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

Birds of a Feather

By now you have probably figured out that I love the outdoors. My granddaddy always told me that a bad day fishing beats a good day at work...though I never knew him to have a bad day fishing.

The geese were sitting on the lake again this morning. It was quite impressive to see the Canada's all together and the snow geese on the other side also together. The division was very visible and caused me to consider how we Christians divide ourselves.

You see the geese were all on the same pond, feeding from the same schools of fish, and headed for the same destination. Yet in spite of all these commonalities, they did not mix with the other species.

I suppose this is just natural, the differences make us uncomfortable, and we seek comfort. Denominational differences, such as doctrine, tradition, and style separate members of the body of Christ. We tend to stay within the flock that we are comfortable with. At times we become very protective of our differences to the point of conflict. While there is nothing wrong with worshipping with those with whom you have things in common, we must always remember that we are, as the church, a single branch grafted into the vine. If we can agree that salvation is only through the shed blood and resurrection of Christ, and that this is a gift given to us, not earned, then we are of the same branch regardless of what we call ourselves.

With this in mind, we must also remember that we are also headed for the same destination, and swimming in the same pond. Our commission is clear, 'go into all the world and preach the gospel'.

We must be about the fathers business.