Once Upon A Time

Growing Pains: Just a couple of years ago (when I was much younger:) I had a strong opinion about my calling for ministry. I felt strongly that I was not supposed to work in a local church. In fact, I believed my only connection to the local church would be one of support from the church, without me doing anything in return (other than attaching my ever so prestigious name to it). I'm sure many of my motives were pure and honest. I know many of them weren't. Its hard to get famous leading worship in the same congregation each week. The Preceptor sat and waited patiently, for years really, for me to 'grow up' (my own words). Thinking about ME two years ago makes me scared of what I'll think of the current ME two years from now.

Conversion: Before I married I took a position as a worship leader in a part-time capacity at a church. I married during my time there. My wonderful wife and I spent a lot of time frustrated with "church." Things just didn't gel. It was supposed to be glorious. It was meager at best for our paradigm. But subtly a shift took place inside of me. I started to lose my thinking of how church is 'supposed' to look. The global Church became more important to me. I started to see the local church as part of the global Church. All Creatures Of Our God And King, Lift Up Your Vioce And With Us Sing. What I've found is that the more I care for the global Church, the more important the local church is to me. The Body is made up of many members: great and small.

God-Sized: I get tired of these hook-phrases. Some friends of mine and I were on our way back to the Rock from Hot Springs after driving to a church, only to find that the worship event we were supposed to lead in had been canceled. All of our gear was in the back of a Ford f-150 pickup, no tarp, it was rainy. We were thrilled to say the least. Out on I-30, between Malvern and Benton we were passed and splashed by a huge RV pulling a large trailer. The trailer and RV had matching flashy paint jobs with some fancy, new-wave Christian symbolism (definitely not against symbolism, just let me finish the story). The text on the side of the RV read: "Doing God-Sized Things." As you may imagine this started a bit of a discussion in the cab of the truck. The rain kept coming. The gear was fine when we got home though. Thanks be to God.

• A water jug
• Five loaves, two fishes
• Gideon's army
• David, before he was king
• Moses'/God's rod
• Thorns and nails
• Pierced flesh
• "Let the little children come unto me..."
• A young virgin
• A carpenter
• Saul/Paul
• A cross of wood
• The early church
• St. Patrick
• Lottie Moon
• St. Francis
• Zacheous
• A heart, willing to worship in obedience

I am having to learn to lay aside what I think is God-sized, and learn that in God's Kingdom, and in God's hands, the weak are made strong through His power and for His purpose.

Grace and Peace,

joel