No Miraculous Growth without Miracles
A gardener can cultivate the garden in a perfect way, but still without sufficient supply of water and sunshine, the plants or even the whole garden might die. Manmade nurturing is necessary, but not sufficient for growth. All plants need a regular water supply and sunshine, the amount and the intensity needed varies from plant to plant. Greenhouses are only manmade inventions to reduce the dependency on nature and God. Even though technology is moving fast, it will never be able to replace fully the natural sunshine, wind and weather.
In an organizational set-up, it happens that the leadership does everything possible to help the people and the organization to grow, but due to unforeseeable developments, the organization will not flourish. In the final analysis, even the best leadership still is man made, and therefore has its limitations. The leader Paul, who sees himself as a gardener in the Christian community, has understood that in the final analysis all Christian growth is only God’s grace, when he writes in 1Co 3:5-9:
What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe – as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
Taken from: Grahn, T. (2009). Gardening Tips for Servant Leaders. The International Journal of Servant-Leadership, 5(1), 269-285.
Author: admin