“Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.”
Proverbs 14:4
I was at a breakfast last week where this Proverb was quoted. I immediately thought of something headmasters often say – “Schools always run smoothly during the holidays”! Without the kids there is less mess and less going on. With the kids it can be chaos!
The same might be said of churches…
Church life can be messy. Ministry doesn’t always go as smoothly or as easily as we would hope and there are challenges and disappointments along the way. It can be a mess, frustrating and even difficult. Not everything in our church happens in the way I would expect and I suspect not everything happens in the way you expect it might either. But all that is ok. We need to learn to cope with that. It’s part of being a church that is seeking to be a Growing Christian Community.
In order to grow we need to be diverse, engaging, innovative, thoughtful, creative and most of all, prayerfully devoted to maturing in Jesus.
If we try nothing, we will achieve nothing. But no one will be upset either. There will be no mess, no disappointments and no challenges. Nothing to get stressed about. The manger will be clean.
If we want to grow we need to try something, and inevitably things will get messy. People will disagree and plans will fail but in the midst of all that, God is still good and abundant crops will be harvested as God grows his church.
We have had a bit of this throughout 2016. In fact, as I read the history of our church, we have had a bit of this for about 30 years, maybe more. I know that not everyone agrees with changes that have been made over the last 30 years but I hope we are all able to see that we are trying something so that God might be glorified in us and in Campbelltown.
Our staff are now busy finalising plans for 2017. We will be working hard to bring back to the core of our work our core business of discipleship. We are hoping to open more opportunities for serving. We are rethinking the way we do mission. We are building new Growth Groups and want you to join one. We are reshaping some ministries. We are shutting down others.
We have spent a good amount of time listening to people throughout the last six months through our 5M teams but if you have some thoughts on the messiness that is church life, we would love to hear them. I reckon it would be fair to say that we would try almost anything to pursue our vision of being a Growing Christian Community Devoted to Maturing in Jesus for the Glory of God.
In Christ,
Nigel