it's a rental

It was a perfect day for the beach, and my new bride and I had the top down in a fun but gutless Mustang. 

We...were tearing down a dirt road riddled with potholes. There was a sign saying something about four-wheel drive a few clicks back, but I didn’t bother getting the details. 

My wife began to get nervous about our adventure and asked if we should be taking a Mustang on a road like this. Without hesitation, I uttered those three little words that put our minds at ease and that have been used by most of us at one time or another to justify the reckless disregard for vehicle degradation:

It’s a rental. 

It’s amazing how differently we treat things that we own versus rent. 

Ownership gives us a sense of responsibility and care. It is ours, and in some way it reflects who we are, so we take care of it. 

For several years I drove and old Buick Park Avenue that my wife and I bought from her grandfather. It was hot beige with a beige interior. Not exactly the ride of choice for a young man... 

but it was mine. 

It was not nearly as nice as the gutless Mustang we rented on our honeymoon, yet I treated it much better. 

My treatment of a car reflects my level of ownership more than it reflects the value of the car itself. In the same way, when it comes to the mission of the church, our responses reflect our ownership more than any other aspect of the mission. 

Our churches have a clear, innovative, Holy Spirit-inspired vision for how God is calling us to proclaim his kingdom, but if we collectively have no ownership of that mission, we will be hard pressed to achieve anything.

God is not limited in accomplishing his plans by our lack of ownership, but he has chosen, for his glory and our joy, to employ us in his work, and I don’t want to miss out on that.

- Brad House