Chapter 8
What Purposes Foundations
Should Seek to Fulfill
Thus says the Lord GOD:
“I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel,
but for My holy name’s sake,
which you have profaned among the nations
wherever you went.
And I will sanctify My great name,
which has been profaned among the nations,
which you have profaned in their midst;
and the nations shall know that I am
the LORD,” says the Lord GOD,
“when I am hallowed in you before their eyes.
For I will take you from among the nations,
gather you out of all countries,
and bring you into your own land.
Then I will sprinkle clean water on you,
and you shall be clean;
I will cleanse you from all your filthiness
and from all your idols.
I will give you a new heart and put a new
spirit within you;
I will take the heart of stone out of your
flesh
and give you a heart of flesh.
I will put My Spirit within you
and cause you to walk in My statutes,
and you will keep My judgments and do them.
Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave
to your fathers;
you shall be My people, and I will be your
God.
I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses.
I will call for the grain and multiply it,
and bring no famine upon you.
And I will multiply the fruit of your trees
and the increase of your fields,
so that you need never again bear the
reproach
of famine among the nations.”
— Ezekiel 36:22-30
(NKJV)
To improve understanding of His power, goodness, and
holiness, God is prepared to multiply physical resources, such as grain, fruit,
and other crops, for righteous nations as is described by Ezekiel 36:22-30
(NKJV). Such multiplied physical benefits are also provided to encourage His
people in a nation to be cleansed of sin through gaining Salvation by repenting
and accepting the risen from death Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. While
God can do much more than we can ask or think in these regards (Ephesians 3:20,
NKJV), it’s clear that He waits for us to seek Him before our hearts, minds,
souls, and hands will be able to touch and apply all the infinite wisdom and
abundance that He wants to provide.
Sometimes people need help to
reach the assistance they require. Think of a person who can’t swim who sees a
swimmer struggling with a cramp. What can be done? Unless a lifeguard or a good
swimmer is around who can be alerted to the problem, there’s very little. If
there’s a flotation ring tied to a rope in the vicinity, the nonswimmer can
toss the ring until it is grasped and then pull the person to safety.
In a similar way to the person
tossing the flotation ring, I believe that foundations (typically nonprofit
organizations founded under special legislation and sustained by gifts to
advance some public purpose such as research, expanding the arts, or making
information available, such as the Rockefeller Foundation) can play an
unusually important role by reaching out to God to gain the information and
knowledge that He wants us to have to expand fruitfulness exponentially in all
the Godly dimensions of a 2,000 percent nation. After foundations have received
this heavenly information and knowledge, they can spread what they learn to
those who are less able to acquire and to use what He wants to provide.
Foundations are also important
because they provide practical support and credibility for those who lack the
resources to work on making important breakthroughs, encouragement to dream of
accomplishing more than people otherwise might, and guidance based on their
experience for how to engage in accomplishing breakthrough tasks.
Yet some foundations are based on
philanthropic principles primarily designed to bring glory to the founder, to
the foundation’s leadership, to large donors, or to project leaders rather than
to God. God isn’t likely to be impressed by and may not often support such
approaches to gaining personal glory at the expense of upholding His name and
glory.
Due to legal limitations on
changing their purposes, many foundations cannot easily adopt a Christian
purpose. However, foundations in the formative stage can choose to engage only
in serving the Lord. Since all our natural and supernatural resources come from
God, it’s clear that just a few physical resources supplemented by His
supernatural support will be more than enough to produce whatever God wants
done in making breakthroughs for establishing and improving 2,000 percent
nations.
As a result of these
opportunities and practices, this chapter is directed toward what Christian
foundations should be doing, regardless of where they are located. Even a
Christian foundation in a nation where rebellion against God is rapidly
increasing can provide valuable support for breakthroughs that will help
establish and improve 2,000 percent nations elsewhere. Christians at secular
foundations may also find the chapter’s contents to be relevant by making them
aware of the potential benefits of supporting Christian foundations in
undertaking aspects of tasks that would not be permitted under their own
secular foundation’s charter. Secular foundations may also find opportunities to
support projects that will build upon the successes of the Christian
foundations.
