The weight of the task

It took one little statute to make me mindful of the task ahead for the first time, really.  Last night we celebrated ministry in our state by a wonderful show, styled after the "Oscars" we called the "Wesleys. They handed out gold-plated statutes of the founder of Methodism, one John Wesley.

They were for ministry done, for ideas accomplished, for things that would knock your socks off. My co-pastor and myself, Sione Tu'uta, were called up on stage, were prayed for, and then handed one of those statues.

Mind you, everyone else was handed a trophy for work done, for ministry accomplished. We were handed a trophy for work we are going to do.

And somewhere in the midst of the songs and such, it hit me. What if we don't? What if a year from now we have the same 30 persons we have now?

I met a person yesterday, a person in ministry, a colleague, who said to me upon greeting me, so, you're going to a church that couldn't make it with one pastor and now it has two?

The inference, and not a very nice one in my opinion, was that we would be twice the failure.

Several others questioned the co-pastor status and such.

So, I go this morning to my man Paul, with a twist. Let's re-write the first portion of the letter Paul writes to the church in Corinth, and let's believe this happens in seven years when I have retired and John Wesley is being put away in boxes to be taken to wherever in the heck we're going to be.

"From Billy, called by God's will to be an apostle of Jesus chirst, and from Sione, our brother. To God's Church that is on Carrollton. To those who have been made holy to God in Christ Jesus, who are called to be God's people. Together with all those who are called to be God's people. Together with all those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place -- he's their Lord and ours! Grace and peace from God our Father and The Lord Jesus Christ."

Yes, one day we're going to look back at June 25th, the first real day we will attempt to find a place to sit in our new church, on June 29th when we have a first worship service and have a makeshift screen and a little projector and we're going to look back and think of the times we talked about having a full house and we're going to smile and talk about all those who have been made holy to God in Christ Jesus.

I don't know where they will have come from. I don't know what they will do, or how they will find us or what is next in our lives.

But I know that I am called by God's will, and I truly believe I have been called to this work, to this place, to this time. I do. I don't know why, and if I linger too long on the whys I will talk myself out of my own faith, I always do. But we're going to succeed in whatever success God wants from us. We're going to re-create church, do it in a new way, do it better and with ideas and with heart.

We are.

Two pastors in a place that had trouble paying for one.

What a trip John Wesley and I am going to take.

I wrap up Paul's greeting to Corinth this way, "I thank my God always for you, because of God's grace that was given to you in Christ Jesus. That is, you were made rich through him in everything in all your communicatiions and every kind of knowledge, in the same way that the testimony about Christ was confirmed in you."

That's my look back at a monumental task taken on by two far less than monumental people. That's who we are, or perhaps who we were.

Two weeks from day, it truly begins. May The Lord bless the effort with people who are hurting, people who are in need, people who love The Lord and people who do not know him. And let us be equal to the task through Him who strengthens me.