Bandits No More

June 24, 2010

The Best Measure

Filed under: Discipleship,Local church,Ministry — rheyduck @ 4:15 pm

What’s the best measure of effective ministry? What do we look for if we want to figure out whether effective ministry is happening or not?

Our first tendency is to look at the numbers. The bigger the numbers, the higher the effectiveness. Makes sense, doesn’t it? If I take over leadership of a church that has 100 in attendance and after a year there are 200 in attendance, I must be an effective leader, right? Or if I were a youth pastor and all my events were full of excited youth, surely it is a sign of effectiveness. These signs of effectiveness sure look attractive to me. But is my attraction to these bare signs of effectiveness right?

Suppose I am on a road trip. I manage to drive 650 miles a day. Have I been effective? Well, the numbers are there. High mileage, long hours, lots of gas burned. If my purpose is simply to stay on the road, then it looks like I’m being effective. But what if my purpose isn’t merely to be on the road but to arrive at a particular location? If I begin in Houston and intend to drive to Fort Worth and in the course of my journey drive 650 miles a day for a week and end up in Toronto, I may be busy, but I am anything but effective.

Back in my days of doing youth ministry I yearned for the big, exciting youth groups I saw other youth leaders creating. Part of it was that I really wanted to reach people for Christ. My desire for personal glory was also a part of it. I am blessed with a low-key personality that doesn’t lend itself to the extravagant excitement of some ministries. Since our numbers never got much higher than the mid 20s, how could I have ever accounted myself “effective?” Well, it depends on how and what you measure.

Early in my work in youth ministry (and carried over into later ministry roles) I decided that the best measure of effectiveness would be to see how my people were walking with Christ five years down the road. If I had hundreds brimming with excitement at one point and yet all had fallen by the wayside in five years, that’s not effectiveness.

Our main activities in my youth ministry years were bible study and prayer. I take joy in the fact that many of those youth are now, fifteen years later, still walking with Christ, several even in ministry of some sort.

When we think looking at numbers is the best way to measure effectiveness, we can come to the logical conclusion that the one we claim to follow was much less effective than we are. Just look at Jesus – at several points he had huge crowds following him. Sometimes they were so enthusiastic about him they were ready to make him king, then and there. But with his prickly, demanding personality, he managed repeatedly to run off the crowds, leaving only twelve shaky guys and a few women. I’m better than Jesus, aren’t I? I’ve never managed to run off so many people. I’ve never been so troublesome as to inspire the people around me to react in murderous hatred.

But what if numbers are only of intermediate value? Go back to my trip from Houston to Fort Worth. If I drive only 15 miles, I’ve missed my goal. But if I drive 280 miles (you can drive 280 miles from someplace in Houston and reach someplace in Fort Worth) but end up far from Fort Worth, I’ve also missed my goal.

Jesus was about what we call “life change.” He was out to seek and to save the lost. Sure he scattered his seed recklessly. Sometimes even the stony ground looked full of life. But it didn’t last there.

As I lead my church I’m looking for life change. Numbers are great, but they are easily deceptive. Having beautiful, useful, and well maintained buildings and grounds are useful. But they’re not the point. Making the budget without strain and paying our apportionments with ease would be nice, but if there’s no life change, we’re missing the point.

I want to see people fall in love with Jesus to such a degree that their relationship with Jesus becomes the center of their lives. I want to see people devoting their lives to Jesus’ kingdom and its purposes. I want to see people taking up Jesus’ mission as their own.

I don’t want people to only take up a Jesus life for a single instance. But if they never do it for a single instance, they’ll never do it for multiple instances. I want to see people take the first step – and then the next step and the next – with Jesus.

May 5, 2010

Rural Church

Filed under: Local church — rheyduck @ 9:10 pm

One of the books I’m reading now is Shannon O’Dell’s Transforming Church in Rural America. I figured that since I’m pastoring a church in rural America (ok, some folks describe our town as a metropolis – when compared to surrounding towns [take "town" very loosely] like Leesburg, Ebenezer & Pine) I ought to read this book.

Early on, O’Dell mentions what he calls the “Four Most Difficult Decisions for a Rural Pastor.” These are:

  1. To pastor in rural America… with low incomes, low resources, and low expectations.
  2. To reach the lost and unchurched. (Most people say they want to reach the lost… until they do and their church starts changing.
  3. To equip the church with accurate and healthy structure… changing bylaws, constitutions, and church policy as necessary.
  4. To remove “Holy Cows” to be more effective… such as pews, property, and people.