While there are a great many
things that Christian foundations could potentially accomplish in furthering
2,000 percent nations, I focus in this chapter on just the following four roles
for what such foundations should do:
1. Support projects that will
simultaneously multiply more kinds of complementary, exponential benefit
increases for Godly purposes.
2. Teach those who propose
projects how to devise ways to simultaneously multiply more kinds of
complementary, exponential benefit increases for Godly purposes.
3. Assist proposal writers and
project leaders to multiply more kinds of complementary, exponential benefit
increases for Godly purposes in their proposals, plans, and implementation.
4. Redirect foundations’
assistance and support toward projects that successfully multiply more kinds of
complementary, exponential benefit increases for Godly purposes that will be
very rapidly expanded by others beyond their initial scopes.
In this chapter, I won’t be
addressing very many aspects of how best to accomplish these four roles. If
that subject is of interest, please read Chapter 7 of Help Wanted to learn more.
We begin by considering the
subject of supporting projects that will simultaneously multiply more kinds of
complementary, exponential benefit increases for Godly purposes.
Support Projects That Will Simultaneously
Multiply
More Kinds of Complementary, Exponential
Benefit Increases for Godly Purposes
Moreover he commanded the people who
dwelt in Jerusalem
to contribute support for the priests
and the Levites,
that they might devote themselves to the
Law of the LORD.
As soon as the commandment was
circulated,
the children of Israel brought in abundance the
firstfruits
of grain and wine, oil and honey, and of
all the produce of the field;
and they brought in abundantly the tithe
of everything.
And the children of Israel and Judah,
who dwelt in the cities of Judah,
brought the tithe of oxen and sheep;
also the tithe of holy things
which were consecrated to the LORD their
God they laid in heaps.
— 2 Chronicles 31:4-6 (NKJV)
Supporting only projects that will produce the most benefits
for Godly purposes can help create and improve 2,000 percent nations by
locating better ways to serve God, by encouraging others to provide their
resources and efforts to support and to expand the same projects, and by
multiplying benefits that can generate more resources and efforts for Godly
purposes. The opportunity is similar (but on a more limited scale and with much
less Earthly authority) to when Hezekiah began serving God and commanded the
children of Israel and Judah to do the same with their tithes as described in 2
Chronicles 31:4-6 (NKJV), which released the blessings that God promised to
those who tithe (Malachi 3:10-12, NKJV).
In only supporting projects for
Godly purposes that will multiply more kinds of complementary, exponential
benefit increases, it’s important to make people aware that this goal is being
sought and to publicize any results that God has blessed to draw more attention
to the lessons of such projects. Helping people learn about such highly
beneficial practices is important because in devising projects many people
choose to look quite narrowly at what kinds of benefits to provide. Yet God is
able to use the Holy Spirit to direct those leading the projects to provide
many more kinds of benefits simultaneously in all dimensions of what a 2,000
percent nation should be accomplishing.
Christian foundations can publish
proposal guidelines to encourage such expanded benefit dimensions. Those who
lack resources to accomplish Godly purposes often look at foundations’ proposal
guidelines to identify what should be included in the purposes and scope of a
project and the plans for how to accomplish the work. In addition, God can also
use His Holy Spirit to direct the people He wants to work on such projects to
find the proposal guidelines as a way to inform them of what He wants done. In
so doing, the fullness of God’s purposes and what’s truly possible with God’s
help can be more completely appreciated by more people.
In setting a good example by only
supporting projects that will help establish or improve 2,000 percent nations
by providing exponential increases in many kinds of benefits, Christian
foundations can also influence secular foundations to seek to accomplish more
Godly results from the projects that they support. In the process, God will be
able to make better use of the people, efforts, and resources committed to all
foundations.
Further, those who are attracted
to challenging problems will be encouraged to work on serving more Godly
purposes after being impressed by the conceptual beauty and inspiration of
trying to accomplish more things at one time in producing multiple dimensions
of benefit increases with the help of employing many complementary
breakthroughs. Consequently, even some of those who live in opposition to God
may find themselves being drawn through their desires to meet challenging goals
into serving His purposes.
