“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” ―Mother Theresa 

As a boy, rocks and water were two things that were irresistible. When you found them together there was only one thing to do, throw the rocks into the water. If they were small stones, you looked for flat ones to see how far you could skip them across the water. If they ware larger rocks, you looked for the biggest one and threw it as high in the air as you could in order to create the biggest splash and the most ripples. Sometimes the impact started ripples that would make it all the way to the edge of the pond ―rolling against the shore like mini waves one after the other. 

Stadia has five values: relationships, urgency, impact, children and celebration. This week we’ll take a closer look at the value of Impact. It guides our decisions about what we do as well as the where, when, and how. Impact is why we help start and lead thriving, growing, multiplying churches for the next generation. Every church we help start is like a rock in a pond that creates ripples of impact that continue until they reach far and wide.  

Consider the impact of just one new church. 

New churches are the best way to introduce the next generation to the transformational hope of Jesus. In the US, surveys reveal 42% of attendees at new churches have never regularly attended church before. Each person transformed by the hope of Jesus is has an impact that ripples through their life, family, friends, workplace, and community. Each young person transformed by the hope of Jesus begins a lifetime of service, loving their neighbors in ways big and small that ripples through time and into the next generation. 

New churches search for and find ways to meet physical and emotional needs in their communities. They provide countless hours of volunteer time and financial resource to provide food, clothing, education, encouragement and relief as the hands and feet of Jesus. These acts of kindness and generosity ripple out into darkest corners of a community. 

New churches generate a stream of financial resources that fuel kingdom impact year after year after year. The initial resources invested in starting a church are like seed that is planted and then produces a harvest season after season. 

New churches start more new churches sometimes next door and sometimes on the other side of the world. Regardless of where, each new church has its own impact beginning a new set of ripples in more lives that reach more communities. 

I am the kid on the shore who found the giant rock that will send ripples across the entire pond. This is why I am committed to giving the very best of my time, talent and treasure to helping people start and lead thriving, growing and multiplying new churches. No other kingdom activity has the lasting impact of starting a church! 

Neither I nor Stadia alone can change the world, but we will continue to help start churches whose impact create many ripples until every child has a church!