Brad,

I've been to lots of churches and settled in quite a few, only to move on
eventually, and Phil would tell you similar stories and probably more of
them!  <SMILE>

There's just one thing about which we have to be careful and that's that we
don't go on looking for the absolutely "perfect" (our ideal) church because
there will always be some flaws here on earth!  Of course, that's a fine
line when we really want and only want to be in a church where they really
worship God, they pray fervently, etc., and only the Lord can guide us here
as to when and where to make moves!

Through my various church moves and the waiting in between, the Lord taught
me a lot about contentment and being where He wanted me, and I can't help
but feel that He will speak to you and probably use you in these sort of
situations if you hold fast to Him and follow His way.

My prayers will continue for both you and your church and of course I'll be
interested in any move you make or any breakthrough of folk there.


--
Carol



----- Original Message -----
From: "BD" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2003 12:53 PM
Subject: Re: unusual Baptist service


> Carol,
>
> That is just it, their are some in the congregation that would really like
> to worship, and they I suppose do, but when the supposed leader, does not,
> and others in the team are burnt out and playing with flits on their face
> and not joyous praises of smiles and etc.? It makes for what a sailor
might
> call "confused seas". Prayer is always welcome. My wife had lunch with the
> church secretary yesterday, who is also on our worship team, and who's
> husband does the sound, plays bass and etc. as you can see they do allot,
> and they do more but no sense in going into that, but they are frustrated
> with the disorganization of the church as a whole. They have been there
> longer and being that their family makes half of the worship team
including
> their daughter who also sings, they carry allot of the weight up on the
> platform as far as people see from there's seats as far as encouraging to
> worship. If anything, please pray for our pastor to reveal a vision for
the
> church, and to show planning and organization. Church's tend to take on
the
> personality of the pastor, or draw kindred personalities, right now we'd
> have and do have a disorganized church with two minutes prayers before the
> service and etc. I am use to praying much longer for the people and the
> service as a whole. I am going to do this anyway, make it known and
perhaps
> others will join. I left the last church primarily because their was no
> vision to follow, no sense of being a  part of anything that was focused
on
> making a difference. I'm starting to get a complex to think I'm only
> wanting to be on a super bowl church, but then I know that isn't true, I
> only want to be a part of one that has it in it's sights. And by super
bowl
> church I do not mean large or any of that, but one that carries a mantle
of
> wisdom, organization and is clearly making a difference  outside it's own
> walls. Imagine if you  had kids that went to school with no classroom
> assignments, no schedule of what classes to go to, no grading of random
> test, and no report cards. How lost would they be? Actually we do have a
> sermon agenda months in advance, which is good I suppose, and I have
> appreciated  some of them much, but what progress are we doing in our
city?
> Are we being effective? Do we need to have a meeting with the pastor as
> leaders? I don't think here they do that. I'm use to a periodic leadership
> meeting where the pastor will clue everyone in on the direction of the
> church from a leader standpoint, encouragement from the pastor, not a
> hidden thing where there is a handful of people who know things and the
> rest are clueless and no evidence of any direction happening. To be
honest,
> as a family, we need this to grow spiritually. We need to put example to
> the sermons and not just words by themselves. To be honest I asked my wife
> last night, since she brought up the topic to me, I asked if I had again
> made the same mistake as the last church, jumped in too early without
> checking things out to see the longevity and vision of it all. Of course
to
> be honest, back then it seemed to have some of that , with promise to
> continue and grow, but it seems gone now. Perhaps I ought meet with the
> pastor to express my concerns. If I have them, certainly other s do
besides
> a few others. I'll pray about that too.
>
> Got to run to work.
> Brad
>