Discouraged?

 Have you ever felt discouragement when involved in a lengthy or daunting task? What was most challenging? What kept you going?

 I remember sitting in a meeting of a few conference leaders, listening to a presentation about the new “initiatives and programs” to increase church vitality. It felt like I was listening to the same presentation from past meetings, and that we were pretending that this was all new and curative. I think church revitalization is a lengthy and daunting task, and I am often discouraged, even in my own local church.

What makes it the most challenging is that we often only see the lack of progress. There might sometimes be experiences of the Spirit and “successes,” but most often we see empty pews and the lack of children among us.

What keeps me going is when I am involved in new parts of the vision or with people who are excited for the work. Examples would be the members of  the Conference CLM class that I teach, who are so passionate about following their call, or the sweet spirit of an Annual Conference when that spirit hasn’t always been their lately, or when someone who has felt excluded and separated from the church finds a home in our church.