Let the River Flow

For the past three days I have been at a conference in the Twin Cities. There have been some great speakers, some decent workshops, and a wonderful time of worship with 550+ leaders in other churches. Now I am taking a little time to reflect, get my bearings, and try and discern where the Spirit is leading us next.

A couple of things have come to mind. First is that we, as a whole, need to become more fluent in the language of Scripture. Many times we offer studies or classes and people come, then when the end, we do not have much follow up. In thinking about all of this, I have decided that this fall we will have an opportunity for people to read through the entire Bible in 90 days. This will be something we do on our own, but meet occasionally to discuss questions that have come up and hold each other accountable. After the 90 days we will follow up with focused studies on different parts of the Bible.

Second, we have a lot of leaders in the church, but again we do not have a lot of follow up once the leaders are in their places. I would like to have opportunities for leaders to gather, grow in leadership skills, and find ways to implement new ministries that fit the gifts of new leaders.

Finally, story-telling is an art form, and people relate to stories in amazing ways. I am trying to find new ways for people to hear and tell stories that help to inspire others. This is a work in process and I will probably use technology in different ways to help this process.

So that is the inspiration for today. Any and all thoughts are always welcome.