Preparing for a new church board - vision time....

Tomorrow evening the newly elected church board of NRN will meet for the orientation meeting.  This year will be quite different as I lead the board through a shortened orientation and then share my vision for 2014-2015 with them.  I have been preparing for this meeting since my sabbatical a few weeks ago. I have been challenged by a statement from Terry Walling, a leader who specializes in helping churches refocus their ministry.  He said: "For churches to transition into a new era of ministry, courageous, godly leadership is paramount."  I am very excited about what God is doing in our midst. 

It is clear to me that God is opening new doors of increased ministry for me as I made the commitment and have shared it publicly, what the BIG take away from my sabbatical has been.  Here it is: God has shown me that I have been hitting my head against the wall and stressed out over the past 4 years about building a church. God has spoken to my heart that this is NOT the call of God upon my life.  God called me to help build people in faith to grow spiritually.  The decision I have made is I am going to trust God to build the church and I am going to invest my time in building people. I am praying BIG about what God is teaching me on this new direction in the journey of life.

I recently heard about a new resource from Thom Rainer.  For more than twenty-five years, Dr. Thom Rainer, author of Autopsy of a Deceased Church, has helped churches grow, reverse the trends of decline, and has autopsied those that have died. From his experiences, he has discovered twelve consistent themes among those churches that have died. Yet, it’s not gloom and doom because from those twelve themes, lessons on how to keep your church alive have emerged. This book has just moved to my "must read" list.   I really look forward to reading this new book.