Igniting Imagination Power and Abundance with Mike Mather
“What does ‘Distributing Power’ look like for a congregation?” is a frequent question we get about our fourth adaptive muscle. Now we can say: listen to this interview with Mike Mather! Mike helps us make the connection between distributing power and abundance.
When Mike and his congregation started actually living out their beliefs that everyone (both inside and outside of the church) has gifts, it changed their perspective–and their church–for the better. They began to look for the gifts their neighbors possessed instead of their needs. They shifted how they perceived their role in the community from being bringers of all good things to being connectors who bring people’s gifts together for the good of the neighborhood. Mike is a powerful storyteller, we can't wait for you to hear this conversation! May his stories and lessons stick with you and inspire you to discover the gifts and power already at work in your neighbors and in your neighborhood.
QUOTES
- “She didn’t need training. She needed people who saw she had gifts and power. That was when things really shifted for me.” -Mike Mather [12:58]
- “I would say what we often talked about it as was ‘How do we join the power that God has present in the lives of our neighbors?’” -Mike Mather [30:19]
TIMESTAMPS
- [00:00] Intro
- [00:55] What it means to distribute power
- [04:41] Meet Mike Mather
- [05:29] What Mike hopes people get out of his book
- [08:01] The pivot in his life
- [13:15] How that impacted how his church did ministry
- [20:12] The impact to Mike as a leader
- [29:22] It changed their job descriptions
- [30:38] Point to where the power is at work
- [32:38] Where he met resistance and/or obstacles
- [43:31] Outro
RESOURCES & RELEVANT LINKS
Read Mike Mather’s book Having Nothing, Possessing Everything for more insights that inspire and equip leaders with very practical ideas for moving beyond buildings and into the streets.
Read Lisa Greenwood’s monograph about God’s Mixed Ecology: The Changing Spiritual Landscape here.
New Feature: Transcripts for this Season’s Episodes
We will have transcripts for each of our episodes this season. Visit our website to download this week’s transcript. We hope these additional resources will help you share these conversations with your friends, colleagues, and leadership teams to spark the spirit within you, your organization, and “ignite imagination!”
This podcast is brought to you by the Leadership Ministry team at TMF and Wesleyan Investive. Leadership Ministry connects diverse, high-capacity leaders in conversations and environments that create a network of courage, learning, and innovation in order to help the church lean into its God-appointed mission.
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Mike Mather’s Bio:
Mike Mather is the pastor at First United Methodist in Boulder, Colorado. For many years, Mike was the pastor at Broadway United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. Before that he served as pastor of another church named Broadway in South Bend, Indiana. Mike is also on the faculty of the Asset-Based Community Development Institute at DePaul University. Mike is the author of Having Nothing, Possessing Everything: Finding Abundant Communities in Unexpected Places. As a preacher-consultant-storyteller, he speaks all over the country about community development and urban ministry.