BEFORE I FORGET…
We have a number of blessings that have been lifted during our time of praise, prayer and worship each Sunday. The Lord is restoring lives, changing hearts and conditioning our souls with the eternal Word of God! He is lifting the commitment level of our faithful and restoring our hope in the future! God is doing a new thing among the people at mpbc!!
If our entire church family doesn’t share this perspective completely it’s for good reason.
We’ve been looking at the “figures” of statistics instead of the “faith” of the people to assess success. I’ve been caught in this trap myself. I have been conditioned by the church of the 80’s and 90’s, where activities and programs have been the pulse of success. When a ministry was needed we established an activity and a program to process it. Often times these programs became the end goal rather than a means to the ultimate goal of building lives into “Holy Temples” of the Lord (1 Peter 2). The pulse of success is really the people whom we know.
Think of this for a moment; people and relationships!
I’ve been prompted to share this with you today; we are in a relational ministry that is eternal! And this ministry is for the people.
Our task is to go to the people; the people we know now and the people we are to get to know. We are to join people in their journey of hopes, dreams, struggles, questions, doubts and disappointments. How many of us can actually say that we know people in this way? A relationship is what Jesus wanted with us, not an acquaintance. He has placed our church in a ministry to be in step with Him; to pursue relationships with others that will bring us inside of their lives so that we can bring to them what Jesus brought to us – hope through love.
What will this mean? It requires us to stop pretending to care and to be genuinely interested in what makes people hurt, happy, content, disappointed, confused and discouraged (among other things). This is genuine, relational compassion.
While this isn’t easy, it’s possible. The best and most important strides in life are not easy, but possible. Scripture reminds us that what seems impossible for us is possible for the Lord (Luke 18:27). Is it possible to casually enter into a conversation with people? Yes. Is it hard? Yes, for some. For others it may not be difficult to talk, but there may need to be more focus on listening to the stories of others. By listening, we gain insight into the journey!
It is a sin to be good, when God has called us to be great! We may be involved in good things, but are we diminishing the great works He has purposed in us (Eph. 2:10) by being okay with good?
This August, I will be conducting a half-day seminar on Doug Pollack’s writing, Activating God Space. This seminar will give us some insight on the “how” in the process of moving carefully into conversations that will help in cultivating relationships by listening and waiting on the moving of the Holy Spirit.
This sounds exciting to me! How about you?
In the meantime… Practice getting to know people. Extend an invitation to join you to check out our church worship.
Be watching for more information on facebook (Mt Pleasant Baptist), my twitter account (@DunawayJohn) and our website (www.mpbc-indy.org).