Of course, the first of these is not really relevant to my situation. It was not my “choice” that brought to rural America. It was the Cabinet’s choice. They said, “You are going,” so I went.

I am familiar with the difference between the small town rural realities and the bigger city realities. I’ve lived enough places in my life that I’m pretty flexible. Sure would be nice to have more resources, though. I think that – then I remember something Craig Groeschel said (I think it was Craig). He observed that creativity is driven by a lack of resources connected with a great vision. The block to this creativity tends to come from O’Dell’s #4. We’re a 150+ year old church. The place is teeming with cows. We’re not always sure what to do with creativity (unless it helps us do what we’ve always done).

Our county is full of sinners. While some of those sinners fill our churches, plenty more currently lack a real connection to a church. When we finally manage to bring in some non-church folks, helping them get past our oddness, we then need to make disciples of them. Unfortunately, the UMC has been more into making members than disciples for the past couple of generations. The denomination as a whole has shifted over to “disciple” language, but many local churches just figure that’s a new word for what they’ve always meant by “member.” Very few of us, whether old-timers or new-comers are really open to discipleship. We might just have to change our ways!

As to changing structures and systems… We could use more of that. Our leadership structures are mostly ok, but our discipleship structures are what they are because that’s what they’ve always been. If you don’t become a disciple by attending Sunday morning worship and a Sunday school class, well, there must be something wrong with you.

Holy Cows. I’ve already noted that we have plenty of them. It’s great to have a beautiful hundred year old sanctuary. But it can be crippling to ministry to have a hundred year old building (and a few other old buildings) that suck hundreds of thousands of dollars for upkeep. While a few seem to worship the historic sanctuary with its historic pipe organ and historic stained glass windows, I think those particular cows are less of an impediment than the lack of effective structures for discipleship.

We have a lot to learn.

April 14, 2010

Thinking about our Church values

Filed under: Local church — rheyduck @ 7:38 pm

Craig Groeschel is thinking about and refining his church values. I find his comments worth listening to, so here they are, along with some comments of my own.

1)    We are faith-filled, big thinking, bet-the-farm risk takers. We’ll never insult God with small thinking and safe living.

Craig doesn’t tread lightly, does he? We’ve done a little of this here in Pittsburg – acquiring the property across the street comes to mind. But in many ways we do value playing things safe, both in our individual lives and in our life as a church. Part of our reluctance to risk might be that we’re so heavily invested in our status quo. We (families and the church) have buildings we love, use regularly (and still owe on). The church in Georgia that recently sold its building so it could have more money for ministry might as well be on another planet as far as we are concerned. We have children to raise. We thrive on continuity and predictability.

2)    We are all about the “capital C” Church! The local church is the hope of the world and we know we can accomplish infinitely more together than apart.

One of the good things about Pittsburg is the degree to which churches are willing to work together, to work as partners in ministry rather than competitors. When an arsonist torched our youth building several years ago another church in town took up an offering for us. That wouldn’t happen in every community I’ve lived in. We participate in each others events and have events in common. we’ve even crossed the Catholic/Protestant divide. Considering the demographics of our community there are plenty of people around who are unattached to any church for all our churches to grow without merely shuffling sheep. And maybe we’ll fulfill Jesus’ prayer in John 17 at the same time.

3)    We are spiritual contributors not spiritual consumers. The church does not exist for us. We are the church and we exist for the world.

With the current economic downturn – which hit our county especially hard, with our major industry/employer going through bankruptcy – there is a temptation to hold on to all we have with a death grip. But that is death. In the midst of challenges our people have remained generous and willing to meet the needs of people. I’m still convinced that generosity is healthy.

4)    We give up things we love for things we love even more. It’s an honor to sacrifice for Christ and His church.

What a good way to put it! We don’t just give up junk – the useless things lying around, the things we no longer value. We give up good things, things we enjoy and care about. We give them up for the sake of greater things. The tough part is taking the time to examine our values.

5)    We wholeheartedly reject the label mega-church. We are a micro-church with a mega-vision.

