Even Through the Valleys

Since my doctor's appointment on Tuesday, I am feeling much better. The antibiotics seem to be working their magic. Things at work have finally settled down to the point of being manageable. I am so ready for the weekend, though.

All the turmoil going on with our church has prompted Gregg and I to have a lot of deep conversations lately. We've looked at everything from all different angles and peeled back the layers of the onion. One thing that has been really bothering both of us is the apathy we see. When Pastor Dan resigned back in October, he cited stagnant growth as one of the reasons he was leaving. The church had not grown numerically under his leadership for the past ten years, though we are located in one of the fastest growing communities in Florida. People's responses to that were kind of like, so what? They'd rather have him back as their pastor and experience no growth, than lose him and have growth.

We were certainly sad to see him go, but anticipated that it would give the church the breath of life and vision it needed. However, even with Pastor Dan gone there is very little desire to grow or go deeper. It makes sense though- he practically founded and then pastored the church for 25 years. Old habits die hard. Having him absent these past four months has really given us an accurate gage of the spiritual climate that exists among the congregation, and it's disturbing. We've talked with some other members who are seeing the same thing and are heartbroken over it. They're weary and losing faith in the leadership.

There is a great new song on my favorite Christian radio station by Third Day called "Mountaintop" (I think). It reminds me that, as the song goes, "I must go through the valley to stand upon the mountain of God". I know that God is here with me through this and will bring about His good purpose.