The Fourth and Faith

Theologian and Author Len Sweet made this post on Facebook:

Leonard Sweet My favorite 4th of July quote: "You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism." Erma Bombeck

Bombeck hits it on the head here. The greatness of our country is that we're focused on our neighbor and friends. That we don't need to have a show of force, but rather take a break to have a show of unity.

I can't help but point out the correlation to the church. Through the Lord's Supper and our baptism we are united to Christ in one mission. There's no show of power or strength. Our power comes from the Holy Spirit living within us. Our strength is in living faith together in our worship, church ministries and mission, and small group faithfulness.

What makes America great is that we're United. What makes our churches great is our unity in the mission of Christ, which is celebrated in the communion meal.

Waking and Sleeping

I awoke early this morning... the dog and a mess on the floor at 4 am. I won't go into that any more. I couldn't get back to sleep because I have a lot on my mind. I spent some time praying, reading my bible (John 4: did you know that in the time of His ministry people thought there was a "baptism battle" between John the Baptist and Jesus. To take the focus off the perceived competition, Jesus left town. Hmmm.) and catching up on my email/facebook/twitter/blogs. I came across this article in the Harvard Business Review blog. His second point encourages making two lists. The first is what gets you up in the morning. The second is what keeps you up at night. Now that would be a good practice.

The author and founder of Fast Company Magazine, Alan Webber, goes on to say, "Managers and leaders have got to know themselves before they know their businesses. They've got to have passion for their work and concern for their world. Otherwise they're just punching the time clock and risking every one's future." Passion and Concern. These sound like spiritual issues to me. On his site he doesn't claim any particular connection to a spiritual expression, but this sure reminds me of the expressions of God in the biblical Prophets.

So what is your passion that gives you a reason to get up in the morning? What concerns of the world so occupy your mind that you stay up at night? The answers to these two questions should have a lot to do with what you do in the hours in between.

The Sum: Jobs

You are the sum total of all your life experiences. I believe that to be true, so when I saw this post at http://leadhership.net/ it led me to reflect for a moment on the experiences I've had at all my workplaces over the last 30 years and how they've shaped me. Here are some of my cursory thoughts in order of the dates I held the jobs:

Nursing Home Food Service: I learned that all people are of value, even if they have lost their ability to make a contribution to society. That man who had severe CP always shouted incoherently as you passed by but stopped if you would just place your hand on his arm or shoulder as you passed.

Steak House Busboy and Dishwasher: There was a reason why turnover of employees was every month. The management here was poorly trained, hated their job, always high, and abusive to the employees.

Camp Wyman: For two summers (ages 16 and 17) I was in charge of the outdoor/pioneering part of the summer camp for under-privileged children. Wyman was my first exposure to working for a non-profit. Dave Hilliard, the president, was great to work with and I've followed his work ever since. If you're in the St. Louis area, this is a guy worth learning from. Under his leadership Wyman has gone from a summer camp to a year 'round teen/child leadership training program. Good Stuff.

School District Lawn Maintenance: For about 3 weeks I carried a weed whacker around trimming around trees, buildings and fences. I learned I could quickly get frustrated and board with lawns. I realized that grass would grow back no matter what I did. Quickly figured out I better get a job where something could actually be completed.

Iron worker: For one summer I worked "tieing rods" as an iron worker at the construction of the GM plant in Wentzville, MO. This was my first experience with labor unions (though I grew up hearing about them at home.) I experienced people drinking on the job, fighting for longer hours, and several other negatives. I also learned that if you work hard you can make good money.

Gateway Ready Mix: I was a laborer and sometime office worker. While I had noted this in other jobs, it was here that I learned that some people really could care less about their job or employer. I also experienced more labor unions. Some good stuff, some bad. Through these two experiences with unions I realized the tenuous relationship that exists between labor and ownership is not easily resolved.

Ozark tie and timber: This was a college age job where I was a laborer/carpenter in a pallet manufacturing company. I learned that shooting a nail through your thumb with a pneumatic nail gun is not a pleasant experience. This was my first exposure to worker's comp. It wasn't a positive experience. I've been very aware of employee safety in all my areas of employment ever since.

Boy Scouts of America: My first job out of college was working for the Boy Scouts of America in St. Joe, MO. While I eventually realized this wasn't the career field for me, it was the best education for non-profit employment available. I learned how to relate to volunteers and donors alike. As a person fresh out of college, I don't think it matters what career field you would ultimately end up in, the training program for Scouting executives is second to none.

