August 27, 2008

August 26 - Kids and Church


Today my "pastor" and friend Stuart and his 5 Kids (ages 4 to 13) met us at the lake...but it was cool, blustery, and cloudy...the water white capping...it was a bummer to stand and look at the lake dressed in our sweatshirts....the kids all ready for swimming, boat rides and a fun time...but to no avail.

So we loaded back up and drove all the way back up the mountain...after treating the whole gang to lots of sugar at the campground grocery store. The kids hottubbed, hiked, watched movies, ate goldfish (the crackers!) under the watchful and fully involved supervision of Lindsey and Deb. (I love the McKnight kids...so I enjoyed myself too!)
Meanwhile Stuart (pictured above) and I solved the world's problems and talked ministry. Talked about how the church must get beyond what happens on location and be the church during the week in the neighborhood.

The discussion fit well with my journey into the book of ACTS today. I am struck again at the vibrancy and sacrifice of the NT church. Their commitment to the Christ, the mission, and one another is a high bar which I believe we fall so far short of. How do I as a pastor\leader model and lead in a way that keeps LLCF from being a "religious organization" and helps us be "a true community of love that is working together for the mission"? We can look at other churches and say, "hey we are doing a great job!" but then I look at the church in ACTS and it's like "whoa...we need to take it up ten notches".

Lord help us at LLCF be the BRIDE, the ARMY, the HEALERS, the FAMILY that you desire.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Thanks again for revealing your heart to us. It is so good to get to know more about "our Pastor" Thank you for sharing. I enjoy keeping up with what is going while you are away.