In time, some Christian
foundations may find it helpful to compare the fruitfulness of supporting such
beneficial projects with the fruitfulness of what they had done previously.
Sharing such results can inform all Christian foundations about the usefulness
of this approach for selecting projects to support and can encourage other
Christian foundations to do the same. Broader publicity about the fruitfulness
of this approach can then inform those who are thinking about establishing new
foundations or making large contributions to existing ones so that their gifts
and support will more often be directed toward supporting God’s will in
establishing and improving 2,000 percent nations.
Undoubtedly, such measurements
might also create interest at some secular foundations in choosing to seek the
same kinds of benefits, simply to be good stewards of the purposes that their
founders originally established and the resources they are applying. As a
consequence, some foundation charters may even be adjusted into alignment with
more Godly purposes.
Let’s look next at the benefits
of teaching those who propose projects how to devise ways to simultaneously
multiply more kinds of complementary, exponential benefit increases for Godly
purposes in establishing and building 2,000 percent nations.
Teach Those Who Propose Projects
How to Devise Ways to Simultaneously Multiply
More Kinds of Complementary, Exponential
Benefits Increases for Godly Purposes
Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food,
supply and multiply the seed you have sown
and increase the fruits of your
righteousness,
while you are enriched in everything for all
liberality,
which causes thanksgiving through us to
God.
For the administration of this service
not only supplies the needs of the saints,
but also is abounding through many
thanksgivings to God,
while, through the proof of this
ministry,
they glorify God for the obedience of
your confession to the gospel of Christ,
and for your liberal sharing with them and all men,
and by their prayer for you,
who long for you because of the
exceeding grace of God in you.
Thanks be to God for
His indescribable gift!
— 2 Corinthians 9:10-15 (NKJV)
While meeting with people who propose projects to
foundations, rarely did anyone tell me how they first sought God’s directions
for what they should attempt to accomplish and how to do so. Instead, many such
project proposers were initially driven by heartfelt desires to ease burdens on
particular people or to advance some helpful knowledge or process that they had
developed. Because of such narrow interests, no set of proposal guidelines
published by a Christian foundation is, by itself, going to expand Godly
awareness and knowledge of the most fruitful practices among project proposers
as far as such knowledge needs to be increased.
Teaching proposers how to pick
better objectives and ways to accomplish them will helpfully shift focus much
more than will solely adjusting proposal guidelines. Most foundations don’t
invest much in helping those who write proposals to develop better ones. To
begin doing so sends a powerful message that paying attention to this new
knowledge is essential to gaining support from a particular foundation. In
addition, the resulting teaching interactions will provide opportunities to
explain more fully why it is important to devise more ways to simultaneously
multiply more kinds of complementary, exponential benefit breakthroughs for
Godly purposes.
In communicating that importance,
there are two sets of information that should be shared:
1. Information drawn from the
Bible to show the importance of gaining God’s knowledge and supernatural
support.
2. Documentation of how much more
valuable such results are than from what following more conventional purposes
and methods produces based on actual experiences in accomplishing both kinds of
projects.
Christian foundations also need
to appreciate that most project proposers have deeply ingrained habits that
won’t be easy to shed without plenty of encouragement and support. To improve,
proposers must identify their own and their organizations’ stalls (harmful
thinking habits), select appropriate stallbusters, become familiar with the
2,000 percent solution process, and put together complementary breakthrough
solutions that deliver a multiplicity of exponentially increased benefits for
Godly purposes. Just to become familiar with the key information and to apply
it to a single proposal can require many dozens of hours for an individual and
even more time for a team. By incorporating such teaching into the processes of
sending a query, evaluating what has been provided and delivering feedback
about potential interest in supporting a proposal, and later developing the
proposal, Christian foundations and their staffs can expect to gain large
improvements in the results of the projects that are funded by them.
