Sunday’s Sermon
Miracle of miracles….It’s only Thursday and I’m about 1/2 finished with Sunday’s sermon. (For those of you that don’t know me, that happens about twice a year.) 
I’m preaching on the most substantive statement our special speaker offered up Monday at the Regional Synod of the Great Lakes “special event” (for lack of anything else to call it). It was a side-note that he would have surely considered relatively unimportant, but one that is particularly applicable to the congregation I serve. The statement is this:
Yes, you read that correctly.
Aha! All of the sudden it makes sense.
Friendly congregations are pleasant people to be around; they may enjoy having visitors; they probably like meeting new people. Friends, however, take the work of being in a relationship seriously. They care for one another; they look out for each other; they are willing to sacrifice for the well-being of one another.
There’s a problem here, for an established congregation: people are only capable of maintaining a certain number of healthy friendships and most people in established congregations have had that list filled up for years (if not decades!) How do we overcome that? Well…I can’t spoil the whole sermon…. (A hint: I think it’s connected to love — not eewey-gooey, happy, foo-foo, rah-rah “love” — true Christian love.)
Of course, Mr. Borden didn’t unpack the statement nearly that much (nor as much as I plan to on Sunday)…He’s right, though.
Maybe that makes up for his statement that a congregation cannot have any impact on their community unless they have at least 700 members…ugh.
Grace and Peace,
`tim
One Response to “Sunday’s Sermon”
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May 4th, 2006 at 12:07 pm
I think your thoughts are very helpful. Its the difference between being nice verse being love.
God help us.