The Future is Now

Guess. How many of our senior highers are involved in helping lead our junior high Rush Hour on Sunday evenings? Three, six or nine?

How many of our senior highers are helping lead our Children's Ministry on the weekends? Fifteen, Twenty or Twenty-five?

The answer to the first question is six. The answer to the second is twenty-five. Blew me away. The youth are not only our future; they are our now.

Summit Reflections (Part 11 of 11)

"And it came to pass."

T.D. Jakes advice to pastors when people leave their churches: Quote the Bible phrase to ourselves,
'And it came to pass.'" I have to admit that looking in from the outside, we pastors are really funny about how we feel when some people that leave our churches. Ego, nostalgia, the value of friendships and a whole lot of other stuff gets mixed together in our minds to create a bit of an emotional mess sometimes.

I've come to some "conclusions" for myself:

  • The day it doesn't ever bother me anymore is probably the day I should get out of ministry because something in me that is essential for ministry will have died.
  • The days I can't get over it are days I need to grieve some more or (if I've grieved enough) I need to grow up, get over it and move on.
  • Some other pastors' heartaches are some of my greatest blessings.
  • Some of my heartaches will be some other pastor's blessing.
  • People are weird sometimes...and I too am people. 

Declaration: I will remember the third and fourth bullet-points next time I'm disappointed or grieving.