I also encourage foundations to
provide commentary on any proposals that are received in terms of their
suitability for providing Godly purposes in the right multiplicity of ways and
amount of benefits. As a result, those who write proposals will learn faster to
prepare ways for helping to establish and to strengthen 2,000 percent nations.
Just teaching such information
and processes isn’t enough for Christian foundations to do. Let’s look next at
assisting proposal writers and project leaders to multiply more kinds of
complementary, exponential benefit increases for Godly purposes in their
proposals, plans, and implementation.
Assist Proposal Writers and Project Leaders
to Multiply More Kinds of
Complementary, Exponential Benefit
Increases
for Godly Purposes
in Their Proposals, Plans, and
Implementation
I commend to you Phoebe our sister,
who is a servant of the church in
Cenchrea,
that you may receive her in the Lord in
a manner worthy of the saints,
and assist her in whatever business she
has need of you;
for indeed she has been a helper of many
and of myself also.
— Romans 16:1-2 (NKJV)
Being a professor has taught me that interacting with people
while they work on a project accelerates learning and improves results in more
and greater ways than would otherwise be accomplished. Students usually have no
idea how much they can accomplish until they are nudged to do more along the
most fruitful paths. Otherwise, many students would do nothing about potential
aspects of a project that turn out to be the most beneficial.
Many people who evaluate work are
reluctant to become involved in offering suggestions for improvement to those
who are preparing to be evaluated. Evaluators rightly fear that objectivity may
be lost and that they will simply shape the work’s appearance to please
themselves without gaining much substantive improvement.
Such concerns can be guarded
against by having those who assist proposal writers and project leaders not be the
same people who will ultimately decide which proposals to support. It’s easiest
to appreciate how this might be done if those who assist aren’t part of the
foundation, such as certified tutors with experience in developing multiple
breakthroughs for many simultaneous dimensions of blessings that help create
and improve 2,000 percent nations.
An even more powerful safeguard
is to eliminate any communications between those who assist proposal writers
and project leaders and the foundation staffers who evaluate proposals and
conduct oversight on approved projects during implementation. Of course, those
who provide the assistance will need continuing communications with those who
can explain the Christian foundation’s latest thinking about what it is trying
to accomplish, what it has been learning about becoming more effective in
working with project proposers and leaders, and what shifts would be the most
useful in how proposals are written and projects are conducted.
To make such guidance more valuable,
each Christian foundation should develop its own measures of what results were
anticipated for various projects that were and were not supported, what results
were actually accomplished (including projects that were turned down by this
foundation but that were later supported by a different one), and what those
involved concluded about the causes of outstanding performance and
underperformance.
Christian foundations should
carefully measure the effectiveness of such assistance so that it can be continually
improved. I suspect that helping proposal writers to locate breakthrough
practices for producing exponential increases in more kinds of Godly benefits
will often be the most effective use of such resources.
Some may be concerned that the
cost of providing such assistance will reduce the number of projects that can
be funded by a Christian foundation. Such a reduction could certainly be a
short-term consequence due to needing to add expenses for assistance before any
benefits are received from completing the projects. However, over time improved
projects that have benefited from such assistance will require fewer resources
and accomplish more. As evidence of this point, I simply note that the
fruitfulness of the 400 Year Project has continually expanded in exponential
ways to add new kinds of benefits while greatly reducing the resources
required.
Finally, let’s study redirecting
Christian foundations’ assistance and support toward projects that successfully
multiply more kinds of complementary, exponential benefit increases for Godly
purposes that will be very rapidly expanded by others beyond their initial
scopes.
Redirect Foundations’ Assistance and
Support toward Projects
That Successfully Multiply More Kinds of
Complementary, Exponential Benefit Increases
for Godly Purposes That Will Be Very Rapidly
Expanded
by Others beyond Their Initial Scopes
For you shall expand to the right and to the left,
And your descendants will inherit the
nations,
And make the desolate cities inhabited.