St. Charles Quarry Company: I worked for a 2 quarry company selling rock to the construction industry. As the sole salesman with the company it was communicated to me by the labor force that I had to sell or they got laid off, and they didn't like getting laid off. Though this wasn't a commission sales job, it became quickly clear that there was a direct relationship between my work and the success of the company.

Kurtz Concrete: Same ownership as the quarries. When the one salesman went to alcohol detox I became the salesman. I quickly developed a relationship with the commercial contractors and a few residential builders. Sales were based upon relationship (every concrete company has the same product, there's really no differentiation there.)

Adminco: This was the owner of the quarries and concrete. They quickly acquired enough concrete plants to become the largest supplier in St. Louis. I became the sales manager at age 26. At 27 they sold out and a new president demoted me, not because sales were flat (they weren't) but because he considered me too young. Putting me in the position of Sales manager was a creative risk on the part of the ownership. Demoting me was a complete lack of creativity and vision for the new ownership. I learned that judging too quickly when you are in charge is a poor way to manage. I still feel I had the skills for that job even at that young age. I judge based upon skills not age.

Henges Manufacturing: Commissioned sales in construction products. Even though sales depended upon me alone, manufacturing and delivery depended upon others. I learned how to coordinate my efforts with others. There's no such thing as working alone, we all exist in some network where what we do influences others and what they do influences us.

Salem-In-Ladue UMC: This was my first pastorate. I was the student associate for two years followed by 2 years as full-time associate. It's a great experience to work as an associate. You get to make all sorts of mistakes without taking full blame. And I wasn't a very good associate. I kept wanting to go my own way and not along with the vision of the lead pastor. That was something of a mess sometimes. I think I caused his heart attack, though that happened 4 months after I left. I learned a world of information and skills about leading a staff of a larger church. Good Stuff.

The Oak UMC: This was a new church start. The training to launch a new church is the most valuable training for evangelical Christianity. The experience was great and it allowed me to understand the challenges to grow a church from 0 to 80.

Macon UMC: As lead pastor of a church that grew from about 130 to 210 in worship I had a great time learning along the way. The pastoral to program church transition was not one I got to complete, but I became very aware of church size issues. We expanded a floundering contemporary worship service, did a capital campaign and planned for a new building. We struggled through staff issues and had some great staff moments. It was also a significant time for me as I developed a pastoral theology for the first time.

Good Shepherd UMC: Still learning here.


What job served as your greatest learning experience.

What is Truth

In John 18:38 Pontius Pilate asks Jesus "What is truth?" Pilate isn't really looking for an answer. He didn't care what Christ had to say. He was challenging whether or not there really is such a thing as truth. I opened my sermon on Sunday sharing the same question, but for me it was more of a concern. I am concerned that we have moved everything in our lives to the realm of situational ethics. In that case, if we are the center of the universe, if the world revolves around us, then the truth is what ever suits our selfish needs. That can't be good.

Let me suggest that when we decide to become followers of Jesus Christ there is a center of truth that is universal and forever. I've found that there are 4 layers of truth for the follower of Christ. To hear the full sermon on this click here.

Here's a synopsis of those four layers:
HONESTY- Proverbs 12:22 says, "The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are truthful." God cannot lie. It is not a part of who God is. There is no motivation. God owns all, created all, has all, and needs nothing. If we are going to imitate Christ, the human image of God, we must seek honesty in all that we say.
INTEGRITY- Honesty is about what you say, but integrity takes another step. It’s about follow through. Jesus says in Matthew 5:37 "Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one." Keeping promises. Doing what you say you’ll do. These are the evidence of integrity.
ACCOUNTABILITY- Paul says in Ephesians 4:15 – "Love should always make us tell the truth. Then we will grow in every way and be more like Christ, the head of the body. Accountability means speaking truth into the life of a friend. Holding them accountable to live according to God's truth. Make clear that you are asking the question, “Is this the message that Christ wants me to bring to my friend?”
PROPHETIC JUSTICE - This higher level of truth unites God’s passion for a world with injustice, suffering and poverty with your willingness to be used by God to make a vocal and operable call for a change. This is when you search your heart, your prayer life, and the scriptures to discern what God is passionate about and then you speak in word and deed. This is the place where you take action against poverty, bigotry, hate, and violence.

