I don't know of a preacher who doesn't wrestle with the question of whether anyone is really listening. All the "Good sermon!" comments at the door don't necesssarily mean that people are really appropriating what you say. The truth is that there is probably more going on than we ever hear about. Every once in a while someone will say, "I remember what you said....." and quote from a sermon 6 months ago. Or, they will say, "I've been trying to do what you described last Sunday..." If we are hearing any of those kinds of things, there are probably more out there who could say the same thing but don't think to tell you.  Jesus was right with the parable of the sower. All we can do is sow and do it the best we can. The harvest if up to God.

At the beginning of a message this last week on how the Holy Spirit often interrupts our life and helps us go another direction, I asked a couple who had lost a son in the war to share their story. Through tears, they spoke of how the Holy Spirit had not only comforted them but led them to begin a major program to be of assistance to wounded vets on a national level. By the time they were done, there were people wiping their eyes throughout the worship center. The truth is that most people will forget my sermon, but they will remember their story for a long time. We sometimes forget that personal testimony and story has provided fuel for the Church to survive and remember why it exists. We may need to remember to utilize our people's stories more often.

 It is a given in ministry and church life that there will always be complaints about something. On one hand, that sometimes is good because it means that people care about something. Of course, the complaints that bother us the most are the ones that seem like people are "majoring in minors." I came across an author that had some good advice in terms of not only how to respond, but what complaints to actually pay attention to. If the complaint or concern is related to whether something is interfering with the mission of your church, it probably deserves attention and the person's concerns are where they need to be. If they are anything else, two things can happen...you probably don't need to be as concerned about the comment and it gives you a chance to ask, "In what way is your concern related to our church fulfilling its mission?"

 One of the pitfalls of ministry is that we often spend so much of our time and attention focusing on "the big picture," life's tragedies, trying to get people to think about the big questions, the urgency if the Gospel message, and deadlines we have to meet that we leave no margin to balance with non-urgent things. Sometimes we even feel guilty if we spend time doing something trivial and unimportant. Yet, that is part of the balance of life. Roaming through a bookstore, sitting on the back porch, tinkering with an old car, sorting our cd collections, and doing other non-productive things actually make us more creative and effective when the time comes to work. It is part of what makes us human. 

In trying to start something new, you often lose people or show decline before you begin to show positive results.

No matter how faithful and honest you try to be, someone will probably not like you anyway.

The natural trend in church life is to forget the mission. Vision leaks.

Over time, the temptation for pastors and leaders alike is to settle.

Much of ministry falls apart not because of bad planning or bad ideas and execution, but poor communication.

Churches have been lured into thinking that the Church primarily exists to meet their needs, not reach people to connect them to God.

In reading other blogs, especially those that are commentaries on celebrity comings and goings, I'm amazed at how little people care about what they say is true. We're in a time, it seems, when people care more about whether they can express an opinion and less about whether the opinion has been thought through or whether they need to be accountable. 

This is incredibly damaging in church life when people say what they want just to get a result. James, in the Bible, saw this very early when he said, "The tongue is a fire."

So often when we deal with people who become less active in the life of a congregation, our approach is how they are letting the church down and how much we miss them. All that may be true, but we sometimes miss the fact that they are letting themselves down. Living in a consumer culture, people often see church as an add-on, something that they hope will enjoy if they go. But biblically, the Church is the Body of Christ, not an institution. If you take away a part of the body, it is the detached limb that suffers the most. We are nourished, encouraged, enriched and strengthened by our connections with the gathering of believers. We can't just think in terms of loss of offerings or attendance figures. The real critical issue is the potential deterioration of someone's spiritual vitality.

Recently I read a church leader's explanation of why people resist change that made a lot of sense. He said, "People are not so much afraid of changes as they are of being changed." People are actually rather adept at adjusting to changes. They do it every day. But when it is in an area of their life like church, change has a greater chance of actually changing them. Maybe in addition to trying to just figure out smooth ways of helping people transition we need to be evaluating what the personal changes are that they represent.

I find it interesting that so often we continue to make church life more complex by adding programs and structure and yet seem surprised that church life is hard. It probably needs to be the opposite. Research is indicating that the most effective churches are the ones who have a simple path for people to follow and only plan things that advance their mission. But, they know that church life (and the life of faith) is hard. What did we think Jesus meant when he said it was "the narrow way?"

In watching the winter Olympics, I have seen story after story of how the athletes had a dream, what they did in preparation and their readiness to compete. It strikes me that we often put this behavior in the category as "this is for the elite." But at some level we're all called to this kind of model in the practice of being a Christian. We suffer from lack of a definition of what it means to be a Christ-follower, a lack of awareness of what the stakes are, and a lack of willingness to discipline ourselves for the journey. What if we approached the Christian life like an Olympic athlete?