Friday, August 1, 2014

Wondering, wandering and wonderful

I did the ol' open the Bible and read trick this morning. I was seeking a word from the Word, if you know what I mean. I remembered in my moments of meditation that if I seek after him first, all things will be given to me. Like a very much needed blood transfusion, I went searching.

I opened, with trepidation perhaps, and found this:

No one sews a piece of new, unshrunk clothes on old clothes; otherwise the patch tears away from it; the new from the old, and makes a worse tear. No one pours new wine into old feather wineskins; otherwise the wine would burst the wineskins and the wine would be lost and the wineskins destroyed. But new wine is for new wineskins.

Well.
Uh.

What a Word. Perhaps I needed to be reminded of the incredible chore we all face as we seek change in our ministries. The hardest thing we all do, laity and clergy (it seems to me) is to make changes in things that have always been. Someone doesn't like it. Period. Someone will not like what you have chosen to do.

Thinking back about it all, it's sort of what I've done in every place I've ever been, journalism management for 24 years and ministry for 16. I've never given much thought to it, for I always was certain I was right about what changes were made. I thought then, and still do to a small extent, that I was doing what was needed to lead.

I haven't exactly changed my mine on that, but I've begun to wonder about all those persons who I left in the wake, those who had done things I was asking them to do differently or to be more precise those I told do do things differently. I wonder about their confidence level after change was instigated. I wonder about their feelings. I wonder about their wondering.

I wonder about how much new wine I've poured quickly down the opening to the old, very old in some circumstances, wineskins. I wonder about sewing a piece of new, unshrunk cloth that has never done the job at all onto a bunch of old clothes that have held the outer wear together for years upon years. I wonder.

I wonder about the new cloth, and where we get it from. I wonder about changing everything to meet the specifications of the new cloth even before we buy the new cloth. I wonder about my wondering.

But ultimately, on the same page I opened this morning, there is this: He appointed twelve and called them apostles. He appointed them to be with him, to be sent out to preach.

I used to have a senior pastor who said his wife was his prophet. I laughed, till over the years I've examined my own wife's ability to see what I don't.

She reminded me this morning of a powerful thought. She asked sincerely, "Do you think the apostles had it easy?"

I said, "Peter preached and 3,000 joined up."

She said, "Yeah, but later, he ran for his life and the eventually crucified him."

I said, "I'm not a Peter," whispering and wondering some more if maybe I am.

The point is this: Ministry, discipling making, growing churches, especially planting them is not an easy chore. It's not a chore for the faint of heart. It's not even fun.

But getting the new piece of cloth to fit neatly onto an old pair of jeans is quite wonderful to see.

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