One of the Points

One of the points in my sermon on Sunday is that the follower of Jesus Christ takes initiative in the area of love. I want to pursue that a little bit more.

First, I've always maintained that, from the perspective of God, love is not an emotion. Love is the activity of showing undeserved care and favor. As imitators of God, love is how we live out unconditional love for the people God calls us to care for (that's everyone in our sphere of influence.)

Second, our posture as followers of Christ is to be that of one pressing forward. God's love presses forward. As I said on Sunday, we have a tendency to pull back when we're hurt. If we reach out our hand and get burned, we'll pull it away quickly. The same is true when we reach out in love. Our tendency when we get emotionally or spiritually hurt is to pull back; but that isn't God's posture or tendency. And aren't we fortunate that it isn't. You see, at the crucifixion God would have been within His right to pull away from us. To say to us, "You killed my son... go to Hell." Not figuratively, realistically. "You've turned from me, rejected my love, so just plan on spending your eternity in Hell." That's not the way of God though. God presses forward with forgiveness, the resurrection, and the promise of eternal life.

What are the implications? As the body of Christ, the church, we should always be pressing forward in love. We should be moving outside the walls of the church to assure our community that they are loved. We must always focus ourselves on reaching out to our neighbors, and if rejected, not to retreat, but to continue to press forward.

How do you press forward in love?

What are you thinking?

On Sunday I posted (on Twitter and Facebook) the subject of this coming Sunday's sermon; Can I be a Christian if I Still Have Doubts? I got several replies, I'll share them with you below. I'd love to hear what you're thinking, what faith doubts do you have? You can post an anonymous comment by clicking "comment" at the bottom of this post.


Facebook Responses:

of course a doubt is....am i "good" enough for god to always to be in my life, even though sin and temptation are everywhere

How about the mythological parts of the book? Are they just paradigms?

And unfulfilled promises, even when there was faith? Esp. with uncured people who die...

I guess the apostle Thomas did OK with it!

{Husband} and I were talking about this Friday as we waited for surgery to begin...sometimes I wonder if there really IS a God...and if so, why would I matter to Him? I sometimes wonder if the "idea" of God is created by humans to instill a sense of hope...I hope I don't get tossed outta church now that I've told you my secret doubts...:)

Read "The Shack", if you still have doubts or not.

I've read it...twice...I'm a doubter... :) It's how I dance...

I am sure that there has to be a higher being. but there are so many bibles and people who say their god wrote or influenced their bible. I just wonder how much of the bible really is to be taken literally...like kathryn said maybe the bible was just an "idea" that people had and therefore created the bible to create a way of living and sense of ... Read Morehope. every community has to create a way of living within its self. with rules and such....the bible has great teachings and is good to live by but everyone is going to read it in a different light what is the RIGHT way???? and who gets to answer that really?

Lee Stobel wrote several good books for those with doubt. "A Case for a Creator" is a great start!

I think {another response} was touching on this, but how about the whole "Why do bad things happen to good people" and why doesn't God step in...

Along with what {another repsonse} was saying, I most definitely believe that there is a higher being and I believe that my Almighty is God. I don't know who we, as Christians, are to say that we are right and others are wrong. How can we tell people that they are wrong just for worshiping someone or something else. I also sometimes doubt people when they call... Read More themselves Christians when some have so much judgement and hate in their lives. It breaks my heart when brothers and sisters in Christ are judged and ridiculed because of their sex, race, background, sexual orientation and many other aspects that makes a person who they are. I believe that God loves everyone for who they are and that we should do the same, no matter what their lifestyle is.

i have NO doubts!!!!!! i know my Redeemer lives. Praise God

No Doubts about being a Christian and my salvation. I have more questions like am I where God wants me to be? I am doing all that I should for the kingdom of God?

Doubt? how about Thomas, Peter on the water, etc. Doubt is about what we can't see. Hebrews 11:1 says it all. i could go all day about this one.

I'm way out of my league commenting on this one... I think I'll just sit back and watch the experts post! BTW, does this count as going to Mass for next week?

