The Only Thing

First I would like to express just how much I hate the city. As a boy who has spent much of his life living in cities, some of which were rather large, I want to express my utmost gratitude to God for delivering me from the rat race, and allowing me to live in a one horse paradise. Viva La small town Iowa!!

I have spent the last two days in Des Moines attending a conference our fellowship puts on for it's pastors. While I did not like venue city, (Des Moines is at the top of the list for my least favorite cities), the conference was timely and I feel will produce bushels of fruit.

The conference centered on the concept of church planting and growth. Over the years I have been a part of a great number of these sorts of conferences. Whether they be about growing a church, or growing a business, they are always informative but somehow irrelevant to what I am doing at the given time. It was not so at this conference. God prepared this conference for the team that I am a part of. I hope that others got something from it, I'm sure they did, but it was prepared for us.

One theme that came shining through, and a message that I have been preaching for some time is this; it is time for us to forget the way things have been done, we don't need to shift paradigms, we need to shatter them.

In both our personal and corporate ministries we need to be able to shift with the move of God as He applies His word in a relevant manner to our society. Remember the move of God is always fresh, but it is not new. The move of the Spirit started with the words of Jesus as He declared 'It is finished'. The Spirit has not ceased moving since, we have however placed our selves in protective shelters at times to avoid it.

When the Spirit is moving things change, just as a high wind moves things from where they are to a new location, so is the wind of God. It is sometimes uncomfortable for us as most of us do not like change. The days of Status Quo in ALL ministry is over. We cannot afford to be complacent about the return of Christ or the fate that awaits lost souls. Introducing people to Jesus Christ must be the air we breath, the purpose of our lives.

After a tragic event that befell our family several years ago, my wise mother turned to me and said something that God has burned into my mind. She said; "Telling people about Christ is not the most important thing...it's the only thing."

Make it a profitable day for the Kingdom in your neighborhood today.

Enjoy the Coffee,

Jim