There was a house fire on my street two nights ago. All things were peaceful until my wife and I were startled by the alarms of fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars as they raced past our house down the road. Like the rest of our neighbors we went out into the cold night and walked down the road to see what was happening. Flames were shooting out of the roof of our neighbor's home. We worried about whether everyone got out safely - we heard that they did. Praise God!
The next morning my granddaughters asked if I would go down by the burned up house before driving them to school. We stopped and sadly gazed upon the destruction. One of my granddaughters expressed concern for the children of the home. I assured her that everyone got out safely and they were staying with relatives.
The fire had started in the roof around the fireplace chimney and completely destroyed the second storey of the home, making it a total right off. Fireplaces and wood stoves can indeed be dangerous unless special care is given to cleaning the chimney.
There is something eerie about a house after it has experienced a major fire. As we sat there gazing upon it I could sense the lifeless emptiness of a home that once exhilarated love, life, and laughter. The old saying says that "It takes a family to make a real home" rings true.
Within every soul exists a flame of passion for life. Like fireplaces and wood stoves, special care needs to be given to the flame of passion. If it is not properly stoked with the initiative of vision and purpose, it will soon burn down and eventually burn out. But it can also burn up. Every human soul has its limits to the amount of stress and activity it can handle. If proper attention is not given to these tensions in the soul then things can get out of control and become a raging fire that will consume and destroy.
The same lesson applies to the life of the church as well. Within every fellowship there is a limit to the energy it has to expend. Once that energy level is exceeded then things begin to fall apart and people loose their passion. Pastors and leaders would be wise to keep abreast of this and manage the expectations of the church. Too often we put our focus on the results we are aiming for and miss the results of the journey along the way.
These are some thoughts that have been on my mind as I look ahead into the coming year. May God bless you in all of your endeavours for 2012. Blessings.
-Leo
Friday, January 6, 2012
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
2012 - Revitalization: Rekindle the Fire
I have lit my fair share of wood stoves and wood heaters in my day. When my wife and I were first married we bought a wood heater for our home. It wasn't an air-tight type of stove but rather a stove that operated with a draft and a damper. Each morning I would rise to put in a few crumpled sheets of newspaper, pile some kindling on top, then strike a match and light the fire. Before long the kindling would be snapping and cracking with bright yellow and orange flames. It was then time to throw on a few big sticks of hardwood and the fire was set for a couple of hours. After a time you would notice a chill in the air and the stove would be cooling. It was then time to stoke the embers and throw on a few more sticks of hardwood.
New Life (like all church fellowships) has a beginning that's much like starting a new fire. The kindling of vision and mission was lighted and a great fire of passion burned bright for a number of years. But then the fire burned down and no more fuel was added to keep the flames alive. Maybe it's because in most churches only a few people work hard for so long that eventually they run out of gas and burn out.
Last fall we completed stage two of the process of rediscovery: to rediscover our mission. Mission always involves passion in some way. We can have a well written mission statement, but if there is no passion behind it then there is really no mission. Words don't mean anything if their is no burning flame. We discovered through our Mission Audit that nothing has changed as far as our God-given purpose goes in our community. Our mission is the same as it was from the beginning when we started just over 20 years ago.
2012 will be a time for rekindling the flame of our mission that died down through the years. Over the next number of weeks and months we will be gathering fresh fuel for the fire to flame once again. Our audit reminded us that God planted our church here in Hatchet lake to be a ministry to families - a family-focused ministry. We have renewed our commitment to it and will be transitioning our focus back into that identity and purpose.
Already we have created space both physically and spiritually for a type of ministry that will be sensitive to the needs of children and their families. A portion of our sanctuary will be given for the purpose of children's worship. Our order of service will reflect the same. Through these efforts we hope to instill within children a sense of reverence as they come into the presence of God. A portion of one of the walls of our sanctuary is dedicated to the creation of a visual Bible. Crafts and and carvings will be kepted in gold shoe boxes and placed on shelves. Children will be able to access these boxes to retell the wonderful stories of the bible after they have been shared to them during a worship experience.
This is only our beginning as we continues to fan the flames of your original passion and purpose. It's time to rekindle the flame at New Life, and I suspect it might be time for that to happen in many churches around the world. What do you have planned for 2012? Blessings.
-Leo
New Life (like all church fellowships) has a beginning that's much like starting a new fire. The kindling of vision and mission was lighted and a great fire of passion burned bright for a number of years. But then the fire burned down and no more fuel was added to keep the flames alive. Maybe it's because in most churches only a few people work hard for so long that eventually they run out of gas and burn out.
Last fall we completed stage two of the process of rediscovery: to rediscover our mission. Mission always involves passion in some way. We can have a well written mission statement, but if there is no passion behind it then there is really no mission. Words don't mean anything if their is no burning flame. We discovered through our Mission Audit that nothing has changed as far as our God-given purpose goes in our community. Our mission is the same as it was from the beginning when we started just over 20 years ago.
2012 will be a time for rekindling the flame of our mission that died down through the years. Over the next number of weeks and months we will be gathering fresh fuel for the fire to flame once again. Our audit reminded us that God planted our church here in Hatchet lake to be a ministry to families - a family-focused ministry. We have renewed our commitment to it and will be transitioning our focus back into that identity and purpose.
Already we have created space both physically and spiritually for a type of ministry that will be sensitive to the needs of children and their families. A portion of our sanctuary will be given for the purpose of children's worship. Our order of service will reflect the same. Through these efforts we hope to instill within children a sense of reverence as they come into the presence of God. A portion of one of the walls of our sanctuary is dedicated to the creation of a visual Bible. Crafts and and carvings will be kepted in gold shoe boxes and placed on shelves. Children will be able to access these boxes to retell the wonderful stories of the bible after they have been shared to them during a worship experience.
This is only our beginning as we continues to fan the flames of your original passion and purpose. It's time to rekindle the flame at New Life, and I suspect it might be time for that to happen in many churches around the world. What do you have planned for 2012? Blessings.
-Leo
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