Something new has entered into the hearts of us these past four weeks – stress! After sharing this with my coach, he calmly replied, “Good! That is exactly what church planting should feel like at this point; if it didn’t, we might think you were doing something wrong!” Well, that’s good ...... I guess ......
At this point, we have not only had all of the issues with moving to contend with, but all of the issues of “going live” (so to speak) for the first time in the community. For those following our progress, you may recall our plans to help young families with some parenting support by offering a mini-VBS experience on developing thankfulness in children. It was originally to take place on August 23rd; rather than put “all our eggs in one basket” and limit families to one option, we decided to adjust the plan by going smaller, more local, and on more dates. We are now offering the same event in four of the neighborhood parks, one on each of the four Saturdays in September. Rather than hoping for 40 people all at once, we’re now preparing to serve 1-2 dozen children at a time, thus giving each family more personal attention and care.
The stress comes with making it all happen, of course! How will we decorate? What needs to be on the door hangers? Do we need insurance? Photo permission clauses? How do we keep the Caribou Coffee hot and fresh? Who has a parachute? Gosh, we probably need a United Methodist banner so we don’t look like some suspicious-looking cult; now how are we going to display that? Help, we need a trailer to move this stuff around; anybody have one? Anybody? Families are probably going to want to check us out by going to our website; but that isn’t ready yet. Can we throw a simple one together? Yes, but we have to decide on an official church name in order to take the first step (and the winner is: New Day United Methodist Church!). Still not enough time to put something in place. What can we do immediately instead? (By the way, tomorrow’s blog is dedicated to them and the details of these Power Lab events)
OK, you get the idea. And that’s just one of many areas demanding attention these days. What we took for granted in the past can not be counted on in the present. Even little things like electricity, or a pool of caring volunteers, are now luxuries. I guess we are the first ones who are learning God’s lessons on THE POWER OF THANKFULNESS. Everything is indeed a gift in our lives. Every person has something to offer which can bless us. Every action we take is aimed at blessing someone else with the Spirit of Christ, and even if we can only take half the actions we dream about, we can at least be thankful to be able to take the actions which we can.
The Bible reminds me to do this, if only I’d pay more attention to it: “If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you t
hink he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.” Matthew 6:30-34 The Message
So maybe I should stop stressing and start praising more. Thank you, almighty Lord, for whatever we have for this event, and all we can do right now to share your blessings with others; help us to be leaders of the thankfulness that is due to you!
At this point, we have not only had all of the issues with moving to contend with, but all of the issues of “going live” (so to speak) for the first time in the community. For those following our progress, you may recall our plans to help young families with some parenting support by offering a mini-VBS experience on developing thankfulness in children. It was originally to take place on August 23rd; rather than put “all our eggs in one basket” and limit families to one option, we decided to adjust the plan by going smaller, more local, and on more dates. We are now offering the same event in four of the neighborhood parks, one on each of the four Saturdays in September. Rather than hoping for 40 people all at once, we’re now preparing to serve 1-2 dozen children at a time, thus giving each family more personal attention and care.
The stress comes with making it all happen, of course! How will we decorate? What needs to be on the door hangers? Do we need insurance? Photo permission clauses? How do we keep the Caribou Coffee hot and fresh? Who has a parachute? Gosh, we probably need a United Methodist banner so we don’t look like some suspicious-looking cult; now how are we going to display that? Help, we need a trailer to move this stuff around; anybody have one? Anybody? Families are probably going to want to check us out by going to our website; but that isn’t ready yet. Can we throw a simple one together? Yes, but we have to decide on an official church name in order to take the first step (and the winner is: New Day United Methodist Church!). Still not enough time to put something in place. What can we do immediately instead? (By the way, tomorrow’s blog is dedicated to them and the details of these Power Lab events)
OK, you get the idea. And that’s just one of many areas demanding attention these days. What we took for granted in the past can not be counted on in the present. Even little things like electricity, or a pool of caring volunteers, are now luxuries. I guess we are the first ones who are learning God’s lessons on THE POWER OF THANKFULNESS. Everything is indeed a gift in our lives. Every person has something to offer which can bless us. Every action we take is aimed at blessing someone else with the Spirit of Christ, and even if we can only take half the actions we dream about, we can at least be thankful to be able to take the actions which we can.
The Bible reminds me to do this, if only I’d pay more attention to it: “If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you t
hink he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.” Matthew 6:30-34 The MessageSo maybe I should stop stressing and start praising more. Thank you, almighty Lord, for whatever we have for this event, and all we can do right now to share your blessings with others; help us to be leaders of the thankfulness that is due to you!
1 comment:
What a wonderful reminder to all of us of God's promises and peace in the midst of chaos - our own inner chaos! Thank you, Pastor Jim, for your faithful devotion in sitting with the Lord and discerning his plans for you. It reminds the rest of us to do the same.
From one human being to another - Shalom,
Kathleen
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