If anyone called us a mega-church, we’d have to think them sorely misguided. Surely they don’t know what they’re talking about. Our biggest crowd in my seven years here has been 378. We average just under 200. We have just over 400 members. While this is mega compared to one of the first churches I pastored (Bloomburg UMC – 10 people on Sunday), that’s what it’d be called. But that’s not what most people mean by mega. For us, then, we’d say something like, “We whole-heartedly reject the label small church.” First, we serve a mighty God who raised Jesus from the dead and gives us the Holy Spirit. We may be few in number in a town of small population in the 3rd smallest county in Texas, but our reach extends to the ends of the earth. Second, we still have some work to do on the micro end of things. We need more small groups where people can be intimately known, loved, discipled and equipped for ministry, places where people can speak and hear the truth in love.

January 20, 2010

What Kind?

Filed under: Leadership,Local church,Spirituality,church growth — rheyduck @ 3:45 am

Bishop Will Willimon passes along some good questions from Lloyd John Ogilvie:

  1. What sort of people does Christ want to deploy in the world?
  2. What sort of church do we need to produce those people?
  3. What sort of leaders do we need to produce that sort of church?
  4. What sort of pastor do I need to be to produce that sort of leaders in that sort of church?

First, I like the teleological approach. We’re going somewhere. We have ends in sight.

Second, these are complex ends. My telos as a pastor doesn’t end with me. It is connected with the teloi of leaders, the church and its people.

Third, I can ask these questions wherever I am in relation to those ends, wherever I am situated in time and space (as long as I ecclesially located). When I first become a pastor of a given church, I can ask these questions. When I’ve been at a church for X years, I can still ask these questions. They will never be outmoded.

Fourth, my asking these questions is not a solo activity. While I have some insight into what kind of pastor I need to be to to produce a particular kind of leader to produce a particular kind of church that produces a particular kind of people, so do the people around me. I am not sitting at the top of the heap commanding all around me.

Fifth, and this aspect appeals to my personality type, these are general questions. They are not tied to any particular church model or program structure. As people questions, they are framed to prioritize people over structures, opening the way to flexibility in methodology.

Finally, the questions begin and end with Jesus. We pursue what Jesus wants. We want to achieve his purposes his way. What will it take to make us those kind of people?

December 11, 2009

Generosity

Filed under: Economics,Local church — rheyduck @ 6:52 pm

Our congregation has faced more financial challenges this year than we have in several years. While finishing our apportionments (the money United Methodist churches send to the general church for ministry beyond our own locale) was fairly easy for a couple of years, it’s not been easy this year. We’ve had to pray more about our finances. Some have had to increase their giving.

What made the change this year? I see a few factors.

First, some of the members who have been the biggest givers over the years have died. Billy Paul and Annie Ruth, though never wealthy in the eyes of the world, were always generous with their resources. Billy Paul died 2 years ago, and Annie Ruth last year. We’re still waiting for someone to take their place.

Second, the economy is down, not just nationally (and globally) but locally. Our major local employer has been going through bankruptcy. Many in the community have lost their jobs. The county is small enough, and remote enough from other employment centers, that jobs are tough to find.

Third, people perceive the economy to be down, so they act like it is down. Makes sense, doesn’t it? When we don’t know about our future income we become more conservative. We save more and spend less. And sometime give less.

But only sometimes. In this time of economic decline and uncertainty, our food and clothing ministry has expanded. People generously give food and clothing – and money to buy what is needed.

As we face the payment of our apportionments (with only 3 Sundays left in the year), it seems logical to maximize the opportunities for income so we can pay them off. After all, as a UM church we’re expected to pay in full every year.

We have three Sundays left. But those aren’t the only opportunities. We also have a Christmas Eve service, which is traditionally one of the best attended of the year. Surely it makes sense to take that offering and use it for apportionments. But in addition to having a tradition of paying apportionments, we also have a tradition (albeit of more recent vintage) of dedicating the Christmas Eve offering for other ministries (like the Methodist Children’s Home in Waco).

At our Finance committee meeting the other night, we talked about what to do. Do we take that offering and use it where we desperately need it (apportionments)? Do we send it to the Methodist Home? We concluded that we are best off being generous. That when we’re generous beyond our needs (paying apportionments) and give beyond what is expected, we’re more closely following in the way of Jesus. Even when we have a need, generosity with others is still a good thing to do.

December 1, 2009

Learning to Risk in Church

Filed under: Leadership,Local church — rheyduck @ 3:58 pm

As a church we do a fairly decent job of keeping the older generation employed and busy. We do a fairly poor job of drawing the younger generations into leadership, however, unless they are willing to plug in and do what the older generations have done and in the way that those older generations have been doing it. We have a bias in favor of experience. I understand that bias. I feel it myself. But I think it’s killing us for the long term.

