INTRODUCING THE CONCEPT OF SMALL GIFTS MINISTRIES.

 Like most followers of Christ I am pretty much an unimportant "nobody" as the world, and even much of the wider Christian community, measures such things. After all a disabled senior citizen in a small country town on the underside of the world is hardly the world's idea of a "mover and shaker".

But something very strange ( if miracles are not a common occurrence in your life) happened to this unimportant "nobody", he suddenly became disabled and everything he had worked so hard to become in the eyes of the professional world disappeared overnight down the drain hole of life. But in its place The Lord gave me some unexpected gifts that I did not work for but received freely by His grace alone. In the latter years of my life I find, much to my surprise, this unimportant disabled nobody is now a writer, poet, photographer, graphics "artist", and video maker.

But it has taken a very long time (and some hard lessons) to understand what it is The Lord wants me to do with these gifts He has so freely given to me. He wants me to use them for and share them with, the whole Body of Christ - FREELY! But even more than that I think He wants this unimportant nobody to have a try at some "moving and shaking" and perhaps encourage others to do likewise with the gifts He has given them.

You will note that "Small GIFTS Ministries" is very much plural and not singular. This is because it is not intended to be AN organisation but rather, a CONCEPT, and hopefully, with the blessing of The Lord, eventually a worldwide movement of like minded individuals (nobodies and somebodies alike) and organizations all sharing the same vision and creating their own Small GIFTS ministry as The Lord leads them and using the gifts He has blessed them with.

So what IS "Small GIFTS Ministries".  It stands for:- 

"Small Group Internet Facilities and Technical Support". 

The intention is to use the Internet to provide local churches and small groups of Christians throughout the world with FREE resources and support from the God given gifts of fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Especially to help new churches and groups get established but also to help any "resource poor" congregations and groups who can better use their limited finances than having to continually purchase the gifts The Lord has already given freely to His people to grow and nourish the whole Body of Christ.

The concept is based on two foundational understandings and a command from Christ Himself. The first understanding is that the rapidly growing church model set up by the Apostles and illustrated in the New Testament is not that of large, centralised, resource rich, organisations with cumbersome organisational structures and long "chains of command". Instead personal discipleship, mentoring and rapid spread of the Gospel was achieved by "small and many" groups of believers under the control and guidance of the Holy Spirit and helping one another more as a community and family of individuals than as an organisation. I believe the followers of Christ are now moving back to this proven "Biblical" model in ever increasing numbers.

The second understanding is that the gifts we receive from The Lord are not for ourselves or for our own advancement or gain but are for the advancement and wellbeing of the whole body of Christ to which we belong. Not just our denomination, local church, home group, bible study group, etc. But for the WHOLE body of Christ, wherever it may be in the world.

Indeed I recommend as a suggestion that all "Small GIFTS Ministries" that may arise adopt the motto that will appear at the top of my own special copyright notices allowing free use and distribution of my works:-

To The Profit and Glory of The Lord Alone!

Finally the SGM concept is in obedience to the command of Christ regarding those He sent out to share with others the gifts He had given them.

Matthew 10:8 "Freely you have received, freely give."

Perhaps your local church records its sermons (video or audio). If your church or group is blessed by those with the gift of teaching and preaching why not share the recordings with those many groups and churches around the world who do not have easy access to pastors and teachers. Even well written sermon notes can be shared with other pastors and lay preachers from around the world to work together so that preacher may sharpen preacher as "iron sharpens iron".

That excellent article a member of your church wrote for the church newsletter - why not share it freely with the world and let them be a blessing to the whole body of Christ? In fact if your church has one of those newsletters that are packed with useful information, tips, articles, etc. why not share the whole newsletter with the world wide body of Christ?

If your home group or Bible Study group is blessed with gifted people consider how you can share that blessing with other home groups and Bible Study groups wherever they may be and be a blessing to them also. If you are a writer, poet, video maker, photographer and graphics design person like me, or a singer, songwriter, composer like my daughter ("minstrelbear" on YouTube) why not freely share with your brothers and sisters in Christ everywhere the blessings of the gifts you have freely received from The Lord for that very purpose?

Are you gifted in administration, church and small group planting, operation, and growth, website creation, Information Technology, crafts, trades, etc? Why not freely share "How To" guides, videos, advice, facilities, etc. via the internet, DVD and DVD (.iso) image files, email, etc. to help those churches and groups who do not have easy access to such blessings?

The list is as long and as wide as your vision but you get the idea.

