In many cases, when the time of year rolls around where the committee on lay leadership starts to meet to nominate the church officers and committee chairs for the next year, people will come to the pastor or those in the discussion and start making cases for and against certain people and certain situations. This situation really kicks into high gear when a pastor is in their first year of appointment to the congregation and doesn't have a handle yet on the various political factions within the church (yes, unfortunately, they do exist in the church). My standard response in those situation is that it is naive and rather foolhardy for me as the new pastor to question the wisdom of previous years' charge conferences, since they knew more about what was going on here than I do. In the past 7 months, I have seen my trust in the charge conference validated by the discussions that we are having in the Long-Range Planning Committee. The insight and discernment these men and women have for our congregation leaves me astounded pretty much every time we meet - for each meeting is a learning session for me and just when I think I have something figured out, a new piece of information comes through that totally changes the discussion and/or makes me examine my thoughts and actions, along with the reasons for these thoughts and actions.
We met this past Tuesday evening, and one of our committee members looked at me and point-blank asked me, "OK, what's your goal here? What is it that you want to see happen around here?" This person won't know it until they read this e-mail, but I have wrestled with this question pretty much constantly ever since. My answer to this question was that my hope, my goal, my wish, and my prayer for this congregation is that we get serious, individually and as a community, about having the Triune God as our number one priority in life. To expound further, whether or not we spend another dime building or remodeling our current buildings, whether or not we have 20 people or 220 people in worship, whether we have 4 ministries or 40, one service or five, I firmly believe that all the Lord requires of us as the people of God is to have the fulfillment of the Divine will as our number one priority in life. This is not to say that every member has to be at the church facilities every time the doors are open, but that in all that we do, we can truly say that it is not our will, but God's, being done.
Friends, this is why God put us here. This is why God sent Christ to redeem all of creation, reconciling a fallen world to its Creator. We were given the gift of the Holy Spirit to guide and direct us because God cares so much for us that we were not about to be left to our own devices to live this life of faith. There is no denying that God is doing many great and mighty things through this congregation not because of us, but in spite of us, and our challenge is to be more intentional (communally and individually) in pursuing the divine will. When we put God first, and ourselves way back in the pecking order, even greater things will happen.
See you Sunday!
Lamar
We met this past Tuesday evening, and one of our committee members looked at me and point-blank asked me, "OK, what's your goal here? What is it that you want to see happen around here?" This person won't know it until they read this e-mail, but I have wrestled with this question pretty much constantly ever since. My answer to this question was that my hope, my goal, my wish, and my prayer for this congregation is that we get serious, individually and as a community, about having the Triune God as our number one priority in life. To expound further, whether or not we spend another dime building or remodeling our current buildings, whether or not we have 20 people or 220 people in worship, whether we have 4 ministries or 40, one service or five, I firmly believe that all the Lord requires of us as the people of God is to have the fulfillment of the Divine will as our number one priority in life. This is not to say that every member has to be at the church facilities every time the doors are open, but that in all that we do, we can truly say that it is not our will, but God's, being done.
Friends, this is why God put us here. This is why God sent Christ to redeem all of creation, reconciling a fallen world to its Creator. We were given the gift of the Holy Spirit to guide and direct us because God cares so much for us that we were not about to be left to our own devices to live this life of faith. There is no denying that God is doing many great and mighty things through this congregation not because of us, but in spite of us, and our challenge is to be more intentional (communally and individually) in pursuing the divine will. When we put God first, and ourselves way back in the pecking order, even greater things will happen.
See you Sunday!
Lamar
No comments:
Post a Comment