“A service is co-created and only exists when the provider and recipient are together.”
- Simon Roberts
We were sharing our revised Vision Statement with our South African partners. There was something poetic about the five of us here in the states and their five stakeholders meeting over Zoom to agree on a vision statement that was created by us here and contains a lot about serving them there.
The infrastructure we are creating in 2022 will set the stage for tremendous growth in 2023. We are already bridling the opportunities a bit and trying to address the necessities of 2022, while not getting too far ahead of ourselves.
This was a momentum call. A time of alignment and celebration about the clarity we were sharing out of our three days of strategic planning here in Texas. We were starting sentences and they were finishing those sentences with much better accents. We were forming strategies and they were better informing those strategies with wisdom, clarity, and light.
I’ve never quite experienced anything like it. I probably never will again. I think you get only one of these types of Kingdom assignments in your life. This is one of those, undeniably. All of us feel the weight of gravity of what is not only intended but what is actually taking shape before our eyes.
In a round of feedback, we heard one humble questioning of a single word. He almost apologized for what he felt others might find insignificant but felt so important to him. He didn’t like our use of the word “product” as a deliverable for what we provide. He said a “product” is a mug you put in a box and ship, but service…
“A service is co-created and only exists when the provider and recipient are together.”
Brilliant! I went back & re-watched the Zoom recording just to make sure I captured his wording exactly as it was said. The implications of that statement! The co-creation of it! The relational imperative of it!
We believe everything we offer is out of a co-creation with a sovereign God. The idea of collaborating with other like-hearted kings and queens to further clarity what we have sourced from on high, feels more true than anything I have ever been a part of. Immense amounts of work and effort that feels almost effortless and the from the collaborating and the co-creating.
The drudgery of work was established in the Fall, but the establishing of God’s restored Kingdom in Jesus, points to something very different. We are experiencing the joy, freedom, and effortless nature of work as it was established and is available once again.
Consider
How big a drudgery does your work feel?
Do you feel partnered with those you serve?
Are you allowing a sovereign God and other like-hearted kings/queens to share the load with you?