Changes

"Make as few changes as you can; trees often transplanted bear little fruit. If you have
difficulties in one place you will have them in another; if you move because it is damp
in the valley, you may find it cold on the hill. Where will the ass go that he will not
have to work? Where can a cow live and not get milked? Where will you find land
without stones, or meat without bones?"
 
They (the early church) were so generous that they threw in their property into a
common stock lest any should be in need. They were not communists, they were
Christians; and the difference between a communist and a Christian is this—a
communist says, “All yours is mine;” while a Christian says, “all mine is yours;” and
that is a very different thing. The one is for getting, and the other for giving."

The theme for this week has been the idea  that in ministry, we are in a season of change. That we like change, that we need change. That change is a part of everything that we do.


Ironically almost everything Spurgeon writes points away from most forms of change being a departure from good sense. 


We make bad trees when we are in new soil. When we are planted in ground that we know is fertinel, we tend to spring up towards the sun a little bit more.


Last  night we had a meeting trying to define what ministry to this generation of the church is going to look like. It was one of the better church related  meetings I have been a part of. Perhaps some of that has to do with the urgency of the situation that he body is encountering. I think we fool ourselves into thinking we have a lot more time than we do. Our moments here are very limited, as soon as we grow, we quickly wither. But the  more time we spend in the sun, the higher we grow and the brighter we glow.


Affirmation is something that doesn't grow in every forest. It's something that requires that the right conditions be present in order to truly flourish. There is a paradox being dwan within the first phrase. CH is not advocating that we abstain from forward motion, rather, we should evaluate the motives that draw us in certain distractions.  Sometimes we need to recognize that stopping in a desert oasis keeps us from pressing on towards the ocean shore. It may satisfy temporarily but oh how much greater refreshment we would find on the shore.

When trying to rebuild a ministry, it is important that efforts to provide for the the needs of the flock not stop short of the complete experience.  Often we settle for the functional and the existent rather than follow the trail the whole way though to completion. This is my biggest fear and my loudest response in prayer. That the sustaining element throughout this journey, the flame of the Holy Spirit, may yet carry and endure all the way though. That not only that this ministry be revived, but that it may thrive in an existence it has not yet known.