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Realizing the presence, promise, and power of the Kingdom of God.
Personal Mission Field Workshop

Sharpen Your Tools

We need to keep our tools sharp and ready.

Welcome to the PMF Workshop for December, 2021. I’m your host, T. M. Moore. Each month we provide teaching, encouragement, activities, and resources to help you in working your Personal Mission Field, so that you can become more consistent and effective in realizing the presence, promise, and power of God’s Kingdom in your daily life.

This month’s Workshop is entitled, “Sharpen Your Tools.” Our text is 2 Timothy 1.6:

Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

Seeing the unseen

For a time during my high school years I worked on a farm. I worked in the summer, when the harvest was ready and abundant. But the farmers managed to find things to do during those months when the fields were resting and being replenished for spring sowing.

Mostly what they did was keep things in working order – sharpen tools, reposition irrigation pipes, clear out any remaining weeds, and other works of maintenance and preparation. These weren’t nearly as satisfying as harvesting a crop, but they were just as necessary. There would have been no crop to harvest, or no way to harvest it, if they failed to keep the basic tools of our trade in good working order.

The same can be said for working your Personal Mission Field. The holiday season is now upon us, and you will have abundant opportunities to talk to people about your faith in Jesus Christ. Your fellow believers need the encouragement of your testimony, and your unsaved friends, neighbors, and co-workers need to be reminded of the real reason we celebrate at this time of year. You should expect to see fruit from your labors – fellow believers growing in grace and unbelievers open in new ways to the Good News of Jesus.

But soon enough you will have harvested all the opportunities for bearing witness that this season can provide. Your work in your Personal Mission Field won’t cease, but it might slow down as you enter the dark, gray, mostly-inside days of winter, waiting for when you can get out again in the spring.

Don’t let these “fallow” days go to waste. This is a good time to sharpen the tools you use each day in working your Personal Mission Field. Make a point, throughout the weeks ahead, of improving your skills in those basic disciplines that are essential for sowing, cultivating, and seeing fruit in your part of the Lord’s field: preparation, demonstration, conversation, and working for transformation.

Let me suggest some specific ways to improve each of these valuable skills.

Focusing on improvement
First, identify areas of your walk with and work for the Lord where you need improvement. Maybe you need to gain more confidence in sharing your testimony or the Gospel. Perhaps there are some people in your Personal Mission Field you haven’t kept up with, or some new people you have not yet met.

The place to begin improving in all these areas and more is in prayer. Pray daily for the people in your Personal Mission Field. Pray specifically that God would prepare their heart to receive your witness, whether by words or deeds. Pray for your own boldness, for opportunities to share, for the Lord to channel His grace through you, and for more folks to become part of your Personal Mission Field. Prayer is the place to begin all your preparations, and you can use these “inside” weeks to sharpen the focus and intensity of your prayers for your Personal Mission Field.

Also as part of your preparation, you might read a book to help you sharpen your witness. Make sure, as you read, that you are thinking about your Personal Mission Field and how this book can help you become more consistent and fruitful.

Second, think of new ways to demonstrate the love of Jesus to the people in your life. Don’t wait around, during these gray days, for someone to perk you up. Ask the Lord to show you how, by words and deeds, you can channel His grace to all those you see and pray for each day.

Third, practice talking with your family members about Jesus and what you’re learning about Him in your daily devotions. Try out new ways of starting conversations with family members, so that you strengthen your mind to seek open doors of opportunity for talking about the Lord. The best way to improve your conversational skills is through conversations.

Finally, consider ways you need to realize more of the transformation God intends for you. In what areas of your life do you need to become more like Jesus? How can you make better use of your time? What needs to change in your thinking so that you think more about your Personal Mission Field and the people who are in it? Perhaps you need to re-assess your time, to make sure you’re redeeming it properly.

Make the most of the time
Not only are wintry days evil, as Paul reminds us in Ephesians 4.15-17, they can be lonely, brooding, and isolating. But if we keep in mind that we are called as the Lord’s workers to our own Personal Mission Field, and we are continuously on call there as agents of grace and truth, then we will give ourselves to whatever opportunities present themselves for continuing to work that Field. And we’ll use at least some of the rest of our time sharpening the tools of preparation, demonstration, conversation, and transformation for the ongoing work of our Personal Mission Field in the days to come.

Here are some activities you can practice to help you in working your Personal Mission Field and to sharpen your tools during these winter months:

  1. First – and we remind you of this every month – make sure you have mapped out your Personal Mission Field. Once you have done that, get in the habit of praying daily for the people you expect to meet. Each day, try to sharpen the focus and intensity of your prayers, seeking the Lord’s help in readying you for every opportunity to serve others.
  2. Order your free copies of our books, The Gospel of the Kingdom and Joy to Your World! (click here). These will help you improve your ability to share the Gospel and to keep developing your relationships with the people to whom God sends you.
  3. Find a new or another prayer partner. Share the Personal Mission Field worksheet with your prayer partner, and set a time each week or so to pray together about your work.
  4. Keep a journal of all the ways God shows you, over the next several weeks, how to become more consistent and effective in working your Personal Mission Field. Try to envision yourself practicing these with the people God sends you to each day.
  5. Go through The Time of Your Life time assessment exercise, to discover how to make better use of your time for loving God and your neighbors. Write to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and I’ll send you the worksheet.

That’s it for this month’s Personal Mission Field Workshop. Share your stories and ideas, or send me your questions at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Until next month, for the Fellowship of Ailbe, and for the Personal Mission Field Workshop, this has been T. M. Moore.

We ask the Lord to move and enable many more of our readers to provide for the needs of our ministry. Please seek Him in prayer concerning your part in supporting our work. You can contribute online by using the
Contribute button at the website; or you can send a gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, 360 Zephyr Road, Williston, VT 05495.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in the Champlain Valley of Vermont.
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