Too much vision, and the people perish.

OK I have twisted Proverbs 29:18, but this dilemma is a frequent occurrence in my life. That’s one of the problems of having a personality that leans towards shaper. I often see a need and understand how it can be “fixed”, the downside as we know from previous posts is that I can often take too much on. Anyway this came to the forefront again recently when I went to Google and searched for audio devotionals for young people. What came up when I searched for “young people devotional podcast”? A page full of results pointing to www.aftershock.org.uk. Now for those who don’t know Aftershock was a great site, which put out just under 400 MP3 devotionals for young people. Fantastic just what I was looking for. The issue is, that Aftershock is my site, and Suzy and I stopped putting that podcast out over two years ago. So why is Aftershock still number one in the list for this particular search? I would love to believe it was my search engine optimisation skills, but Google is generally cleverer then me. So I come to the conclusion that there are not that many devotional podcast for young people out there, or they are not very good at promoting themselves. A quick check of the statistics show that I am still getting thousands of downloads every month from Aftershock. For example 12,000 separate downloads of MP3’s for December 2010, and that’s doesn’t seem to be an unusual number. Now to be honest, I have no clue where those 12,000 go, or if anyone actually listened to them. But equally the devs are also distributed else where, and I still get requests occasionally from radio stations to use them. Anyway to stop babbling on, it obviously shows a need for this type of podcast. So as we hear the sound of a loud trumpet, Max puts on his cape and dashes away to the rescue!!!!! Well no, not really. If I were to charge off and revive Aftershock, it would take a large amount of my time. This would impact, my family, my study and my whole future in a way that I am simply not willing to risk. If I thought that Aftershock was the whole of God’s will in my life then you wouldn’t see me for dust, but it’s not. Teaching certainly will be a big part of my life moving forward, and I can see how Aftershock would fit in with that. But I am now sure that God’s will in my life is to be a leader in his Church, and I will not be diverted from that goal. So hence the dilemma.

Because it is near impossible for me to ignore a need, and because of the yet to be confirmed feeling that Aftershock stopped prematurely, I have come up with a possible solution. It’s a solution, which means the burden is not on one person but on God’s people as whole. If we were to gather together a group of people devoted to God then we could inspire a generation. As far as I see there are needs for a number of roles that Suzy and I use to complete ourselves.

• 1. Devotional writers - Take a book of the Bible and write a number of under five minute long devotionals covering that book, for young people aged 11 – 18ish.
• 2. Narrators – Narrate previously written devotionals.
• 3. Audio editors – Edit submitted audio into a predefined template.
• 4. Webmasters – Maintain and develop Aftershock website (currently Wordpress).
• 5. Editors – Review submitted devotionals.
• 6. Marketers – Promote Aftershock.
• 7. Supporters – Commit to providing a defined amount of financial support and prayer for Aftershock. The commitment would be for one year and renewed, or not annually. No support will be taken until such time as it is confirmed that Aftershock can be re-launched and maintained.
• 8. Board – A minimum of one person (invited) from each category above, willing to meet (virtually if need be) twice a year to review progress and define direction.

Well that’s a long needs list, which I guess if we complete, shows that a) we believe there is a need, and b) God’s behind it. So this may go nowhere or it may mean that Gods word gets out to todays young leaders, in away that will engage and impact them. Oddly as I close I’m reminded that most people who heard God’s word at the time of Jesus and the century’s afterward, heard Gods word audibly. Most of them would never have held a Bible. So if you have a passion for making disciples of all nations, or simply have a clarification question then contact me today. There is a role for you.