This comes from Erwin McManus' book, An Unstoppable Force: Becoming the Church that God Had in Mind

We preach against sin, but have we ever developed the anger of God when it relates to lost human potential? Have we ever looked at human lives and felt our hearts break, not because of the sins committed but because of the potential left unattended?

An apostolic environment sees character development as a commitment to maximizing the life of every individual and seeing each and every human being as a treasure of God. For too long our ownly conversations related to the image and likeness of God have been about how we have defiled it. We've been negligent in our examination of what it means to be re-created in the image of Christ. We were created not only to declare, but to reflect God's greatness and beauty. Institutions devalue human potential and minimize the contributions of individuals. An apostolic ethos identifies, nurtures, and develops these capacities as a stewardship before God.

The Gallup organization, from their studies of human talent, have suggested that the unique talent of an individual can be identified by the age of two. Perhaps a difference between a good parent and a great parent is that a good parent forms character, while a great parent unleashes potential through character transformation. If this is true, and I am convinced that it is, then all of us have an opportunity to be prodigies in our own way.

A prodigy is an individual who capitalizes on a unique talent at an extraordinarily young age. When the church nurtures good earth, her children have their greatest opportunity. We've seen glimpses of this. Some of the greatest singers in our contemporary society grew up in church. Church was a place where their gifts were nurtured and encouraged.

At one time, the great art, the great music, the great architecture, and the great literature were born out of the influence and the environment of the church. Certainly the emergence of enlightened thinkers and of science were born out of the environment of the church. It should not surprise us that if God is the great
Creator--and on the seventh day he rested from his work of creating--then those he created in his image and likeness would also be creative beings. It easily follows that the closer we get to God, the more we discover our untapped potential and creativity.