Time of Prayer

This morning, I spent a decent amount of time in prayer...asking God to search my heart...to create in me a new heart...to give me the grace to let go of my own concerns and be open to what He is asking of me...to let myself be guided and formed by Him...to face my weaknesses...to strengthen and give me the courage to face the "destiny" he has called me to...to help me fully realize my vocation as His follower...His child...asking that I would be fully and constantly aware of His presence in me, in those around me, in creation, in everything...asking that I would abandon myself and be formed by His grace...truly and fully trusting every aspect of my life in Him.

While I was praying, I asked God to guide and direct my heart towards things I need to be doing. As I prayed for the church, I was continually overcome with thoughts of taking risks for the Kingdom. I've talked about taking risks from time to time...and it keeps coming up in my thoughts. Why? Most likely because we haven't really taken any risks. God led me to remember that we all need to be doing what's best for the church (not for me), for the Kingdom. He laid it on my heart that all that we say and do in our worship and ministries needs to be pleasing to Him (not to our fellow man). He just really laid it on my heart that we need to step out in faith...we need to give people something to be a part of, something to get excited about...we need to get out of our complacency, out of our maintenance mode. We need to be doing all we can do to bring those that don't know Him into the Kingdom.

All of this has been laying very heavy on my heart over the last several months. We give much lip-service to change, to taking risks, to reaching beyond the consumer-driven/self-centered/maintaining mode we've been stuck in. But, very little action is taken. We are trying to be more efficient in our planning...And, that is great! But, it's not taking a risk.

I've been frustrated with all of the instances where I'm asked if we have a contemporary service or some kind of emerging/postmodern thing happening...It's frustrating because, knowing this is what we really need to be pursuing, I have to say "no, we don't have anything like that. But, we do have a blended service." It's frustrating to hear people say, "this is what I'm looking for" and have to turn them to another place. I know that many of those asking would get a great deal from our church...our people are great...our messages are pretty good (if I do say so myself)...But, unfortunately, we aren't offering what some are looking for...And, so, they go looking other places. And, we've even lost some of our own who have grown weary of waiting for change...waiting for something new...Of course, you can't make everyone happy all of the time. But, giving people options...various styles of worship at various times...at least shows we're trying our best.

Well, I better stop writing before I write myself out of a job! It's not that I'm frustrated working here. I love this church! I love the people! I love working in ministry here! And, that's why it's frustrating. I want to see what's best for this church happening...not 5 months from now, but tomorrow. With the way things are going...we don't have 5 months to wait to do something.

Okay, I said I was going to stop...So, I will.