Doubt is part of our human nature that we must alway keep in check thorugh prayer. Eve was the first doubter, otherwise she would have never been tempted and we would all have no doubt. Also I believe doubt is part of God's design, if we knew for sure there would be no free will and our expressions of Love and Adoration for a God that loves us would be diminished.

a doubt....does God really give us what he thinks we can handle? At times it's overwhelming but everyone always resorts to that consolation. Sometimes, I think, what if things just happen and God doesn't really control it but he's just there to pick up the pieces? And if so, why? Hence the reason it's so hard for me to let go sometimes and stop trying to control everything myself.

I have my doubts, but those doubts come and go. I guess for me it is about not letting evil take over in those moments of doubt. If I didn't have friends in my small groups or a church home to worship in, I could see those doubts push someone over the edge. The doubt that I mostly have is there really life after this one?

Who hasn't had doubts? But what is the alternative? A vacuum, emptiness, a lack of purpose? Jesus fills that void. I'll never look back.

Deep or Wide

Recently I've become addicted to a social networking site called "Twitter." Not sure why, but I like it. It is similar to the Face Book Status feature, and that's all it does. Status's. You go to your home page and it asks you to type in (140 characters or less since it works like MMS text messaging) "what are you doing?" That's it, you type in what you're doing and then everyone who cares to know, can know. There's more to it than that, and the strategies and uses is broad, but essentially it's about social networking.

When you have a Twitter account you can search for people to "follow." That means whenever they update their status, it will show up on your home page. Now, the polite thing to do is to follow the people that follow you. Not everyone does this, and there are some people that I've found I really don't want to know what they're doing... I mean some provide TMI. Others share bad jokes and totally useless links, etc.

My original goal in doing this was to follow people who might be able to share things that are helpful to me as a pastor. I branched out from that a little to include news sources, interesting posts, and even some political types. Every time someone decides to follow my posts I get an email that states "So and So" is following you. Sometimes that's a little intimidating, like when I got the note that "Jesus Christ" is following you (people can pick any name they want for their profile.) It was also a little scary when I learned that "Karl Rove" is following me too.

It seems there is a huge number of Twitterers who have made it their goal in life to garner as many followers as possible. I think the top is around 250,000. I have about 80. People constantly click to follow me in hopes that I will in turn follow them, even if I'm not interested in what they have to say.

Life is like that as well. Some people want to be known and to know as many people as they possibly can. Others want to deeply know the people they know, and thus limit the number they know. I find myself in the middle on that. As the pastor of a church with 550 on a Sunday, and having served in 4 churches, and having had a career life before ministry, there are a whole bunch of people I know. You might say that my relationships are "wide." But "deep" is really the way of a Christ follower.

While I'm sure Jesus knew a wide number of people during his ministry, he only went deep with 12. Of those 12 he only went way deep with three (Peter, James, and John.) But it was that depth that made all the difference in the influence that spread all over the world and down through two millenia. I think there's a lesson in there. When it comes to width, seek to have as much positive influence on as many people as you possibly can. When it comes to depth, work on knowing and being fully known by a few people (12 seems to be a good model), and really work on those relationships.

Chaos

I remember from my seminary Old Testament class that one of the themes in the bible is that God creates order out of chaos. In Genesis 1:1&2 it says: "¹In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. ²And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." God takes this formless void and orders it in a way that makes it inhabitable and hospitable to all His creatures.

We often find ourselves in a formless void of chaos. Unemployment, under-employment, financial stress, strain from work and family strife; all work together to sometimes make our lives feel like there is no order, no control, and inhospitable to us. Can God make order out of this chaos? We instinctively think He can. Let me explain...

Today I walked into my office having taken a week off. Let's be clear, I've got the greatest job in the world. I get the privilege of introducing people to the love of God through the saving grace of His Son, Jesus Christ. Don't think for a moment that I'm complaining. However, I'm also the CEO of a $1 million not-for-profit institution called "Good Shepherd United Methodist Church," with about 800 members and constituents. So, when I take a week off my desk is the same "chaos" that you experience when you take a week off. And like you, when I walk into my office and see the pile of work details that haven't been done in a week I utter under my breath, "God help me."

"God help me," and other utterances like that (with or without the curse words depending upon your own vocabulary) is in fact a prayer. Look at what it says in Romans 8 "²⁶In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." That "God help me" utterance is a prayer that comes out as a "groan that words cannot express." Next time you find yourself uttering such things, bear in mind that you've just communicated your frustration with God and He will not disappoint.

I only wish He would care for this chaos on my desk in one day like he did in the first day of creation. I'm afraid He and I will be working on this for a while.