Check  Ben Arment’s article, The Future is the New. Here’s his argument in a nutshell:

We miss out on the most important season of a vision’s lifecycle because we have an undying love for proven ideas and a blatant disregard for new ones. We don’t want to tolerate the hardships or the impossible odds that come with new ideas. We don’t want to take a risk on something untested. We want to gather where others are gathering, celebrate what others are celebrating, and affirm what others are affirming.

What do you think about it? What are some ways we could open up to innovation by the younger generations?

I think one of our biggest fears concerns how we keep things going as change happens. We’re prone to think that the younger leaders need to step into what we’re already doing (maintaining it), establish (we really mean prove) themselves in the old roles, and only then (and slowly) move into the new and different.

The current foundation of our discipleship ministry is Sunday School. We do Sunday School for all ages. If you’ve worked with Sunday School ministry in the past couple of decades, you may have experienced a difficulty in getting people to do the work. It’s tough to find teachers.  Then the ones we find may only do it for the short term. Or, without warning, they might not show up some Sunday. We want people to step into these old traditional roles now. If they have new ideas, let them try them later.

But perhaps you’ve noticed something. Children’s Sunday School still seems to be drawing some kids. Of course, the problem with children’s Sunday School is getting the parents to bring their kids. Why on earth wouldn’t parents bring their kids to Sunday School? Free child care, isn’t it? But if the parents either (a) lack a vision of discipleship to Jesus or (b) have no compelling participation in a discipleship setting themselves, then after a while even the promise of free child care becomes outweighed by the busyness of life and bother of just another activity to haul the kids to.

Are there other ways to disciple people (children and adults)? Since Sunday School as we know it is a fairly recent invention, there must be. Are we willing to allow other people to pioneer new ways of discipling?

But I use Sunday School only as an illustration, chosen because its express objective, making disciples, is so close to the core of what we’re about. Any other area of church life could be mentioned as well.

I don’t see the younger generations flocking in to do what we’ve been doing the way we’ve been doing it. Working that way either assimilates people to the System, losing any innovative edge they might have had, or it dulls them into apathy and runs them off.

If we’re going to make progress, we need to identify some things:
- Why are we here? What is our purpose? We need to be able to answer this kind of question clearly enough that it results in clear consequences both for action – what we ought to be doing – and inaction – what we ought to not do, or stop doing.
- Are there any risks we’re not willing to take?
- How can we become more open to risk taking?

When I see (a) the many people around who need Jesus and (b) the large percentage of our active and committed people who are over age 70 (and who most likely will not be as active and committed 10 years from now), we need to start taking these risks now, before it is too late.

August 29, 2009

Success in ministry

Filed under: Leadership,Local church,Ministry,church growth — rheyduck @ 8:35 pm

Several years ago we had an after-school ministry for upper elementary aged children. By the time we stopped it, it looked like a whopping success. Our little small town church would have 40-50 kids, mostly not from our church, show up on Wednesday afternoons. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

But there at the end, it was mostly chaos. Our few volunteers lacked the energy to keep up with the kids. We felt a day was a success if no one had been seriously injured or broken anything. Did the kids learn anything? Hard to tell, since most of our time was spent working on behavior issues.

Our current after school ministries are much smaller. But they are also orderly enough that the kids can get something out of them.

The mistake we made earlier – and are still prone to make – is to think our primary focus should be on ministry to children and youth. In a declining church full of old people, it’s really easy to argue for that position. Despite our lack of younger folks, both locally and denominationally, I think seeing our ministry to children and youth as primary is a mistake. What we should see as primary is a discipling ministry with adults so that these adults will then be the doers of ministry with children and youth. Why?

A first reason to focus on adults is that parents have the primary responsibility to disciple their kids. Sure, it’s rare for parents to do that. We’ll teach them to hunt, fish, cook, drive, and other things of life. But do we teach them them to pray? To read and understand the bible? To share their faith with others? To interpret their lives and encounters with the world in terms of the Kingdom of God? Usually not. At least in many UM churches, many of the adults are too spiritually introverted to feel “comfortable” doing these things. Better leave these really important things to the professionals, i.e., the Sunday School teachers and church staff.

I know the temptation here. We on staff reason that if the parents aren’t doing it, we ought to. It’s too good a thing to leave undone. True. But we’re displacing the parent’s responsibility. They will still have to answer to God.

