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Isaiah 43:18-19
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
18 Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. 19 I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
“Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
Dear Faithful Folk,
Shortly after the decision to close Re-Creation Community, a member of the congregation asked me this question. Did we make a mistake by starting Re-Creation community before we were ready? I believe the answer to that is no and there are two reasons why I believe it.
1. If we waited until we were ready, we would have missed an opportunity to take a risk and step out in faith. There would have been no reason to make the difficult choices involved in real-locating our human and financial resources. Avoiding pain is the seductive siren song of the status quo. Now we can affirm that our faith is strong enough to turn a deaf ear to that song and tune our hearing to the melody of God’s call.
2. When we began we didn’t know we were not prepared. We were still functioning under the illusion that the attraction model (you build it and they will come) was a viable method of making new disciples. Now we know without a doubt the only way to make new disciples is to follow Jesus’ model. We have to invite persons to follow him. We won’t be ready to grow until we are ready to do that.
Now that we have experience with taking a risk to following God’s call, we can turn our attention to our current worship service and take the steps needed to bring it from good to great. Now that we know the only way to make disciples of Jesus Christ is to invite them, we can begin to change the intrapersonal dy-namics that are preventing us from developing an invitational corporate culture.
I am very satisfied with the effort we have invested in following “God’s Call to Our Congregation.” I am assured that God is doing a new thing with us. In eight weeks our paths will diverge but God will make a way for you and me that will be as life-giving as a river in the desert.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Tom