Out of the Loop - Up to Speed

I have this wonderful issue (said with dripping sarcasm) called "plantar fasciitis." The only non-surgical cure is to stop running. Since I'm trying to do a 5k per month I find it difficult to back off my jogging regimen. However, I recently took 3 weeks off. What I should have done, was an exercise bike or elliptical trainer to try to keep my cardio up, but did I? Noooooooooo. I simply did nothing (other than gain a few pounds back.)

Today I got on the treadmill at the gym. On these treadmills there's this little loop of lights that light up to simulate the distance you've traveled around a quarter mile track. For the last three weeks I've been "out of the loop." So now that I've gotten back into it, I find that I'm out of breath sooner than I should have been. (I had been doing 5 miles each time I get on the treadmill, this time I did 3 and found myself winded at a leisurely pace.) With my next 5k only 2 weeks off it will take some serious effort to bring myself back up to speed, or at least to a pace that won't fully embarrass me.

Think of this with your faith life. How long has it been since you were into the bible? on your knees in prayer? serving the Lord in a significant role? sharing your faith with another? If you're out of the loop on that kind of faith workout, how long will it take for you to be up to speed?

Just some thoughts for a Monday Morning.

The Evolution of the Species

I'm working on a sermon that answers the question "Do science and evolution invalidate the Bible?" No matter how I answer that question, some one's gonna get their theological feet stepped upon. My goal will be to encourage people to consider the possibility of a merging of the two in a way that provides both the theological "why" with the scientific "how." From where I stand this is the only way to hold these two competing disciplines in the same conversation.

As we consider this, there are so many directions to go, and plenty I can't. I've got about 20-25 minutes to get this done in. One of the topics is evolution of humanity. The author of the book we're using (Lee Strobel's The Case for Faith) argues that if humanity is really evolving, ti would do so in the direction of goodness. Since humanity seems to have an ever increasing propensity toward evil, we must not be evolving. I disagree. Evolution pre-supposes survival of the fittest. If we are evolving we would be evolving toward self-protection and self-preservation. Take a look at our world, is there any less war than ever before? Is there any less greed? I believe that our current world condition only offers evidence for evolution.

I also believe that God provides a correction to the self-centered, evolutionary tendency of humanity. That correction is Jesus Christ. Through the cross of Christ we are granted the grace we need to become a new creation. We are re-made in the original image, the image of God, filled with grace and love. This incredible choice we've been given serves to allow us the possibility of moving humanity toward caring for each other and creation and away from the self-preservation nature.

As an tangential thought on the subject, I offer this article for your review... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29552692 . I've been clear in the past that I am against the death penalty. I believe that the boundaries of life and death belong to God. Whenever we choose those boundaries we are choosing to (a) be god and (b) leave God out of the process. We've also said that this person, who has committed an act of self-centerdness, has reached the end of the possibility for God's redemption, grace has a limit, and we decide the limit, not God. I find that to be incredibly arrogant on our part.

In the article, it appears that the tendency toward self-preservation has found it's own paradox. Out of personal self-preservation we put people to death, but out of financial self-preservation we discontinue the execution.

Human nature never ceases to amaze me.

Two Odd Sightings

I had to make a one day trip to Columbia today. 4.5 hours driving for 2.5 hours of meetings. Wow, what a day. Sometimes you weigh the cost and wonder if it is worth it. This time it was. I'd hoped it would be and wasn't disappointed. The more contact I have with our Bishop the more I respect him.

On the way back I saw two things on along the highway. One a beautiful surprise, the other an obscenity. The first was unbelievable, but I believe that I saw this. It was a Bobcat! According to Wikipedia, this isn't possible as they don't range into Missouri. However, there it was, at the corner of Hwy's 24 and 70, in the median, pouncing on something. I'll confess that I saw it for only about 5 seconds as I drove by (at the legal speed limit of 70 mph I might add) but it was about the size of a medium sized dog and way bigger than any house cat I've ever seen, and I've seen Kevin Shelton's beast of a cat!

The second sight was really quite disturbing. You can't drive on 70 between Columbia and KC without the visual offense of all the porn purveyors which announce the availability of XXX and adult entertainment. That's bad enough as it is, and I would support any legislation to curb this public display. What I saw serves only to magnify the problem. Parked at one of those shops was a bus... a school bus. Whoever was driving that bus, and for the sake of the argument we'll assume the driver is male, would be leaving the porn shop to make his rounds picking up children from school and delivering them to home... in this case, down the long and lonely rural roads of that area of our state.