A second reason to have a primary focus on adults is pragmatic. Parents are the ones who have control over their lives. Sure, their control is relative, but compared to children and youth, their control is immense. If they want to go to worship on Sunday morning, for instance, all an adult has to do is get up on time, get ready and go. In this age when you get to church gatherings in a car, children are at the mercy of their parents. Parents have more power to bring children along than children have to bring parents along.

The major consequence for those of us who are in leadership is that our primary job is not performing functions. We don’t hire people to do what we currently think of as our primary ministries (even if we can’t find anyone who is willing). We hire people to invest in the lives of others who will then become the doers of those ministries. Perhaps once upon a time churches could afford to hire people to do all the ministry that needs to be done. Not any more. The people we hire need to be leaders, catalytic people, who develop others to do ministry.

May 13, 2009

What does it take to Grow a Great Church?

Filed under: Local church,Spirituality,church growth — rheyduck @ 8:35 pm

Many things have been suggested over the years. Here’s my list – these are the things I pray for:

The Manifest Presence of God. The bible tells us God is omnipresent (everywhere). We believe God is with us every time we gather. So what is this “manifest presence of God?” By that I mean that we are aware of God’s presence – that God is changing lives in such a way that there is no other explanation but God. We can do the best preaching, music, programs, architecture, and friendliness in the world. But without God it won’t amount to anything in the long run.

A Willingness to Do Hard Things. Going with the crowd is easy. Living a life indistinguishable from the world is easy. Rationalizing our own righteousness and refusing to forgive those who have hurt us? Perfectly normal. But we’re not called to be normal, we’re called to follow Jesus. Because Jesus gives the Holy Spirit to those who believe we are equipped to do awesome and amazing things. But most of those things aren’t easy. Many won’t be popular.

Openness to Failure. I learned a long time ago to ask a key question of each person seeking employment: ‘Tell me about some of your failures in ministry.” If they’ve never tried anything that didn’t work they don’t get the job. People matter so much to God that it is worth our while to be willing to fail if it means some might come to faith. I pray for a church full of people who are not only willing to fail, but willing to extend grace to others when they fail, so they’ll have the courage to get up and try again.

Jesus-Like Love to Rule. Jesus said, “By this will all people know that you are my disciples, by your love for one another.” He clarified this by telling us our love is to be modeled on his love. I pray for a church where people genuinely love each other, a church where when we have problems – and we will! – we have a deep enough commitment to Jesus and to each other that we are willing to work things out.

A Greater Concern to Serve than to be Served. Jesus said, “The Son of Man has not come to be served, but to serve, and to lay down his life as a ransom for many.” I pray for a church that is passionate to reach out to and draw in those who are on the outside. I want a church that attracts sinners—to be a place where they see a hope for deliverance.

May 5, 2009

Relevant or Dissonant

Filed under: Evangelism,Local church — rheyduck @ 8:32 pm

I’m better at asking questions than I am answering them. Today’s poll at Christianity Today asks us to decide whether the church is doing its job when it’s (a) culturally relevant or (b) culturally dissonant. My answer is, “Yes.”

We are called to be culturally relevant enough that people in the world can get some idea what we’re saying. We’re called to be culturally dissonant enough that people in the world can get the idea that we’re not just an echo chamber for what everyone else is saying.

Unlike Islam, Christianity is committed to translation. We believe the bible can be translated into every language, and that the reality of the gospel can be incarnated in every culture.

I like the way Michael Slaughter put it years ago (I paraphrase): “We want to speak clearly enough so people can understand enough so they can know when to be offended.” we’re not called to go sit in our little spiritual fortresses and do our own little spiritual things. We’re not called to go out there and dance to the world’s tune. We’re called to represent Jesus in a world of lost, broken and hurting people. Some will rejoice in what we do and find life. Some will be scandalized and seek to restrain us. Some will find us boring and ignore us. Some will be curious and want to know more.

So which is it: relevant or dissonant? Yes – though with both qualities defined in terms of the gospel.

March 31, 2009

Stuck

Filed under: Evangelism,Local church,Spirituality — rheyduck @ 8:16 pm

Sometimes we get stuck. While getting stuck is commonly taken to be a bad thing, it depends on where we’re stuck or what we’re stuck in.

Perhaps you’re stuck in a family that keeps on loving you even when you act unlovable. You try to pull away, try to go your own way, but wherever you go, you end up back with the people that love you unconditionally. You’re stuck.

Maybe you’re stuck with Jesus. Like the disciples in John 6 you’ve seen Jesus do some wacky things – things that make no sense to you at all. Other folks fall by the wayside. You think of going away yourself. But you say to yourself, “Who else has the words of life?” And you stay with Jesus. You’re stuck.

