Peter’s eyes lit up and a giant smile spread across his face.
“Can you imagine what would happen if the global Church really started working together?”
He continued, “I am so excited about what God is doing here at Hope International, and what really fires me up is watching God at work in the Church around the world!”
Christine Bess (Board Chair), Susan Hollern (Founder/President) and I were visiting an organization that we have long admired, Hope International, and were sharing lunch with Peter Greer, their President and CEO.
As we heard more about the ways that Hope’s Micro-Finance Institutions and Savings and Credit Associations were serving hundreds of thousands of clients around the world, we were deeply impressed by Peter’s humility and willingness to share lessons learned with us. After meeting with various members of the team throughout the day, it became clear that the entire organization is marked by this type of “open-handedness.”
Hope International engenders a corporate culture of generosity! Instead of carefully guarding best practices, or simply sharing vague generalizations, they invited us in deeply and welcomed us to resources, products and practices that will help us improve our service to the families of Hope Haven Rwanda.
Instead of viewing us as competitors, they recognized that we could help complete each other, to strengthen and broaden our influence together, for God’s glory—not our own personal agendas.
It prompted me to wonder, “How would my daily interactions with others shift if I began by asking, “Is my goal in this relationship to compete or to complete?””
Psalm 133 encourages us to work together—as brothers and sisters with the same mission: “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity.” Two verses later, King David writes, “For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore” (Psalm 133:1,3).
We provide a powerful testimony when we cast aside petty disagreements, or unhealthy competition, and begin to view God’s work as a team sport—a stunning, global spiritual movement for His glory!
May God enable us to complete instead of compete.