That is exact question that I want to ask many of you. And I don’t mean “from me.” What is that we really want for our church family? We are in the second year together and I am not trying to put my best foot forward making impressions. I wish I would have more time to build stronger relationships before asking for commitment. There are times that I wonder: do we really want the same thing for our church? I know what I want, and I have been listening carefully to hear what you want, still there are different expectations and values expressed by various groups.
Antoine de Saint Exupéry has said: “If you want to build a ship, don’t summon people to buy wood, prepare tools, distribute jobs, and organize the work – rather teach people the yearning for the wide, boundless ocean.”
A year ago I began summoning people to prepare for work, to start training, to prepare tools, to place each person in ministry according to their gifts, to organize various departments. While some efforts succeeded, and some people joined, many other efforts fell through – poor attendance at training seminars, lack of interest to attend off-site workshops, ignoring or disregarding the tools available, some are even standing back to watch and wait. It all made me wonder if my enthusiasm biased me to assume that we want to grow, that we want to change, that we want a better church, that we want an improvement and efficiency in our lives.
What do we want? Do you have the yearning for reaching out lost people? Do you have the longing to see our church grow and plant more churches in the city? Do you care for your children, a whole lost generation, to return and experience Jesus? Do you want our young kids to grow up in relationship with God and never leave His Presence? Do you want our Church to be the Family of families, a safe place of Peace & Healing? Do we want Christ to come soon? As for me and my family - we do. Church elders do too. The core and committed members do so. Many are prioritizing their lives and discarding lures of this world for the sake of God inspired legacy.
In the coming year we will continue teaching skills, and giving tools for work, and we will also focus on more fundamental issue – preach, teach and articulate our yearning to realize God’s purpose for our church, fuel the passion for church growth, for spiritual growth, for personal growth.
At our last elders meeting we dialogued about the core values that give us identity, that influence our behavior and our actions. As we prepare for growth we must understand that relationships alone are never enough to keep us together. As the group grows so will the distance between individuals. Even common vision is not enough – you know people who got same goals, but different ideas of how to achieve them – are they still together?
Our identity is the glue that will bond us together – based on our faith in Three Angels Message proclaimed by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, our desire to glorify God in all we do, our servant-leadership spirit of considering others higher than ourselves, adding value to others, growing ourselves & developing others.
It is from our identity that the motivation and yearning comes.
