Strong and Balanced?

What makes a strong church?  What takes a church from its struggling beginnings to a fruitful and mature Body of Believers?  Spiritual training, wise mentoring and carefully directed resources are some of the key elements to take a church from vision to an engaged group of Believers.

Can resources, however, cause more problems then the burdens they alleviate?  Many come from the West with good intentions into third world countries bringing massive amounts of money and end up overwhelming those who serve with a small salary and a large heart of faith. This can cause a vast scope of issues from destroying faith in the Lord to securing faith in the West, to greed and encouraging issues of power and control.

Only a few indigenous nationals are able to handle this, and the vast majority lose ambition and purpose. Unless there is a system of knowing how to inject resources wisely and at proper economic levels, we can destroy what and how the Lord intended to build.

To help with this, imagine the mental image of a butterfly struggling so hard to get free of its cocoon.  It seems the merciful thing to do to free it from its bonds, yet this is a death-sentence to the butterfly.

No matter where the church is planted she must go through struggles and trials to be able to earn the right to stand upon her own. Knowing this, IMI has had the vision to carefully and prayerfully assist to manage resources to gain the maximum advantage within a culture and community, with being sensitive to this core issue.