Revitalize Your Church

God is love—love lived out through the power of the Holy Spirit in a community of gifted individuals playing one musical piece in different parts, a holy symphony.   Holiness is life lived by people in the fullness of the Holy Spirit who are empowered to offer a drastic alternative to the world around them. Love is the melody running through the community, underneath the community, and all around the community.   The Christian community is not a place of jarring instruments singing different songs, or a place of gossip, conflict, rejection, pain, strife, and hatred. It is a place where the Spirit’s fruit is present in abundance, so much so that the world around the Christian community can’t help but join the melody. It is a community that is so unified, so melodious, so beautiful that it stops others in their tracks. Those on the outside can’t help but peer in, and watch with awe and wonder, and notice the unity of the symphony.   Instead of...

Relationship cannot be sought as an end in itself. If it is, it smothers us and destroys us. Relationship is a byproduct of a journey shared between those seeking the same goal, between those who eat the same bread and drink from the same cup. -- Richard Rohr

Let us resolve, first, not to hurt one another, to do nothing unkind or unfriendly to each other . . . Let us resolve, secondly, God being our helper, to speak nothing harsh or unkind of each other . . . to say all the good we can, both of and to one another . . . Let us, thirdly, resolve to harbour no unkind thought, no unfriendly temper towards each other . . . Let us, fourthly, endeavour to help each other on in whatever we are agreed leads to the Kingdom. So far as we can, let us always rejoice to strengthen each other's hands in God. -- John Wesley, Letter to a Roman Catholic , July 18, 1749

"If your organization shut down next Tuesday, who would miss it and why?" -- Pat McLaughlin asked this probing question a a recent training event.

"Jesus didn't hang out in synagogues. He hung out at wells. Wells were natural gathering places in ancient culture." -- Mark Batterson Ponder this. Where are the "wells" located in your community? Where's the place where your church can naturally cross paths with your community?

as the grains of wheat once scattered on the hill were gathered into one to become one bread so may all your people from all the ends of the earth be gathered into one in you -- Marty Haugen

Steve Yastrow shared a valuable insight at Tom Peters' Blog recently: Here's how I define a "We relationship": When your customer never thinks of you without thinking of both of you. A customer can think that your company is wonderful, as in "They do a great job." But, when your customer can't think of you without thinking of her relationship with you at the same time, then you've achieved a higher level of connectedness. Read the rest here.

Now, this is fascinating! Could there be a lesson for the church here? Seth Godin reports on the phenomenon of the Dabbawalla. These men deliver thousands of lunches every single day in Mumbai... from the person's home to their office, hot and fresh. The reported error rate is one in six million. How is this possible? How do you create and run a service with thousand of employees, no technology and a poorly-educated workforce and have better than six sigma quality? Simple: the dabbawallas know their customers. If they rotated the people around, it would never work. There's trust, and along with the trust is responsibility. By creating a flat organization and building relationships, the system even survives monsoon season.

My friend, Joy, recently shared the following story from Ministering Cross Culturally There was a man who wanted to have some of his friends come over and help him do a task. Only a few showed up and so they sat on the porch and talked until more men showed up. Not enough men showed up to work, so they just sat talking and called it a day later that afternoon and decided that they would try it again next week. Now, I would have been frustrated by this. Frustrated that the few that were there didn't at least start on the task. Frustrated that nothing got done. Frustrated at what seems to be "wasted" time. But....they didn't see it that way. To them, work isn't worth doing at all if it isn't accompanied by relationship. If you can't enjoy your time together, then what is the point of working?

Hayward on the Run had a good word about our Trunk or Treat last night.

Last night, we must have had every kid in town Trick or Treating on our church property. About 40 of us parked our vehicles on the ball field, and distributed candy out of our trunks. I came loaded with an enormous stash from Tony's Candy -- enough for 500 kids -- and it was just about gone in 20 minutes. We were all running out of goods with more than two hours left to go, and kids streaming in from everywhere. Fortunately, two or three brave souls made a quick dash to various stores in town, wiping out the entire candy supply, and refortifying the front lines! I don't believe there have been that many Hayward children at one place and time in history! It was a tremendous connection with the young families of our community, and many thankful parents expressed their heart felt appreciation for what we did. I'm sure we will see some of them in church over the next few weeks. I'm glad our children's pastor, Jeremy, saw October 31 as an opportunity to creatively reach ...