Something works!

"Is this really working?"

Each one of us has had this come out of our mouths after putting hours, no...days, no...months into an important project. It has almost become a member of the family. All our intelligence and energy has gone into completing a set of tasks that we'd like to see result in something very beneficial.

Get into the business of establishing a church and you think and say this often. Not only regarding the project as a whole, but in the different activities and programs you throw yourself into in order to reach the goal of an established church work.

Contrary to the uninformed popular view of Christian workers, we do not spend hours and hours per day kneeling in prayer, mumbling away in a cloister. Nor do we spend the rest of the hours surrounded by Greek and Hebrew texts as well as libraries of works by ancient and modern theologians. We'd like to, but it doesn't work out that way. We do pour a lot of time into just visiting people, buying things, on the phone, and on the 'Net.

Sometimes we're literally in the mud and mess of a building project.

We sit in meetings planning and strategizing, trying to come up with creative ideas that will be attractive, relevant and meaningful.

In the end, we wonder if it works. People start into a new study with gusto, and in the end lose interest after about 3 or 4 weeks. The sermons feel good to preach, and several people in the congregation sleep. The counselling sessions are intense and the couple wants to work things through. In the end they fight more furiously than before and you get blamed for it. Is something working at all?

Well, when we as leaders leave the pity party and actually evaluate things realistically, we see that, yes, things are working. But not according to our standards of success.

We see the most "unlikely" of characters stepping up as the most mature and capable members and leaders of the congregation. We see the "impossible" type come around and change completely as a person. We see the "totally lost little one" understand deep, complex themes. We notice that eventually the wall gets painted, the door gets fixed and the burned-out light bulbs get changed.

This is when we realize our standards are low: we want one thousand people in the congregation, 80 pastors and missionaries, an unending stream of people at our counselling door that walk in with problems and walk out an hour later with solutions. We want a big building with a huge, lit sign. But that's pretty shallow and weak.

What God wants is to touch us deeply through His powerful Bible and Holy Spirit. And through us, wants to touch others deeply. That's it. If we get a thousand people and a hundred missionaries and a one-block square campus, that's just some minor stuff that tags itself onto the work we do.

How are you doing? Is everything working? Like Larry Norman sang: "Why don't you look into Jesus? He's got the answer!" Looking to Him will help you see what really "works".