As we did yesterday, we begin today with the assumption that God is the critical factor in our evaluating our ministry as a congregation. God has called us together, provided us with the necessary gifts, and awaits our response to our particular call to ministry. Even when we are feeling powerless and ineffective as a church, the faith assumption is that God is not finished with us as a congregation. It is important for a congregation to affirm again that as the Body of Christ, we are dependent on God, and God is not defeated by the situation in which we find ourselves.
A continuing challenge for any congregation is to learn how to breathe and how to listen as a congregation. Churches can easily fall into the trap of acting like they are just one of many organizations and feel suffocated by the conditions around them. Learning to breathe is making use of the spiritual disciplines that God has provided us that open us to the spirit of God. While there are several disciplines, some of the most obvious ones are prayer, scriptures, sacraments, corporate worship, music, and fasting. Historically these have been the disciplines of the community of faith by which they have maintained their contact with the divine.
Yesterday you identified some strengths and weaknesses of the current context of your congregation. How might you intentionally make use of some of the spiritual disciplines named to listen to how God wants your congregation to respond to the challenges before it? Can some in the church be invited to enter into a season of prayer with respect to how the gifts of the church can shape your ministry? Can others look for biblical images that might inform you of how God is at work in your congregation? Might you even identify a particular passage of Scripture as a congregational mantra to guide you in the days ahead.
Remember that the church began with the experience of betrayal, denial, fear, mocking God’s gifts, and abandonment. If God can work with those experiences to found the church, are the conditions of your church any more difficult for God?