Beauty and the beast all within about a 10 miles stretch. This past week I maintained that evil is not God's problem. God created all out of love, including the beauty of nature. But, God help us, we sure have found ways to screw up God's beauty with our ugly.

Practioner

I had a regular check up scheduled with my Doc last month. They called me a week ahead of time and told me that, due to his very busy schedule, they were asking patients with check up appointments to see the nurse practioner instead. They said I had a right to see the doctor if I desired, but I have visited with nurse practioners at pediatric offices before and been thoroughly satisfied with their work. What's good for the goslings is good for the gander, right?

Here is why I like going to the nurse practioners: (Note, while I know that nurse practioners are both men and women, mine is a women so I will address this in the feminine gender. No inferences are meant by that.)

1) Accessible - generally speaking, I can call for an appointment and not be put off 38 days for an opening.
2) Compassion -Part of their training included experience as a nurse. Many were first CNA's, LPN's and RN's who practiced nursing with real people in real life situations. They learned the medical part while becoming experienced in caring.
3) Self-aware - They understand their limits and when they need to bring in the MD/DO if things are beyond the scope of their care.
4) Available - because they don't have the same time constraints and demands on their schedule, they're more likely to spend the time with you than your Doctor.

This isn't a condemnation of Doctors, just a realization of their situation. I find myself in a similar situation. When it comes to faith, I'm often overwhelmed by the schedule I have to keep. For that reason I am thankful for the many faith practioners around Good Shepherd. People like you who are accessible, compassionate, self-aware, and available to the people around you whose faith needs a bit of nursing.

How do I know you're practicing your faith? I hear people say things like, "The people in my church love me like family." "I feel like I belong here." "I was amazed at the cards, emails, and meals that came during my time of crisis."

Thanks to all you who live your lives as "faith practioners."

Starting to get it...

I'm starting to get why I'm better versed at Genesis, Exodus, Psalms, and the Gospels. Every year I start the year determined to read the Bible cover to cover. Right now I'm using a reading plan from YouVersion.com (see the link on the right hand column.) So every year I begin by reading Genesis, Matthew, and a selection of the Psalms. By the end of February I'm into the most boring part of Exodus, Leviticus is on the horizon, and I'm just skimming through Mark, 'cause I've read it so many times. March comes around and there goes the reading plan. Well, doggone it, I'm going to persevere. If I can plow through Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, I'll get to Judges. Judges is like The Transporter on steroids. Talk about your action heroes. So pray for me. Hold me accountable to read. And read something yourself (besides your unfailing commitment to this blog.)

Who is My Nieghbor; Redux

Having just completed a sermon series entitled "Who is My Neighbor?" I enjoyed reading a couple of online posts on the subject. (Why don't they post these before my sermon so I can "borrow" their thoughts?) Enjoy...

Witnessing to Neighbors

Failing Successfully

What's Going on Here?

One of the early reality TV shows was called "Average Joe." The winner, who was duped all along into thinking it was a competition when in reality he had been set up with a crew of actors, turned out to be a great guy with high moral standards. One time during the show the details of what was happening just didn't add up for him. He shouted out, "What's Going on Here?" I suspect that he was trying to figure out, given his assumptions, why his assumptions weren't adding up to what this crafted reality was giving him.

We have a reality at Good Shepherd that is causing me to ask the same questions. I'm not asking, however, because I am thoroughly confuse. I'm asking, because I think it's important to test my own assumptions against yours. So I want your help here. Let me start by giving you the metrics for Good Shepherd, year to date:
1) In spite of a sluggish economy, offerings are up 11.75% in the first 8 weeks. (Over the same period last year.)
2) Worship attendance is up 7.8% over the same time last year.
3) We've had 57 First-time visiting families so far this year, compared to 49 last year.
4) The Chili Cook-off netted $1,000 more for Vacation Bible School than 2008.

With all this in mind, please tell me this: What is it about Good Shepherd that attracted you? What keeps you coming back? What would you like to see in the future? What changes would you make? What changes would be a "deal breaker" for you?

I'm not hunting for platitudes so please don't offer any. I'm looking for a thoughtful response that results from soul-searching on your part.

David