded in scarcity is fixated on limitations, scarceness, and deficient resources. Scarcity leads to anxiety, fear, inability to move forward, and the lack of vision for the potential of a different future. On the other hand, a mindset and culture of abundance fosters collaboration, limitless possibility, opportunity, optimism, potential, and gratitude. A leader or congregation could experience the exact same situation, but their view is likely polar opposites depending on their scarcity or abundance lens.
“We don’t create abundance.
Abundance is always around us.
We create limitations.”
Arnold Patent
The disciples found themselves in a moment of scarcity in Matthew 14:13-21 when Jesus told them to feed the five thousand. The disciples reported they only had five loaves and two fish. Yet, after feeding the crowd, there were leftovers. The disciples had followed Jesus’s instructions to place the resources in His hands to see what can be done with it. The disciples experienced first hand the shift from scarcity to abundance.
The purpose and desire for every church is to be a place where new people come to know Christ and grow in their relationship with Christ. A 2022 Barna study revealed four qualities common to disciplemakers. Those four qualities included optimistic for change, accountability driven, relationally motivated, and growth minded. Ironically, each of these qualities are rooted in an abundance mentality or culture - not scarcity.
Renowned author Wayne Dyer suggests, “Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something we tune into.” What is your church tuned into - scarcity or abundance? As a leader, what are you tuned into? Do we fearfully hold the resources and possibilities tightly in our own fists concerned those resources are finite? Or do we place the resources in the hands of Jesus to see what can be done? Do we firmly believe that with God all things are possible? Gather a group of leaders at your church and explore whether your natural leadership default is rooted in scarcity or abundance.
