Another whirlwind (normal) weekend

We spent Friday/Saturday at a Drury Inn in beautiful Fenton MO. It sits across the interstate from the Chrysler Plant. Could you ask for a more picturesque scene? Each year we gather a group of about 15 to 20 people from church for a Leadership Retreat. It's a chance to get away from the phones and chores for a day to sit and have long conversations about what the heck we do. My main focus remains bringing the message of Christ to Secularists. I believe there are a sub-group of these folks who desire to be close to the sacred and are left with no method to get there. There are people who will respond to the Christian traditions and will find meaning in the words, rituals and actions of Jesus and those who follow him. Then, Sunday morning was simply a great worship service. I choked backed tears several times as did Annette (for different reasons of course). Our little church has enjoyed a bit of growth recently. Three or four new families have joined us for worship regularly and it looks like they might join the church. You can't imagine what that means to us. On the business side of church we call them "giving units." Isn't that poetic? For us what is all points to is having a full-time pastor again. Most people in the congregation probably don't even remember that we have a three-quarter-time preacher. That's because he works so hard. It's part of the lay leadership's job to remind everybody. Another problem with this is that this implies getting a different pastor and nobody wants that. They would take this pastor at three-quarters rather than anyone else at full time. But we can't let ourselves become dependent on any pastor. This happens all too frequently to little churches. Those churches risk remaining little and shrinking through attrition. Anyway, during one of the prayers this morning, I just kept saying, "Thank you God for blessing our little church. We want to do your will."

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