"I bet you'd agree that a group of talented, charismatic leaders can draw a crowd. Find the right creative team, musicians, and speakers, and you can grow any church. It doesn't even have to be a Christian church. The fact is that without making a conscious choice to depend on the Holy Spirit, we can do a lot. (Although without the Spirit, we wouldn't actually be drawing our next breath-but I am talking about cognizant and intentional dependence on our part.) My point is that a growing and energetic gathering is not necessarily evidence of the Holy Spirit's work."
-Francis Chan, in Chapter 7 of Forgotten God
This excerpt from our reading this week is simply food for thought. Without the presence and direction of the Spirit in our lives-and in our churches-we cannot fulfill the mission that God has given us. The problem is not with our Lord; it is with our insistence on trying to fulfill a God-sized mission by human strengths. This approach simply does not work out, and ignoring the Spirit's guidance in ministry leads to exhaustion, frustration, discouragement, and doubt. On the contrary, living in the grace that the Spirit gives us leads to joy, peace, and strength. Obedience to the Spirit's guidance and everyday focus on our relationship with Him is integral to all believers' lives. Our Father did not design the Christian life to be lived in mere knowledge of the Spirit; rather, this life is made to be lived in relationship with the Spirit.
Updates on Barnabas: We are having a kickoff cookout this Sunday, which will hopefully gather the neighbors together to have a good time, and we'll be able to tell them that our church will begin next Sunday. So far, there have been several highly supportive neighbors who are beginning to internalize the idea. Please pray for these neighbors, especially Pete, Terry, Mary, Frank, and Berlin. I don't know that all of them truly have a relationship with Jesus, but they are supportive of the church's efforts and want to be involved. Our prayer is that if they don't know Jesus, they will very soon!
Also, Stacy and I had dinner tonight with Gary Frost (one of the vice-presidents of NAMB), Kim Robinson (personal assistant to NAMB president Kevin Ezell; former vice-president of Proctor and Gamble), and Alex Ennes (Church Planter and chaplain for the Cleveland Indians), along with a local NAMB coordinator and a future church planter. The NAMB people happened to be in town and wanted to tour Vision House, and the advice and encouragement that they gave us was priceless. Their two biggest pieces of advice were (1) Don't be afraid to fail. Church plants die when they begin to fear leaps of faith, plus failures teach us lessons that we don't easily forget; and (2) Always have a mentor and a support group. No matter how high you get, always have someone that supports you and pushes you to succeed. I was quite humbled to be able to actually interact with the "big-wigs," so to speak. And know what I love? They were just people who loved their brothers and sisters in Christ.
Today's Prayer Spot: Cleveland Clinic. Google-Earth "Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH." This massive Clinic is one of the best in the nation, and it is an area of strategic focus for our search for persons of peace.
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