Sometimes being stuck isn’t so good. Years ago at one of my previous churches I stopped by to visit a family. The man of the house was home alone so I visited with him. His wife was the church attender in the family so I usually only saw him at his house. I’d visted with him a few times before, but this time in the midst of our conversation he blurted out, “I’m not a believer. Everyone thinks I’m a Christian, but I’m not.”

At that point I’d been pastoring that church for a while. I’d never seen him at church. When I consider what the bible says and what I find in the Christian tradition, it seems normal for believers to spend time with other believers. A primary way that happens in our culture is by doing what we call “going to church.” Since I had never seen this fellow do what I thought was a normal activity for believers, I was not shocked by his admission.

In small town Texas our culture has a veneer of Christianity. Except for those real sinful folks, we assume everyone is at least sort of a Christian – especially if they’re from a church family. Some of them will even tell you, “I’m a Baptist.” “I’m a Catholic.” “I’m a Methodist.” We assume: Nice person, faithful to his family, hard worker, good citizen – must be a believer. But he’s not. And he finally built up his courage to tell someone. He’d never told his wife. He’d never told his kids. Never told a soul.

You know what? He’s not the only one. I’ve talked to several folks over the years, people outside the church like him, as well as every Sunday attenders, who finally admit that they’re not believers. They’ve heard the sermons, they’ve read the books, they’ve considered the arguments, they’ve been on the retreats. Nope. Nothing there.

I think there are more out there. Maybe they’re still actively trying to believe. Maybe they haven’t admitted to themselves – let alone to another – that they don’t believe. They keep thinking: If only I do this, then I’ll feel it, then I’ll believe. But they don’t. They’re stuck.

Part of that stuck (“stuckness” might sound better grammatically, but it sounds just plain bad) might be that they’re not really open to God. They say they are – they tell themselves and others that they are. But they’re not. It might be that God just hasn’t broken through to them yet.

I think believing in Jesus is a good thing – when understood biblically, the best thing. I want people who are stuck on the outside of belief to become unstuck. What can we do?

In the first place, I pray for my friends. I’m not just praying for sinners or lost folks. I’m praying for my friends. I believe my relationship with them matters.

Secondly, our churches need to admit the reality of this phenomenon. Instead we get stuck on numbers: Attendance, membership, offering, budgets. Or stuck on routine – doing what we’ve always done. Or stuck on keeping up appearances. We need to learn to tell the truth and become a place where people can safely tell the truth about themselves. I’m not assuming, however, that we have infallible insight into ourselves, or that telling the truth is simply or easy in any way. It’s hard. Some of the things we take to be the truth aren’t. When it comes to believing in Jesus this works two ways. Sometimes we say that, yes, we are followers of Jesus. But we’re fooling ourselves. We might think we’re telling the truth, but we’re not. Other times, we might say, No, we’ve tried to be believers, but we’re not. But that’s not quite right either. Jesus has more of us than we even know ourselves.

But assuming for a moment that at least some of the time we know the truth about ourselves. We need churches that allow people to openly identify themselves as seekers. None of the churchly or semi-churchly non-believers of the type I’m talking about are excited or proud of their lack of belief. They sound like they’d rather believe. What would happen if we allowed them to be open about their seeking? In such a setting perhaps others could come along side them – not with condemnation and lecturing, but with love and encouragement. I’m convinced that really healthy churches will have more than just believers showing up on Sundays.

A final thing we need is genuine work of God in our midst. Excellence is good, but we need more than excellent bulletins, sermons, studies, & music. We need more than clean restrooms, convenient parking and friendly people. We need God. We need the movement of God in our midst doing the unpredictable and the uncontrollable in our midst.

Sure, there will be rationality involved. God doesn’t desire us to leave our brains home or in sleep mode. But we need more than rationality (but surely njot less).

Sure, there will be emotion involved. God doesn’t desire that we somberly mourn the passing of our loved ones every Sunday. There’s joy that Jesus has defeated all the powers of sin, death and hell for us. The very stones would cry out if we didn’t. But we need more than emotion (though surely not less).

We need God. We need God’s work in the lives of individuals and families, work that is inexplicable by any other means. We need people to step into the story of God and then report what they see, hear and experience. We need God if anyone is going to truly come to faith. Then we might become unstuck and help other become unstuck – and stuck again with Jesus.

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