The money simply disappeared. It was as if the politicians just dumped the money into the river. In fact, that’s exactly what they did.
It happened in broad daylight. Weeks became months as hundreds of workers coordinated their efforts to dump money into a hole in the river. Yet to the spectators on the banks, the river never changed… not in height, not in speed, and especially not in its imposing breadth. After years of work and millions of dollars, nothing was different. At least, not as far as anyone could see.
That’s because all of the initial work on The Great Bridge was underwater. Enormous caissons sank lower and lower through the river bed to ultimately form a firm foundation for the spectacular bridge that would ultimately span the watery gap between two of America’s largest cities: New York, and Brooklyn. The taxpayer of 1880 was as wary as we are… where did all that money go? The accusations and doubts multiplied until the engineers showed that the work under the river would have been a multi-story skyscraper had it been exposed above ground. The fact that it was hidden diminished its apparent value. The cries to bring an end to the apparent waste were diminished once the invisible was made visible.
Every ministry faces the challenge of justifying “underwater” work. In Group Life, leaders must be developed (underwater) while the formation of new groups (surface) is on hold. A theology of community (underwater) must systematically be laid down before the superstructure of “a church of groups” can ever be supported.
As 2009 gets underway, you face the enormous challenge of applying scarce resources to “underwater” work. Budgets are being butchered, and unusually high pressure may be brought to bear by those who cannot see what they cannot count. What are you prepared to defend, and how will you make the necessary foundational work “visible” to those whose underwater goggles are fogged by other priorities? Share your ideas and strategies… we will all benefit.
