Last Supper = First Meal

We have decided to celebrate the Lord's Supper once a month in our worship service. I've been to churches that celebrate it every week, and to churches that celebrate it quarterly. There are pluses and minuses to every option, and I don't hold that there is one "right" schedule. As long as the practice is frequently before us without becoming empty habit, I think you've got a good thing going.

There is one habit that I'd like to recommend you try on occasion. I heard it from some friends, and on certain occasions have done the same. The idea is simple - practice a fast leading up to the Lord's Supper. Some choose to simply skip breakfast so that the Lord's Supper is their first "meal" of that day. Other choose to fast for 24 hours leading up to the Lord's Supper (do this only if you know you're in the right health for that).

Two of the benefits from this fast is that it helps you focus in prayer, and it makes the Lord's Supper a little more special, being the food that finishes your fast. Fasting often aids us in being more focused in prayer, for whatever reasons. Some of my best, extended times of prayer have come while fasting. It's no magic formula for awesome prayer - I've had times of fasting with absolutely nothing special going on in prayer. It's just an aid.

But there's also that sense of letting the Lord's Supper be the thing that breaks the fast. You don't have eggs and bacon on your breath, already pretty full from other food. You're hungry, but you're seeking satisfaction more from Christ (and the symbol of Christ) than from food. There's not the lingering memory of breakfast to make the Lord's Supper seem like common food. The symbolic significance of the Lord's Supper can be heightened if we set it apart from other food.

If your health allows, consider a short or medium fast before this Sunday's celebration. If it doesn't help, feel no need to try it again. If it does help, great - even if it is of benefit only one time.

Pullin' weeds

Every time I pull weeds, I can't help but think of the spiritual lessons I'm holding in my dirt-encrusted hands, thinking about the "weeds" of the spiritual life.

• It's easier to pull weeds when they are small, rather than letting them grow talk, thick, and strong. Letting spiritual problems grow stronger only makes it harder to remove them later.
• Rather than bypass the thorny weeds, wear gloves. Some spiritual problems are painful to deal with. Rather than ignore them, letting the thorns get thornier, bring in the right equipment to handle the job - such as a wise counselor, a good book, a change in lifestyle, giving up something in order to remove the weed, and so on.
• Some weeds are insidious because they drop new roots every few feet, making them harder to remove - killing one section doesn't kill the next section. Spiritual problems can foster other spiritual problems, which then take root all by themselves. Better to remove the weed early before it drops new roots a few feet across the lawn.
• You gotta get the root, or the weed comes right back. It's tempting to deal only with the surface of spiritual issues, rather than getting to the root of the problem. Just masking a spiritual problem to look good in front of the neighbors only allows the roots to grow stronger and pop up new surface issues harder to remove than before.
• Sometimes you gotta dig to get at the root. Sometimes, you need people who are trained in counseling to really figure out what the root problems are. But you must get to them to get rid of the weed.
• The neighbors have weeds, too. Rather than worrying about how my lawn compares to the neighbor's lawn, I need to tend to my lawn, and to have empathy for the weeds in his lawn. We're both trying to grow healthy lawns, so comparing doesn't help anyone.
• Weeding is never finished. Tending to your spiritual life takes constant, life-long effort.
• The best way to keep weeds out is to have a thick lawn with healthy roots. The best way to keep spiritual weeds out is to be as healthy as possible in my spiritual life, disciplines, and practices.
• If I do nothing, the weeds will take over. If you do little to maintain your spiritual life, you won't just stay in the same state - weeds will take over, and your spiritual life will decline. 

I'm sure you could come up with several of your own analogies. Usually after weeding, I'm motivated again to clear some weeds out of my life, too. I like how the lawn is healthier without all those weeds in it.

Less is More

I was in John 3 this which, which includes John's statement in response to some of his disciples leaving him to follow Jesus, "He must increase; I must decrease." I generally get what John's statement means for an individual, but then I wondered what it means for a church. Is there a sense where a church says, "He must increase; we must decrease"?

In a sense, yes. Of course we want every local church to grow (increase), which means that Christ is increasing. But like John, we also want "our" disciples to "leave" us and follow Jesus directly - meaning that they become less disciples of Grace Fellowship (and her elders) and more disciples of Jesus directly. They leaders become less - the people become less dependent on the leaders, who become less of their connection to Him. Instead of a church that builds a following of the leaders, we want to "lose" our following like John did. Just the image of disciples leaving the tutelage of John specifically to go follow Jesus directly is a clear picture in my head of our task - to "lose" disciples to Jesus. This can happen while we grow in numbers - we still "decrease."

As one of the leaders, I want to eventually become less important in your life as a leader (but more important as a friend!).

Vision

The all-church survey is in, and we're sifting through the results. Great feedback from not a few responders, so thanks to all of you for putting your thoughts into words and sharing them with us. The elders had a meeting earlier this week to discuss the results, and will spend this Friday and Saturday combing through it all, collecting ideas from personal interviews I have conducted, taking in the various elders discussions throughout the year and prayerfully considering where to set our sights for 2011.

Developing "vision" is a common practice for organizations, religious or secular, to focus limited resources in the face of unlimited possibilities. There are so many good things we could do - the question is what should we do at this time? A vision statement brings that focus. Even from looking only at your comments in the survey, there are far more good ideas that we could do than we have time and resource for. Some good ideas are good ideas for us now, some good ideas are good ideas for us at a later time, and some good ideas are good ideas for someone else. (And, of course we could come up with any number of bad ideas!)

Our "vision" statement will be a statement that helps us focus the energies of each ministry toward a common, single, clear purpose. It is a statement that should be unique to Grace Fellowship, in the sense that it is what we should focus on, without any suggestion that other churches should focus on. Our vision is what our church's unique contribution should be in the Kingdom of God.

Our "mission" statement, however, is not the same thing as our vision statement. A mission statement is bigger than a vision statement. A vision statement is usually good for a period of time, whereas a mission statement remains constant throughout the organization's lifespan. I believe that every church in the world has the same mission - it was a mission that Jesus gave us, called the Great Commission:

Matthew 28:18 Then Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 28:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 28:20 teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Every church has the same mission, and therefore the same mission statement. We should all be working toward this mission of making disciples of all nations, under the authority of Christ.

Our "vision" statement is the unique proclamation that says how this particular church intends to add to the overall mission that we share.

Please pray for your elders as they prayerfully develop a vision for our church.