Asset-based Thinking

First used as the stable foundation for overseas community development in Third or Fourth World countries, asset-based thinking (and planning) has found its way into a philosophical position that undergirds community planning and corporate development in the United States and the rest of the First World. The propositions are simple: The glass is half-full, not half-empty, and you have enough (assets, tools, abilities, knowledge, etc) right here to do what you propose to do.

In ministry in daily life theology, giftedness is presumed as the underground spring from which any sense of ministry is fed. "You are capable of doing God's will in your life; go out and do it!"  Instead of replying on the definitions of "ministry" that spring from the programs and structures of the church as the sole source of identity or life purpose, Christians assay their God-given assets — their gifts — and from that prayerful, appreciative inquiry into their talents they construct the forms and functions of ministry that best fit their capabilities and sense of life purpose. Thus daily life ministry is always springing from a sense of well-being, or positive energy, of gratitude and of possibility.

In this mode of thinking, God's gifts are graced evidence of God's will for Christians' lives, the condemnation of the Law is a past-tense matter and the future is always hopeful. Christians who minister in Christ's name do so with the assurance that, by God's surprising grace, they have what it takes to bring about God's purposes for the world. They are powerful, effective and loved. They are people with mission and purpose. They cannot be stopped.