I wish it never happened to anyone and I hope it never happens to you, but in my job I hear it almost every week. It’s a word we are afraid of, one that can destroy, and certainly one that will break a heart. Sometimes people admit to it, but mostly they deny it.
The word is AFFAIR.
I tried to tell people. Next time follow my lead. Just kidding…kind of, but I was saying a year ago to watch out for Twitter and people kept making fun of my new hobby. Now we have Oprah, Ashton, and Andy Stanley on Twitter. Apparently it’s catching on fast in the world of sports too. Check this Tennessean story out!
Since government economic numbers lag real time, we were technically in this current recession before we knew it. My prediction is that we will find months from now that the recession has already officially ended by this point and the recovery has slowly begun.
I love interacting with seminary students. As they have their minds stretched, they continue to stretch me attempting to wrestle through doctrine with them. That happened this weekend with a young man who attended our church prior to his call to ministry. We were discussing the concept of grace and I was reminded of a passage that has stretched my thoughts over the years.
Jesus experienced something I think most of us have at times as believers. Sometimes the hardest people to witness to are those we love and know the most. I know countless pastors who have lost siblings, parents and childhood friends, but have limited success witnessing to them.
Apparently people still use these. I thought paper calendars had disappeared. I am a scheduled individual, but I haven’t used one in years. I have used Google calendar, Outlook, iCal, and my Blackberry, but all online. I even had a period where I used a Lotus Spreadsheet, but I never printed it.
Years ago I participated in a one-day medical clinic in a slum near Rio, Brazil that remains nameless, because the government has yet to name it. It is literally built on the side of a steep mountain. Simply walking to the clinic was a huge task. My job was to evangelize the crowd waiting to see the doctors. My translator and I had several decisions to accept Christ, but remarkably we also encountered a good number of professing believers. When I told them that the desire was to eventually start a church in the slum, they were ecstatic. One lady began to jump up and down with excitement. They wanted a local church!
I love it though. I actually read her story today. She had a dream, she worked for it, and she achieved it. This is a true picture of what determination and motivation can do for someone. What I probably love more than anything was what I read recently, that Susan’s real dream was to show her mother that she could do something with her life. Love it!
There are signs of encouragement and life returning to the economy. The unemployment rate is a factor that usually lags behind other indicators, so that’s still very discouraging, but there are hints of better days to come. How should we react during the waiting times like this? Let me offer a few suggestions:
Hypothetically (or maybe not), how would one grow a church that had no young families? Any suggestions on the matter would be greatly appreciated.
