Focus

Been thinking a lot lately about what the heck is going on. I've been tense, frustrated, disappointed sometimes and very easily distracted when it comes to almost all things Discovery. I'm convinced things shouldn't be this way and have struggled to make sense of it. Then this morning at my accountability breakfast, it came up and started to make a little more sense. I hate to admit it, but I think I've lost focus.

When I first moved here about 4 years ago, I moved with the desire and newly formed plan to reach out, connect and focus on the thousands of people in and around Greenville who were not connected to Jesus Christ. I think we did pretty well at that for the first couple years, but as we've grown we've gotten "used" to some things and I've owned too many things. I haven't reproduced myself, haven't really forced others to reproduce themselves and we're feeling the consequences. There's a lack of new leaders and lots of people on the sidelines - not because they don't want to serve and work, but because they 1) don't know where and 2) don't know why everything they might do matters.

Why do we spend hours setting up for a 80 min. service? Why do we do Second Saturday Service? Why do we encourage people to get involved in small groups? Why do we print T-shirts to go with each series? Why do we have "greeters" and serve breakfast? Why do we do our children's ministry the way we do? Why do our small groups talk about the same things we talk about on Sunday? All good questions, and even though I have an answer for each one, I haven't done a good job at helping people see the big picture and understand how they can contribute to not just Discovery, but the Kingdom.

We have Good News to share, plenty of people who could use some good news, a limited opportunity to do it and a mandate to be active. Jesus didn't die so we can have church. He died so people could be in right relationship with God Himself. Let's focus on how we can play a part in helping people trust in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and live in right relationship with God and others.