Looking for New Land

Our community has decided to devote the month of March to re-evaluation. We’re spending the month thinking, talking, discerning, and whatever else to get a sense of who we are and, from there, how we express who we are. We are laying everything on the table. Everything. Nothing is exempt from scrutiny! Including my position, the team, the money, the building, the way we do Sunday mornings… everything. I told everyone yesterday that if at the end of the month the majority of people want a real, live leader without all my baggage, then so be it. If we decide that we are tired of playing this game and get off the playing field, then so be it. Everything is negotiable.

A story that comes to my mind is the one where the people are on the edge of the land. They send in 12 spies for 40 days. I feel we are at that kind of critical juncture in our story. The next month or so is going to be spent just spying out the land and seeing what lies before us. I hope it is a good report. I don’t want to be forced to turn around and wander in the wilderness for another proverbial 40 years! There are already lots of ideas buzzing around. I’m trying to encourage everyone to abandon preconceived notions of what they’d like us to be or hope us to be. Let’s go in and get surprised instead! I’m wanting this month to be a month of discovery. And I’m hoping that the vast majority will have the courage to come back and say, “We can take this land! It has been given into our hands!”

The image is the creation of my friend, Howard Nowlan.

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