Success, and Farming vs. Mining
I’m not sure what sort of success we should be striving for in ministry, but Wil Shipley’s comparison of farming and mining strikes me as pertinent whatever your definition.
If you farm, you’ll have to purchase seed up-front, and work on it for a season before you see any profits. And every season you’ll plow most the profits (literally) back into the land and salaries and your mortgage. … When you finally retire, if you’ve done a good job, the soil is as good as when you first got it, and your farm will live on.
Or, you could mine; you’ll need some initial money to lease mining equipment, and to hire some people to work the mine. Then, bam: profit. … You’ll make a big score, then the land will be spent, and you move on, leaving an unusable crater.
God is in the details. How are you cultivating the soil around you?
