asking the tough questions

i'm loving our staff meetings lately. every week we gather as a staff team and pray for the various requests that people write down for us in our 'black books'. they're basically just little black binders that we have in every row of chairs for people to sign in on and they can write down a brief prayer request for us to pray for. then the following tuesday at our staff meeting we pray through these requests and send cards to the people so they know we've prayed for them.

i've really appreciated the opportunity to pray for people who are going through some pretty amazing things. and it's amazing what people bring before us to pray for. it's becoming pretty evident that people in our church want to 'see' a very real experience of God in their lives. i think right now, the weekly prayer times are one of the big highlights of my week.

but lately we've been reading a great book, 'advanced strategic planning' by aubrey malphurs. malphurs is a church strategy consultant from the states who is considered an authority on things like church planting and building a church's mission, vision, and values. the book has been forcing us as a staff to ask some pretty tough questions about us and about our church. and it's even forced some of us (well, me anyways) to start asking questions about ministry and fit in the structure of our church.

i've come to love the fact that our church seperates very well the roles that our staff fill and the people that fill the roles. it allows individuals to thrive, and not neccessarily be held down by the pressures of a ministry that may not be 'performing well' because 'we're bad people'. it's daunting, but it's also a good thing because it forces you to boil down to a very basic level what you're passions are and what keeps you up at night.

in the coming days i'll be examining this stuff even more closely, as i try to be a minister that connects people to an experience of God using the vehicles of youth and young adult ministry. i look forward to hearing your comments and insights.