Balance

One of the tough aspects of leading a 21st century ministry is trying to maintain the balance between the people who attend that come from other churches, and those who attend who don't come from hardly any church background at all.

Through the years, Carol and I have always been more comfortable with those who do not come from church backgrounds. From the very beginning of our ministry, those are the kind of people who have been able to readily receive from our ministry style.

For four or five years most of the visitors from church backgrounds tended to wait for us to say something new that they've never heard, or do something familiar that they are accustomed to doing. In spite of this challenge, we tend to stick to foundational teaching, which is all new to unchurched people and sometimes boring to those who have been around the church world.

We also tend to teach new songs, show videos, engage people in conversation and pray with authority, all of which can be uncomfortable for both sides of the table. This new century of church visitors and attenders is very challenging. With difficult work schedules for the attendees and the distractions of various forms of media and entertainment pulling them away from the Word of God, many times it feels like we aren't making any progress at all.

Then we'll suddenly experience some miraculous moment of breakthrough in someone's life, and we are again sparked and encouraged to keep doing what we do.

Jesus said, "I do those things I see my Father doing and I say only those things I hear my Father saying."

We have been striving to do the same.