Plans Change, Mission Never does

Sitting in my office with Jake as we look at 18 calendars of the Fall. With Covid-19 and not being sure what Schools will be reacting makes planning a a semester a little tricky. What I do know is that the mission and commitment does not change. We still must strive to Know Jesus, Grow Together and Bless the World. Our methods may change, our plans may change, many, many times as we have seen this summer, but what we are charged with does not.

Please join us as we pray over the upcoming year, as we continue to seek God's will in those plans and commit to help fulfill our Church's mission to Know, Grow and Bless.

Proverbs 16:3 Commit your work to the LORD,  and your plans will be established. (ESV)

Wow, What a Summer

This next Winter I will be coming up on my 20th year in ministry and I can defiantly tell you this has been one of the most unique, difficult and stressful summers I have even been apart of. Seems like every two weeks since April there has been some sort of detour sign placed on the road and we have had to make some sort of change to planning. Whether it was Falls Creek, Super Summer, Vacation Bible School, Pre-teen camp, Weekly Sunday Worship, Sunday School, Mission Trips or Wednesday Youth Midweek nothing is what we thought and nothing went on without change this summer.

So where do we go from here, Every week I find myself praying not for normality but asking God to just show me the next step. We have tried every week to meet as church leadership and pray that God would guide our next steps. Not steps that we want but steps that he wishes us to go. This has not been easy, so many families,  so many different points of view, so many areas of concern.

The truth is we don't always know the full plan, we are not always given a 5 year plan. We do however know as the old Gospel song says, Lets just take this, One Day At A Time.

One day at a time sweet Jesus that's all I'm asking from you
Give me the strength to do everyday what I have to do
Yesterday's gone sweet Jesus and tomorrow may never be mine
So for my sake teach me to take one day at a time

We Can't do this Alone

Some days are hard, some weeks are hard, some months are hard. I saw on social media a lot of people talking about January being a long year. Not sure why so many people felt that way. To be truthful I sometime have a part of me that can bury my head in work or tasks and not always know that everything around me has changed. a few times that has been a good thing. From drama or difficult circumstances around me in many ways it has kept me from shuttling down emotionally. Sometimes we just plow through till we find daylight so we can breath. A few times when I finally come up for air I find myself alone. Many times though when I finally look up I find that there are a few people, a small group of encouraging friends that were actually there with me the whole time. I didn't always realize they were there but they were. Looking back through those times I remember that they where there encouraging me, when I didn't think I needed it, carrying me, when I thought I was doing it all myself, or protecting me, when I thought I was strong enough alone.

In the difficult moments hurting people don't always realize how much they need you, or Jesus, but they do, they really do.

Galatians 6:9 "And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up."

Fix the leak of sin

When you are fishing in a boat and you’ve been out there for a little while and all of sudden you you look down and there’s water in the boat. First you look around for a towel, I mean its just a little water not a big thing just throw a towel on it, cover it up.

You go back to fishing but soon you go to move and find that the water is now up to your ankles, you immediately put down your fishing pole and look for a bucket, a cup anything to begin to bail water out of your boat.

This might work for a little while but until you actually take time and find the hole and fix the hole then your fishing days are over. Now you might be able to patch the whole or even ignore it…maybe even just take you boat and put it on dry land and never fish again.

We are called to be Fishers of Men (Matt. 4:19) we need to be fishing and if something is stopping us from fishing or fishing effectively we must be focused on fixing the issue immediately so we can do what we have been called to do.