Trust is an asset.
An Asset is a useful or valuable quality, person, or a thing; an advantage or resource. A valuable item that is owned.
According to David Horsager, TRUST, not money, is the currency of business and life.
When I was building our house in Mbingo, I needed to buy cable to bring the power from the hospital powerhouse out to our new house site. Since cable like that was not readily available in Bamenda I asked a shop owner to see if he could find it in Douala, I needed 600 meters. About one week later he called me and told me that the cable had arrived in Bamenda and was waiting for me at his shop. The cable was purchased as remnants in Douala and arrived in 5 separate pieces. On the day I went to town to pick up the cable he informed me that the total length of the cable was 618 meters and not the 600 I had requested. I told him that that would be no problem as we could always use that cable in the hospital, however I had only brought enough money to pay for the 600 meters but would return the next week with the rest of the money. He looked at me with doubt and I quickly informed him that I was a Christian, he interrupted me and told me that Christian’s lie all the time. I was surprised by that as I assumed Christians would always be honest.
He finally agreed to trust me, and I returned the following week as promised to finish paying him. After that we became friends and for the next several years, if we needed anything for work at the hospital, I could call him and tell him what we needed, and he would promptly have it put on a taxi and sent out to me. Instead of having to drive 34 kilometers and losing several hours of my time I could easily make a phone call and have something in my hands in a very short time, sometimes in less than 1 hour. What made this possible? Trust, trust was truly an asset in this case and worth lots of time and money.
Trust, or the lack of trust, have very real and opposite impacts in life. In the case above we can see how it saved us both time and money, but also it gave credibility to my testimony as a follower of Jesus. Many of the examples in the image below appear at first to be related only to business but these equally apply to ministry as well. In fact, we will talk later about business as a ministry. If a person is a Christian, he or she should think of whatever it is they do, whether in business, government, law enforcement, teaching, or any other thing, as ministry. Jesus wants to be Lord over, and glorified in, every area and aspect of our lives. The following image gives an overview of things that will increase in our business or ministries when trust increases, likewise it lists things that will decrease at the same time. Trust is important.
Being skeptical (doubting), or suspicious (questioning if something or someone is trustworthy) has a cost. Both of these things are the opposite of trust and destroy motivation, teamwork, and outcomes. Skepticism brings everything into question and promotes suspicion and can slow down processes. When people are skeptical or suspicious of your business this can cost a lot of money and time, in ministry it can cost you everything as people will not listen to your message. As a leader it can undermine your credibility and render you completely ineffective.
Therefore it seems clear that trust is not something to be ignored, but instead it is something to truly understand. Here are two lists of statistics that compare trust versus distrust when it comes to business, the same idea could likely be applied to ministry as well. This list is taken from The Trust Edge, page 22.
Your TRUST SCORE is the level at which you are trusted. In the West, people have what is known as a credit score. your credit score tells a potential lender how trusted you are when it comes to how well you pay your debts, and how much debt you have. If we take that idea and apply it to how much a person is trusted by others we can call that a trust score. This would apply to all relationships as we’ve discussed above. The more I am trusted by others, the higher my trust score would be. This cannot really be measured in numbers, but might be measured in effectiveness and success in business or in ministry. In ministry we might ask, “how much do I look like Jesus in my life and in my relationships?”, and “how much influence do I have in helping others to look like Jesus?”. A person can begin to practice some of the pillars of trust for personal gain, but the biggest deceiver is the one who appears trustworthy but is not. If a foundation of trust becomes who you are, then by earning the Trust Edge you will gain a significant advantage in all of life.
David Horsager points out that if the pillars outlined in this study are practiced genuinely, then a businessperson will do well. That is great but what about other areas of life, in our families, in our roles as leaders, and in our ministries? “One benefit of sincerely building trust it that priceless feeling that comes when one does what one knows in his heart is the right thing to do. Other intangibles (benefits that cannot be measured) of genuine trust include decreased stress, increased peace, fulfillment, solid friendships, and a lasting legacy.”