was a pretty good day at church. Although it is disconcerting to be “in charge of” the only group that isn’t growing in numbers while all others are, it was, nevertheless, another great discussion of scripture. JM didn’t make it, so I was by myself again and for some reason, my fingers didn’t want to follow my mind. Or, my mind didn’t go along with my fingers. So I didn’t think that our time in worship/prayer was all that good but others did. Go figure.
Class was a different story though. Most excellent. We discussed the first three chapters of Ezra. As I studied this week, I finally understood the relevance of these short books of the Bible. What an incredible message! I can’t begin to outline it here but suffice to say that it made for a great discussion. Too bad few men chose to show up today. Their loss.
Yeah, that sounded good with some bravado whilst typing but truth is, I was feeling pretty insignificant today because of the small group. But the pastor pulled me out of that tonight in his Bible study. He reaffirmed that my only job, insignificant as I might find it, is to share the Good News. What the Holy Spirit does with my efforts is His business, not mine. And after church tonight, one of the guys that was there this morning asked me to go out for coffee and we had another great discussion of life. He is a great guy but is hurting so deeply that it is hard to fathom. At what point in life do we forgive ourselves? Much, much harder than asking forgiveness from God, who has promised to forgive if we only ask. Why don’t we make that promise to ourselves?
It isn’t always about numbers you know…growth could be within each member of your class…how cool is that??
It’s very cool and it is most definitely happening. The dissonance arises from having a vision of the church somewhat different from the other members. Not totally different – I think that the Pastor understands the problems that arise when faith is shallow, which occurs when new members to the faith are focused upon gaining other members rather than knowing what it is that they believe. There must be a middle ground and that is what we are trying to find. I think. 😕