We had some very good news this summer. As most of you are aware, we embarked on a program called Natural Church Development a year ago. It is about assessing the strengths of a congregation I eight different areas. The image is of a barrel with these eight staves. The barrel can only be filled as high as the lowest stave. Last year it was "Need-based Evangelism" which concerns itself with reaching out to our community (and school in our case) by finding and fulfilling needs we discern that are in our reach to meet.
The great news is that we dramatically improved in our second assessment. "Need-based Evangelism" is no longer lowest, and all areas improved impressively. Interestingly, our next challenge is called "Passionate Spirituality." I believe that it is going to be a truly vital area for us to deal with this next phase. In fact I believe it to be central to our life as a congregation. We will be explaining what it means and offer some ideas about what it looks like. The essence, though, is that we acknowledge we are alive in Christ, and that that is reflected in how we meet the challenges of being Christians in our lives together. Being Christian is more than assenting to an idea. It is meant to make a difference in how we live because we are aware of God in our lives. We are asking all of you to think about what spirituality means to you and how we might make it more a central part of our lives together. Soon you will be asked to participate in a focus group in order to help us focus and develop ways to develop our Passion for God.
I believe it is going to be a rich and meaningful exploration. And like 'evangelism' it means more than we realize.