For example, for quite some time now under a special copyright notice my eBooks have been made freely downloadable and distributable for non-profit, non-commercial use by my brothers and sisters in Christ wherever in the world they may be and I am about to do the same with my video works and blog posts to create my own Small GIFTS Ministry. May I encourage my brothers an sisters in Christ everywhere to likewise create their own SGM to share their gifts, large and small, freely wherever they are needed or may be used in the body of Christ.

Feel free to adopt or adapt the special copyright notices I use, or create your own. (Mine are not based on legal advice but are intended to make it clear that I retain ownership and control of and rights to, the material at all times and that what is being given is PERMISSION to share and distribute it on a cost free basis only for non-commercial purposes. Likewise the motto "To The Profit and Glory of The Lord Alone." can freely be used as can the spotlighted cross in the circle logo I created (I can make the logo image file available). It would be great to see them cropping up on SGMs around the world to symbolize unity in diversity in an SGM "movement". But I have to leave that in the hands of The Lord.

THINGS YOU WILL NEED:

Obviously the first thing you will need is access to the Internet. You will also need some sort of host site where you can store your material on-line and make it available for viewing and/or download (unless you are doing yours by email or some other means). There are a number of such hosting sites (Google+ and YouTube are one example but there are many others and you do not have to limit your self to one only.) Some may require an annual fee while others do it for free if you do not mind the odd bit of advertising popping up here and there.

I am still praying about and trying to organize such a site for myself. BUT HEY! Wouldn't it be incredible if some CHRISTIAN web hosting sites decided their SGM is to freely host other SGMs as download sites! THAT is how SGM works, everybody being individually led by the

Lord to find ways to freely share with the whole body of Christ the gifts and opportunities the

Lord has blessed them with for that very purpose. Something to pray about folks!

MOST IMPORTANTLY it is essential that you either own or control the copyright of the material you share or you have permission in writing from the copyright owners to freely share and distribute it. Sorry but you cannot go about freely sharing and distributing OTHER PEOPLE'S material without their permission. That, I have to warn, is illegal and you could find yourself in a spot of bother as well as in need of a lot of prayer (and legal) support.

I STRONGLY SUGGEST that you retain copyright control of your material and reserve all rights. What you are giving is PERMISSION to share and distribute the material not ownership and control of it. Not only do you then retain ownership and control of the material for all future purposes but you also retain control of the sharing and distribution. It means nobody else can make money, buy, sell, rent, hire etc. what you have intended to be freely shared and distributed without cost.

To this end it is a good idea to include a special copyright notice in anything you share.

FINALLY A NOTE ON HASHTAGS:

Perhaps it is the Lord's doing (perfect timing) but I just had an article explaining a bit about hashtags drawn to my attention in an email. Now that I know a LITTLE something about them and what they do I am going to tag my SGM stuff with 2 hashtags:-

 #smallgiftsministries 

(pretty self explanatory).

#ttpagoTLa 

("to the profit and glory of The Lord alone" - it is a more unique identifier for freely usable Christian resources)

Hopefully by using these hashtags it will not only help any SGMs find each other but also help small groups, churches, etc find SGMs and their available resources. Please use them where you can. It would be wonderful if soon when a small group of brothers and sisters somewhere in the world type in these hashtags they are presented with screens full of freely available resources and help and not the empty screens currently produced (I tested to see if anybody else was using them). By the way you can also further refine your search using other keywords in addition to these when searching.

BUT DO BE CAREFUL! Remember #smallgiftsministries and #ttpagoTLa are nothing more than KEYWORDS that can be used to help people find brothers and sisters in Christ who are willing to share their gifts for free. A search using these keywords is no different to any other internet search and there is no control over who can use them in their sites, blogs, etc.. They offer no special protection. Like the internet itself, nobody (on earth at least) controls the SGM concept (if it gets off the ground), me least of all. It is merely brothers and sisters in Christ helping one another where they can as independent and autonomous individuals and groups. A search using the SGM keywords should be treated with the same caution and precaution as any other internet search and people should use their own discernment and discretion (and virus protection, etc.) in regards to the sites and content their search produces.

The Internet is about to discover its first Small GIFTS Ministry. I pray to The Lord it will not be the last, but the first of many.  

With Love from Christ in IslandBard

Provided it is done freely and without charge

"Introducing The Concept of Small GIFTS Ministries"

may be copied, used and distributed

(in its entirety only including this notice)

by brothers and sisters in Christ

to the profit and glory of The Lord alone (ttpagoTLa)

By special permission of 

D.J. Ludlow copyright 2014

#smallgiftsministries  #ttpagoTLa