Looking Back and Forward

Hello Emmanuel,

Yes, you are supposed to be getting Shawn’s newsletter today.  Unfortunately, he is off playing at church camp this week.  So you get me yet again.  I thought I’d take a step back and reminisce for this MMP.  Let’s take a look at how God has walked with us.

As I start my 6^th year at Emmanuel (yes, I said SIXTH year), I am still amazed at how blessed I am to be a part of a very unique church.  Emmanuel comes with its unique blessings and also unique challenges and, over the years, some have changed quite drastically. 

First and foremost is the challenge and blessing of so many new faces and how quickly the make-up of those who sit in the pews have changed.  Every year Emmanuel has welcomed at least 20-25 new people.  With this blessing has come the challenge to help them become a part of the church.  The challenge of any church to assimilate new people is a daunting one and, inevitably, churches get to the point where they can’t keep up with all the newness.  The result is that not everyone can be assimilated and some will drift away.  This is no different at Emmanuel.  And the bigger a church gets, the more difficult it can be to welcome new people…. Unless there are structural changes.

Remember when we didn’t have a hospitality team?  Remember when we had only 1 worship service?  Remember when we didn’t have 4 Sunday School classes for children?  Or 3?  Or 2?  Have you already taken for granted that the church would be clean for Sunday morning?  Remember when we had no website?  No wifi?  Struggled with getting nursery volunteers?  Had only 1 Faith-Forming Relationships Team?  Had a ministry budget of 2/3 of what we have now?   1/3?  …. I could go on….

Emmanuel has met so many of the challenges that the blessings have brought.  Some we continue to struggle with:  finding a way to do a church directory that doesn’t become outdated in 6 months; finding storage space for so many ministry teams; finding parking spaces for those special Sundays and events; learning how to kick the copier without hurting your foot.

Overall, the big picture is looking grand.  We have a healthy process for ‘making disciples of Jesus Christ’.  Therefore, I have tried to switch gears from being the pastor that leads a church into a healthy process to being a pastor that pushes the church to think beyond its limits.  I don’t think I’ve done quite a good enough job yet in this area.  Emmanuel is at a place where it is in danger of becoming comfortable with how well things are working in general.  At some point, we must consider that God is never comfortable with the status quo.

Some things to think about as I start my 6^th (yes, I said SIXTH) year:  how fast do we (should we) want to get rid of our building debt (our debt is down to 425K);  what is our limit to the amount of missions we can do for the local community; how do we make more of an impact in mission work beyond the local community; do we need more Sunday School classes for kids; what does it mean to grow as a church with or without expanding our current space; how can I help manage a Small Group ministry that continues to grow; does my approach to sermon prep need to change (after 5 years, you’ve heard most of my stories at least twice). 

This is a good synopsis of where my head, heart and spirit is residing.  I look forward to the next 5 years with you.  They will be different than the first 5.  It will likely be more challenging.  Why?  From a spiritual point of view, we’ve already ticked off the devil.  We have his attention.  He’s going to work harder to discourage us.  But God is good and He will continue to walk with us.  So have no fear.

God is Good,

Pastor Joe