— Isaiah 54:3 (NKJV)
As desirable as it would be for a single Christian
foundation to assist in reforming all countries to become 2,000 percent nations
by funding just one project, a more likely outcome is that many projects will
demonstrate partial ways to proceed that others can copy. In most cases,
slavish repetition of the first success is the most that can be expected. For
instance, if a project shows how to make interactive online Bible studies
simultaneously accessible and compelling to large numbers of people, many
excellent Bible teachers could be expected to employ such methods for their own
Bible studies. In such an instance, multiple kinds of Godly benefits might be
gained through greater sanctification of believers. If a Christian foundation
were presented with four proposals to make interactive online Bible studies
simultaneously accessible and compelling to large numbers of people, it should
favor the proposal (all else being similar) that is most likely be duplicated
by others due to its simplicity, its ease of implementation, and its appeal.
To gain such a perspective will
probably require a foundation conducting research to assess the likely
expansions that would follow a successful project. In general, projects with
similar objectives and methods might also present differences in likelihood of
success, duration, cost, and difficulties to overcome. All these aspects need
to be assessed as well.
In most cases, there won’t
probably be any directly comparable alternative proposals. Instead, one
proposal might be for interactive online Bible studies while other proposals
might focus on evangelism, training witnesses, and providing new Bible study
materials. Christian foundations are familiar with such difficulties in making
comparisons, and each one has undoubtedly developed methods for making
proposals that are about “apples” and “oranges” more comparable for evaluation
purposes.
While not doubting the importance
of such comparison measures, let me, instead, draw your attention to some other
dimensions of dissimilar projects that should be considered. One of such
dimensions is how readily and likely it is that other complementary
breakthroughs could be added to the proposal by others. Each such breakthrough
represents the opportunity to multiply the benefits that the project already
hopes to deliver by another twenty times. Two such breakthroughs can multiply
benefits by an additional 400 times, and so forth. Thus, a project that’s
likely to be combined with five future complementary benefit breakthroughs
should be vastly preferred over one that will be combined with only two.
I cannot emphasize this point too
much, especially since it’s highly unlikely that any Christian foundations are
currently considering this kind of potential. Some may excuse that missed opportunity
by pointing out that not many foundation projects currently gain benefits from
later adding complementary breakthroughs. Such an argument is like being
satisfied that few people are gaining Salvation in a country where there are
few Christians to share the Gospel and to be witnesses. By simply focusing on
seeking such opportunities to add complementary breakthroughs and encouraging
them to be added, Christian foundations can greatly multiply the resources that
God has provided to them.
Christian foundations also should
take into account whether the project’s lessons can also be applied for a
different Godly purpose for advancing 2,000 percent nations. For instance, a
method for making interactive online Bible studies more effective could easily
reveal lessons for training and encouraging witnesses. Those who evaluate
proposals might have an urge to throw up their hands in frustration after
reading this suggestion. They might properly wonder how they might correctly
evaluate such a factor by using only their own resources. Certainly, it
requires faith to appreciate that the Holy Spirit can easily provide whatever
is needed to make difficult evaluations.
Preparation can help, too.
Proposal guidelines can ask for projects to address other potential applications
for what is to be learned. Those who assist proposal writers can also encourage
making such opportunities explicit and providing the best available evidence
for them. I believe that wise Christian foundations may also direct proposal
writers to amend their proposals so that the validity of such potential
applications will be demonstrated in inexpensive, preliminary ways before the
proposal receives its final evaluation.
Let me leave you with one final
thought about assisting and supporting the most fruitful projects: Be sure to
consider the fruitfulness likely to be derived from receiving any intended
benefit increases for Godly purposes in establishing and increasing 2,000
percent nations. Think of this as examining second-order effects of adding fruitful
benefits. For instance, the person who attends a more effective interactive
online Bible study will know the Word better and may also produce more fruit
for the Lord in sharing the Gospel, witnessing, and doing works that inspire
other Christians to become more fruitful.
In Chapter 9, we turn our
attention next to what social enterprises should work on. I’ll explain more
about what a social enterprise is in the beginning of that chapter.
Copyright
© 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012 by Donald W. Mitchell.
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are taken
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© 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
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